20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

[Fikealox]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Just go fretless

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Just go fretless

+1... I'm gonna put together a fretless guitar from warmoth parts one day

 

[danglybanger]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Yes I agree. I want to have as many frets as physically playable. I was searching quite extensively on google for Michael Angelo's charvel rocket, but couldn't find anything remotely similar. I wanted one for a long time, and a flying V is perfect for that, because of superior fret access. I definitely wanna own a guitar with 36+ frets later on (and maybe 7 or 8 strings).

I had another idea - to make frets thinner and put double the amount of frets, effectively dividing the guitar into semi-semitones. This will take chromatic playing to a whole new level. So a 24 fret guitar would become 48 fret. Would probably need a longer scale neck (27" or longer) and much smaller guage frets to accomodate something like that. Also probably would need to use flatwound strings with that for smoothness.

I totally want one. Once I play with re-fretting a bit, I might just do it myself, or build my own custom neck someday... sky's the limit...

Haha, as cool as I think a guitar like that would be (because it would be)...

My post was mostly to highlight that often with questions like that, with the nature of "why not make ___ bigger/longer/more etc." there's ALWAYS going to be a bit of arbitrariness in the decision, and no matter HOW many frets something has you can ask "why not a few more?"

Of course, unless you do my idea... and as cool as that would be... who REALLY wants that :laugh2: In other words, if Fender had made the standard for fretboards 24 frets in the 50s, someone would be wondering why they didn't go to 25

IMO frets should always be smaller though (I can bend just fine with smaller frets and they get in the way less), but for the semitone idea, I almost wonder if frets should just be eliminated completely (oh wait someone beat me to that), that way you can pull off theoretically any infinitecimally divisible interval at will

That would basically put us in an "ancient technology" doghouse bass with a long fretboard, tiny body, and a piezo pickup :laugh2:

And do we REALLY want to play that? (maybe, but it's not a guitar)

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Haha, as cool as I think a guitar like that would be (because it would be)...

My post was mostly to highlight that often with questions like that, with the nature of "why not make ___ bigger/longer/more etc." there's ALWAYS going to be a bit of arbitrariness in the decision, and no matter HOW many frets something has you can ask "why not a few more?"

Of course, unless you do my idea... and as cool as that would be... who REALLY wants that :laugh2: In other words, if Fender had made the standard for fretboards 24 frets in the 50s, someone would be wondering why they didn't go to 25

IMO frets should always be smaller though (I can bend just fine with smaller frets and they get in the way less), but for the semitone idea, I almost wonder if frets should just be eliminated completely (oh wait someone beat me to that), that way you can pull off theoretically any infinitecimally divisible interval at will

That would basically put us in an "ancient technology" doghouse bass with a long fretboard, tiny body, and a piezo pickup :laugh2:

And do we REALLY want to play that? (maybe, but it's not a guitar)

Carparision have a regular production model 27 fret guitar, that sells fairly well mind you, and yes, the 25-27 frets do get used, which is something Mattias Eklundh fans will know.
As for smaller frets, it might work for you, but try to do Yngwie style wide vibrato, and you will see how jumbo/extra jumbo frets can be to your advantage.

 

[uOpt]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Just put some frets on top of the neck pickup. No more trouble

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

This is a Maton El Toro.2 octaves [24 fret]

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Great thoughts guys!

Yeah i forgot about fretless guitars!!! **** you have just given me gas!

Maybe i should look into vigier guitars or something. Bumblefoot time!

 

[tc]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Another thing I forgot to mention, even if you don't get to the 24th, fret access is way better on a 24 than a 22 fretter because the cutaways are deeper and the neck heel is usually deeper too. I dunno how to put it, but the thing is, the 21st fret on a 24 fret Jackson Dinky is a lot easier to get to than the 21st fret in a MIM Strat.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Just put some frets on top of the neck pickup. No more trouble

I used to sort of do that with a Charvel I had. Just putting a really small allen wrench up next to the screws on the neck pu lined up just right on that guitar for the 24th fret (23rd was skipped).

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: 20, 21, 22, 24 fret guitars?

Yeah, I do the same thing with my neck Rails single i.e. I use the upper rail as the 24th fret