DarkHorseJ27

Some time ago I was introduced to the movie The Phantom of the Opera and fell in love with the music. Among other things it got me listening to vocals much more than I had before. One of the results of that is the way I now like to do vibrato.

With vocal vibrato (and most instruments for that matter) the pitch fluctuates above and below the resting pitch. I've developed a strong preference for this, and of course most guitar vibrato just goes above the note and back to the resting pitch. There is classical style vibrato, but its too subtle for my taste.

I've tried a few vibrato systems but I like the sound of finger vibrato better and didn't like the added headaches when doing a set-up or changing a tuning. What I've ended up doing is instead of just grabbing a note and adding vibrato is I go the fret below and pre-bend a half step and add vibrato to that. It's a pain in the ass sometimes but I've gotten really OCD about my vibrato.

Another consequence of doing this is bends and pre-bends have become a lot more prominent in my style. One of the advantages of a salloped neck is additional control of bends and vibrato. I'm not very heavy-handed so I don't think the learning curve would be to large. What does UG think?

Heideck

It is a good idea, but most scalopped guitars are very expensive.... you tried floyd rose style bridge?

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Tom 1.0

Just get a guitar with Jumbo frets. The overal effect is the same.

Scalloping was just a way of doing what jumbo frets do, before jumbo frets were common.

DarkHorseJ27

I have tried a Floyd Rose, among others. I like the sound of finger vibrato over a "tremolo", and I don't like the headaches of setting up or changing the tuning of a guitar with a Floyd.

I did also consider jumbo frets, but they aren't quite the same as a scalloped neck. They force you to fret with minimal pressure as to not push a not sharp, but depending on the person's hands not the same when digging in for bends or vibrato.

Tom 1.0

The **** are you on about?

Heideck

You definetly have more control on scalopped frets than jombo.

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FireFromTheVoid

Yea if you don`t have the money, jumbo frets are the way to go.

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W4RP1G

This is pretty much true. I've heard claims that scalloping gives you the option to do vibrato just by applying and reducing pressure, but I see no advantage doing it that way.

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Tom 1.0

It's not really vibrato. It's just pushing the notes out of pitch, same as pressing too hard on Jumbo frets. If anything it's poor technique.

I don't understand what TS is trying to achieve

Somekid94

TS is trying to get a more controlable, more wide ranged vibrato, if I'm reading everything right. If that's the case getting a guitar with a scalloped fretboard is a good idea. Expensive yes, but a good idea.

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