StreamLine

today i decided to do the scalloping on frets 19-22.

used 1/4" round file, 1/16" flat file, sandpaper block.

came out well, avoided damaging side dots, but completely removed main dot inlays, since they were allready slightly messed up after the sanding....

used tutorial on projectguitar.com - this site is really a must read to anyone considering doing anything to their guitar

anyway after couple hours of work, i am left with a scalloped fretboard.... hope it plays as well as the JEMs that had scalloping that i played... i think the job went well, all it needs is to be finished with some dark laquer, same as fingerboard and before that a little sanding with fine sandpaper to smooth out any scratches etc

also if anyone is interested, i dont have a fat-ass fretboard, so i had to be careful with how much wood i sanded off. in centre of fret wood, its around 3mm, and closer to 2mm near the edge to protect inlayed dots.... good thing i did do that as they are very useful...

what else?... oh yeah got hold of see-thru clear acrylic for pickguard. its roughly 260x210x7mm, so slightly smaller than standard pickguard, but it should be perfect as i'm inteding to create an unusual pickguard.

also cant wait to get the parts to start major work on bridge, nut...

as usual, pics below of work done

now some questions if you dont mind guys

1) how do i remove the existing nut and replace it with new one?

2)to SV300 - how much did you take off in the MIA fender mod? 1-2mm? tools? what about the sticking out fretwire - do you sand that as well?

3)how do i approach fret crowning and sanding? guitar tech said it definetely needed that done.
do i just crown and sand all frets to the same level? what? how? i've read many tutorials on this, i just dont understand how to determine which frets need to be crowned and which dont....

4)on what concept do the locking tuners work? so you tune with 'wheel' at back 'out',then you screw it in? does that completely stop movement of string? can you retune it with the tuning peg above it when its locked?

5)with my floyd rose, will i need to make use of the minituners on bridge? what will happen if i retune at schallers? how would i retune? will that affect the bridge etc...?

thanks,

Roman

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StreamLine

^^^^

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NewDisease

i would say that is a job for the pros, because if they dont all end up the same size ur screwed, but then again what the hell do i know?



neck is lookin pretty damn sweet

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SV300

Wow, nice scalloping there! I like your idea of scalloping where the 23rd fret wouldve been. Did a better job than i did anyway!!

The MIA fender rolled fretboard edges, i sort of took off 1mm, on a 45 degree bevel, and rounded it off. I used a flat file to do it, and finished it with 400 grit.

According to the offsite tutorial on the projectguitar on levelling and crowning, my interpretation of it, is htat you level all the frets with the radiused sanding block (using hte marker method), then you crown them all with the marker method again?? Thats my interpretation, a good way would be to email the site owner.

With your floyd, ideally, youll tune to pitch, and lock your locking tuners/nut. Then, if it goes out of tune from then on, use your fine tuners on your floyd. Doesnt make too much difference if you have lockign tuners, but the locking nut will give you headaches tryign to find an allen wrench every time!

StreamLine

^^ yeh i dont get the tutorial on that either, so i will email the guy there (btw he's very nice, allready helped me with scalloping)

yeh the 23 fret thing... my neck fell over and had a scratch there, whihc annoyed me lots everytime i saw it, so i decided to sand it off... *idea* do you reckon i could actually use that as a fret? i mean ok its like 1mm short, but still? meh probably wont be very good

i intend to sand off the 'fret' anyway later - bad idea/should it stay there?

... at the mo i'm quite concerned at how well the tuners and trhe new nut will handle the floyd... if i'm in luck (general spirit of this project so far), it'll be fine... if not.... i'll have to either go through a range of nuts or have to go ahead with adding wood to headstokc to mount the lockin nut becauase i do definetely want a floyd rose...

another mod i thought about was doing the vai trem cavity, its on all JEM's and allows the bridge tuners to back deeper, giving a higher diving opportunity.... worth it?

does seem difficult, but so did pretty much anything i've done so far

Boba fret

Why scallop? What does it do?

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SV300

If its 1mm off, i say dont bother adding a 23rd fret, it simply wont intonate at all.

lol, i dont know what you coudl do with the 23rd fret hump here! You could sand it off, you could leave it as it is, its all your choice!!

If the nut is graphite, then it shouldnt have any problem handling teh floyd with schaller lockign tuners. Carvins come with graphite nut, and locking tuners, and they handle the floyds fine. If its a bone nut, or one from another material, id either get it done wiht a graphite nut, or at least use a graphite lube on it.

The trem cavity, do you mean the recessed floyd cavity (like the RGs) or the lion claw cavity? Both will give you the same amount of up-pull, since theyre the same depth. If youre looking for an easy way out, rout the RG cavity. With a non lo-profile floyd, youre looking at bending up 7 frets on the lower strings, WAY more than enough. Pointless though, since youll choke the strings on the fret when youre bending up 7 frets with the floyd, unless youre fretting hte last fret. (then, youll probably break the string - first hand experience)

power freak

nice job on the scallop man!!!!

by the looks of it the guitiar will kick ass!!!

how long dod it take you to scallop????

