How many frets do you prefer?

[Securb]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

21 or 22 is fine for me. I think any higher doesn't really play to the guitars strengths.

Think of it like a human voice, you have a range you speak in, it goes lower when you are speaking quietly, tiredly or when you are speaking aggressively, it goes higher when you are whimsical, or when you sing with power. At the top of your voice range you have the falsetto, a range that your voice isn't naturally adapted to use, a range that sounds a little unnatural and imperfect, but is suitable for time to time for musical effect.

Well said, Frank Zappa had pretty much the same theory. He felt you should play leads the way you talk.

 

[Archer250]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

Well said, Frank Zappa had pretty much the same theory. He felt you should play leads the way you talk.

That's good. I speak a lot of gibberish and awkward ****.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

Well said, Frank Zappa had pretty much the same theory. He felt you should play leads the way you talk.

Can I play leads in another language then?

 

[rgand]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

All I've ever needed was 21 so for me, any guitar has the correct number of frets. Few guitars sound good in the upper few frets, anyway.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

Eleven frets is the most suitable for me. Stops me repeating myself in a high-pitched, screechy voice.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

I love Les Pauls and Strats and Teles, and I'm glad they have 21 or 22 frets, because I believe the placement of the neck pickup heavily influences the tone and response in that position.

On a guitar that doesn't have an iconic neck pickup tone to live up to, I like 24 frets, mainly because 24-fret guitars tend to have the best fret access in the second octave. While I don't play frets 23 and 24 often, having them present usually means 15-21 -- where I spend a lot of time -- are easy and natural to navigate.

Also, a lot of the guitars I like just happen to have 24 frets. If a guitar is awesome enough, I don't really care how many frets it has.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

yeah, it's not so much the frets as the strings....

 

[aleclee]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

21 leaves me wishing I had another fret.
24 sometimes has issues with the neck pickup
While 22 is the least likely for me to take issue with, my top six guitars are evenly split between 22 and 24.

 

[LazNovak]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

I'll take 22 or 24. The biggest issue about this for me is easy access to the higher frets.

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: How many frets do you prefer?

it is funny when I started with electrics I wanted 24 frets. I even frowned down on fender style guitars with 21 frets, and let so many good ones go, just because they had 21. Now it is either 21 or 22. And I actually keep away from the 24 fret ones. I think/ to my ears the 21-22 frets have a better neck pup tone at least with Humbuckers.