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Ok, finally finished the full Ritche Blackmore neck scallop on my Strat (followed Project Guitar tutorial).
First off, I did this as recommended by others to accomodate my girly, thin, not-so-strong hands. I was told it was good for players with a lighter touch and is exceptional for hammer-on/pull-offs and vibrato/bends.
After stringing it up and setting the action and truss rod, I plugged in. I was sort of expecting an over-the-top feel of super floppy size 8 strings into 20" scale neck kind of feel
Haha, WRONG! It did feel good though. It's not as different from regular guitars as one might think. It actually felt almost identical to my Ibanez Prestige RG3120 (insanely tall frets, higher than every Jackson I've played). The only difference I could see was that on a scalloped board, you can dig just a little bit more for bigger bends, but unless you're going for like 2-3 step bends, it's really not all that necesarry. Hammer-ons and pull-offs were the same. The feel was pretty much the same, I didn't get lost or need time to adjust.
Not at all what I expected, but still very cool. If your guitar has short frets and you want to get that HUGE fret feel, you might want to consider this. It's pretty cool to have a little bit of both worlds on my Strat.
So, to those of you who say scalloping is SO extremely different from huge frets, I'm going to have to disagree. There is only a slight difference in look and feel. My Ibanez SA160QM is not scalloped, but it bends, and plays much easier than my Strat. The same goes for my Ibanez Prestige. But the best thing about this scallop is that I can use bigger gauge strings on my Strat and it will still feel like 9's (another thing to consider if you're thinking about scalloping).
Pics and review of the guitar itself to come soon. In conclusion, scalloping=VERY COOL because it's not drastically different, and can enhance your playing a bit if you also suffer from girly hands. Just wanted to clear any myths about scalloping and share my personal opinion. Thanks for reading!
First off, I did this as recommended by others to accomodate my girly, thin, not-so-strong hands. I was told it was good for players with a lighter touch and is exceptional for hammer-on/pull-offs and vibrato/bends.
After stringing it up and setting the action and truss rod, I plugged in. I was sort of expecting an over-the-top feel of super floppy size 8 strings into 20" scale neck kind of feel
Haha, WRONG! It did feel good though. It's not as different from regular guitars as one might think. It actually felt almost identical to my Ibanez Prestige RG3120 (insanely tall frets, higher than every Jackson I've played). The only difference I could see was that on a scalloped board, you can dig just a little bit more for bigger bends, but unless you're going for like 2-3 step bends, it's really not all that necesarry. Hammer-ons and pull-offs were the same. The feel was pretty much the same, I didn't get lost or need time to adjust.Not at all what I expected, but still very cool. If your guitar has short frets and you want to get that HUGE fret feel, you might want to consider this. It's pretty cool to have a little bit of both worlds on my Strat.
So, to those of you who say scalloping is SO extremely different from huge frets, I'm going to have to disagree. There is only a slight difference in look and feel. My Ibanez SA160QM is not scalloped, but it bends, and plays much easier than my Strat. The same goes for my Ibanez Prestige. But the best thing about this scallop is that I can use bigger gauge strings on my Strat and it will still feel like 9's (another thing to consider if you're thinking about scalloping).
Pics and review of the guitar itself to come soon. In conclusion, scalloping=VERY COOL because it's not drastically different, and can enhance your playing a bit if you also suffer from girly hands. Just wanted to clear any myths about scalloping and share my personal opinion. Thanks for reading!
I spent a whole week just sanding, cleaning out the gunk left from sanding, oiling the fretboard, and then probably one of the biggest B****es of the whole project: hand sanding the scallops with increasingly high grit sandpaper 
That took forever and gave me vicious hand cramps. Very rewarding when done though! And I will be posting pics this week probably, so keep your eyes peeled!!!
This is on an Ernie Ball/Music Man Silhouette Special.
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