Fanned frets - please explain

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Armistice
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Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Armistice »

I see a lot of 7 string fanned fret guitars appearing in a FB gear group. I don't get them.

How do they work?
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JD01
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by JD01 »

Armistice wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:46 am I see a lot of 7 string fanned fret guitars appearing in a FB gear group. I don't get them.

How do they work?
Just a change of scale length as you move across the fretboard.

Allows people to play "djent" modern metal drop tuned riffs without the strings feeling really slack and sounding out of tune - keeps them at a reasonable tension. But means that the higher strings are still at a reasonable tension for lead playing.
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Greg_L
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Greg_L »

Armistice wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:46 am I see a lot of 7 string fanned fret guitars appearing in a FB gear group. I don't get them.

How do they work?
Do not go down this rabbit hole. There is nothing good down there.
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JD01
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by JD01 »

Greg_L wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:24 am
Armistice wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:46 am I see a lot of 7 string fanned fret guitars appearing in a FB gear group. I don't get them.

How do they work?
Do not go down this rabbit hole. There is nothing good down there.
Actually it could work pretty well for Armi. Baritone guitar could be really cool on his stuff and be a pretty useful tool. You might pull that off with a fanned fret? Its not like he's going to start djenting on it!

Alternatively he could just get a baritone. Would be nice to see someone using one for something other than prog metal.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Greg_L »

The baritone aspect of a fanned fret guitar could be good. But what about the other end? The high side is shorter for shredding. If you don't shred, I doubt Armi shreds, then that part of the guitar is rendered basically useless and the fanned frets make "normal" guitar playing a pain in the ass.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Bubba »

Greg_L wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:24 am
Armistice wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:46 am I see a lot of 7 string fanned fret guitars appearing in a FB gear group. I don't get them.

How do they work?
Do not go down this rabbit hole. There is nothing good down there.
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WhiskeyJack
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by WhiskeyJack »

meanwhile, someone out there owns a true temperament guitar.

Image

I knew a bassist once who had a fan fret bass. The way he explained it to me was pretty much what JD explained about the scale length. I can see where it would have it's applications in more metally kind of stuff. I know people who could make use of those things. I don't think they come cheaply though is the only thing.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by muttley »

WhiskeyJack wrote:meanwhile, someone out there owns a true temperament guitar.

Image

I knew a bassist once who had a fan fret bass. The way he explained it to me was pretty much what JD explained about the scale length. I can see where it would have it's applications in more metally kind of stuff. I know people who could make use of those things. I don't think they come cheaply though is the only thing.
I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.

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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by WhiskeyJack »

muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm Sent from my P2 using Tapatalk
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by JD01 »

muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.

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Christopher (the bloke that built my Custom) said pretty much the same thing and he even installed "true temperament" frets occasionally
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by WhiskeyJack »

muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.
The juice doesn't seem to be worth the squeeze on that snake. How long would it take to do that fret work on that one i had pictured Mutt? if it wasn't CNC'd? like if done by hand.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by muttley »

WhiskeyJack wrote:
muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.
The juice doesn't seem to be worth the squeeze on that snake. How long would it take to do that fret work on that one i had pictured Mutt? if it wasn't CNC'd? like if done by hand.
Normally not that long. Often the fret is a bar with no tang. Sometimes they are just stuck on. Back in the old days of lutes and viols when temperament was an issue and they needed to shift frets quite often they used tied gut. Trouble with that true temperament system is that it only works in one key and not when playing with others in 12 note ET. It really is an anal money grab.

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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Armistice »

I have zero interest in buying one - I just see them come up for sale all the time with "I thought I'd love it, but it's not for me..." comments - and couldn't figure out what the theory behind them was. :lollers:

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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by vomitHatSteve »

muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.
I mean, to be pedantic, there are true temperaments, they just aren't compromises. If you want an guit that is 100% accurate for the key of Emaj, that's doable. It'll just sound like garbage in every other key!

Is that not what this instrument is? Or is it just a more complicated compromise on temperament?
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by muttley »

vomitHatSteve wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:47 pm
muttley wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:15 pm I hesitate to mention but there is no such thing as true temperament. All temperaments are a compromise and no e are one size fits all. Its snake oil.
I mean, to be pedantic, there are true temperaments, they just aren't compromises. If you want an guit that is 100% accurate for the key of Emaj, that's doable. It'll just sound like garbage in every other key!

Is that not what this instrument is? Or is it just a more complicated compromise on temperament?
Thats called Just temperament or sometimes incorrectly pure temperament.

Back in the day when temperaments and intervals were first being mathematically and musically examined they avoided the term True. Even they understood the syntonic comma and why you can not have a true temperament.

The system they adopt claim to make a better job of tempering the 12 et scale (it doesnt) they also claim it aids intonation along the fingerboard (it doesnt).

There are systems that can can be played "in tune" with a number other instruments with a degree of success. They involve having more than 12 frets to the octave. The most common would be 31 note ET. They require a degree of precision whilst playing that pretty much make them academic at best and painful at worst.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by vomitHatSteve »

Turns out that website is just kinda making up its own definition of the word anyway.

All to create an over-engineered guitar which must always be set up, tuned, and strung the exact same way.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by muttley »

vomitHatSteve wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 2:41 pm Turns out that website is just kinda making up its own definition of the word anyway.

All to create an over-engineered guitar which must always be set up, tuned, and strung the exact same way.
Yep thats about the sum of it.

The best minds in history for the last 500 years have been aware of the phenomena. They have also known that there is no one size fits all solution. Its snake oil.
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Farview »

Here is a friend of mine that drank the kool-aid
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Greg_L »

I like how he calls that "playing with empty space" while filling every single nanosecond with notes. :facepalm: :lollers2:
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Re: Fanned frets - please explain

Post by Farview »

The tempo is higher than you think :)

The guy is stupid fast when he actually shreds.

Here is another fun thing he did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4BuM6 ... e=youtu.be
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