I might try a full scallop the full neck.

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StreamLine

20 mins a fret, then like 20 mins of sandng of and cleaning up (so like 1 1/2 - 2 hours)

and if you attempt that, you gonna need a massive file for lower frets. and it will be very hard to control. plus i must say i doubt the usefulness of that, as i personally would only fully utilize the scallops at higher frets for crazy vibrato... i mean not so sure about other frets, but i think keith richards had a fully scalloped neck on one of his guitars, so who am i to say thats not useful

however i did read that scalloping makes playing chords a bit strange

oil_fran

my girlfriend's guitar has all the frets scalloped. it makes powerchords a little more difficult but other than that it sounds just fine. also she has a.....floyd rose? i dunno its the damn whammy bar with the locking nut, only you cant use it because every time you do that the guitar comes out of tune. even with a locking nut. its weird. anyone know?

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SV300

Real floyds, if set up properly, stay in tune.

Liscensed floyds on the other hand, are often made of cheaper materials, and therefore, WONT stay in tune. There are exceptions, Ibanez's original Edges (Quality has dropped in teh Edge Pro's) Gotoh lic. FR, schaller FR, etc.

phil_axe-man

why did u only scallop those frets? why not the rest?

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Mikkel

because you can do vibrato just by pushing on the string, and playing power chords is more difficult because they sound out of tune if you push too hard on a full scalloped neck, and youre less likely to use those frets for chords and more likely to use them for solos.

well thats my guess anyway...

was i right?

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StreamLine

close but no cigar (damn i love that phrase )

well playing chords on a fully scalloped neck is less comfortable for the fingering. only real reason i did the scalloping in first place, was to help with vibrato. it does take a bit of getting use to, but do honestly think any player above a certain standard can amke great use of the scalloping

i only did it on those frets as: i am only really likely to use insane bends on high notes, i dont play chords at fret 19 and above, also i guess i'm doing a JEM influenced hybrid guitar, and the one i played on and totally loved had scalloping from 21-24. but i dont have 24 frets, plus i think its useful at frets 19, 20 as well

matter of prefernce i suppose

also this increases sustain by alot, especailly on bends

hope that expalins it well enough

... come to think of it, i do owe you a cigar as you were 60+% right

StreamLine

allright i just got the email back from brian (the guy who runs projectguitar), in which he explains exactly how to level and crown frets. i'm putting this on for everyone's benefit as i dont think you'll find a better tutorial on this anywhere (i've looked all over the web), and it is incredebly useful

quoting:

=o)
Hi Roman,

That's a great read and a cool bunch of friends you have following
you along ( ). Ok now on to your question "which frets do i sand/crown, and
which do i work on?" That pretty easy to figure out. What you need first of
all is a steel straight edge, place it down the length of the fingerboard
and look very carefully at each and every fret to see if it is touching or
not.
As long as your neck is straight to begin with any frets that are to
tall and in need of a sanding will cause the steel ruler to teeter totter on
them. You can lightly go over them with 320 grit paper at first if you need
to take a lot off or 600 for just a very little. Then you can move on to 800
grit which will do nothing more than polish them. 1200 will actually buff
them even more.
Be sure to protect your fingerboard using masking tape since going
across the grain of the wood with sand paper is always a very bad idea. If
your more interested in doing all of your frets at the same time, use a good
hard straight block of wood to hold your sand paper. Just remember it will
cause a flat top across your frets as it lowers them which is what crowning
really is all about (getting rid of the flat edge). Crowning can be done two
different ways. The traditional way is of course with a file shapped in a
thin rounded concave channel which you draw over the fret to clip the edge's
down smooth. My method is a sanding spong personally since there cheap and I
really get tired of files clogging up and also scraping the wood on my
fingerboards through my protective tape. Anyway I hope this gives you a
better idea of what to do.
When it comes to a single adjustment on one fret that is giving you a
terrible buzz. Try to make sure it is the fret and not the set-up by doing
the steel ruler trick while the guitar is strung up and in players position.

Peace, Brian

WashburnTimmy

i think that you might need something a little more coarse if you gonna be using sandpaper on steel
im using 60 grit sandpaper (the lower the number the more coarsre for those who dont know) and a power sander to get rid of the paint job on my guitar and its takin quite awhile

but thats just my opinion...pls dont listen to me as im sure that guy has a ton more experience than i do

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cold_static544

how bout oiling the fretboard and the neck, it really ups the feel and the speed.

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power freak

so does ritchie blackmore and yngwie it is meant to improve the use of sweep picking.

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iforwms

wow, thats looking really kinda cool! guna b very sweet seein it all finished

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