Fingerboard - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

to the front of the neck

Neck (music)

The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...

of an instrument and above which the strings run. In the playing of such an instrument, a musician presses the strings down towards it in order to change their vibrating lengths, causing changes in pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...

. This is called "stopping" the strings.

The word "fingerboard" in other languages sometimes occurs in musical directions. In Italian it is called either manico or tasto, the latter especially in the phrase sul tasto, a direction for bowed string instruments to play with the bow

Bow (music)

In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....

above the fingerboard.

Frets

A fingerboard may be fret

Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...

ted, having raised strips of hard material perpendicular to the strings against which the strings are stopped. Frets easily and consistently allow a musician to stop the string in the same place, and they allow for less damping of the vibrations than fingers alone. Frets may be fixed, as on a guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

or mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, or movable, as on a lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

. Fingerboards may also be unfretted, as they usually are on bow

Bow (music)

ed instruments, where damping is generally not a problem due to the prolonged stimulation of the strings. Unfretted fingerboards allow a musician more control over subtle changes in pitch than fretted boards, but are generally considered harder to master where intonation is concerned. Fingerboards may also be, though uncommon, a hybrid of these two. Such a construction is seen on the sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

, where arched frets attach at the edges of the fingerboard; unfretted strings run below the frets, while fretted ones run above. The frets are sufficiently high that pressing strings against the fingerboard is unnecessary for the frets to stop their vibrations so that the lower strings' sympathetic vibrations are uninterrupted.

Frets may be marked by inlays

Inlay (guitar)

Inlay on guitars or similar fretted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard inlay techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboard, headstock —typically the manufacturer's logo— and...

to make navigation across the fingerboard easier. On 6-string guitars and bass guitars, the markers are typically single smallish dots marking the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th frets, and their octaves higher up the neck, with a double dot or some other variation marking the 12th fret and 24th frets. Variations on the standard dot shape can be used to make a guitar more distinctive. Position markers are sometimes made luminescent (through using paint or replacement with light emitting diodes) to make them more visible on stage. Position markers are also sometimes repeated on the edge of the fretboard for easy viewing.

Over time, frets tend to wear out, resulting in buzzing and "deadness" to the sound of the instrument. This requires a re-fretting job to take place. Not having frets carefully and properly aligned with the fingerboard may result in a severe intonation issue as well as constant detuning. The ultimate way of determining the source of the buzz and detuning problem is to measure the degree to which the frets are level. If you put a straightedge on the neck positioning it so that it is in the "lie" of one of the strings, it would make contact with the top of every fret.

Variation: A variation of the straight fret is the Curved or bent frets that were patented by Andres Thidell of Sweden. The "bending" of the frets allows the plucked strings open pitch to be exactly in tune with that of a fretted note on an entirely different place of the keyboard. In short this system allows the guitar or any other instrument it is used on to play in tune.

This invention has let to several "temperaments" that would otherwise be impossible on a fretted instrument including the Thidell formula 1 as well as the Die Wohltemperirte Gitarr based on what was believed to be J.S. Bach's temperament.

Materials

On bowed string instruments, (such as violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, and double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

), the fingerboard is usually made of ebony

Ebony

Ebony is a dense black wood, most commonly yielded by several species in the genus Diospyros, but ebony may also refer to other heavy, black woods from unrelated species. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water. Its fine texture, and very smooth finish when polished, make it valuable as an...

, rosewood

Rosewood

Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. All rosewoods are strong and heavy, taking an excellent polish, being suitable for guitars, marimbas, turnery , handles, furniture, luxury flooring, etc.In general,...

or some other hardwood

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

. On some guitar

Guitar

s a maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

neck and fingerboard are made from one piece of wood. A few modern innovative luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

s have used lightweight, non-wood materials such as carbon-fiber in their fingerboards.

Parameters

Typically, the fingerboard is a long [plank] with a rectangular profile. On a guitar, mandolin, ukulele, or similar plucked instrument, the fingerboard appears flat and wide, but may be slightly curved to form a cylindrical or conical surface of relatively large radius compared to the fingerboard width. The radius quoted in the specification of a string instrument is the radius of curvature of the fingerboard at the head nut.

Many bowed string instruments use a visibly curved fingerboard, nut

Nut (instrumental)

The nut of a string instrument is a small piece of hard material which supports the strings at the end closest to the headstock or scroll. The nut marks one end of the speaking length of each open string, sets the spacing of the strings across the neck, and usually holds the strings at the proper...

and bridge

Bridge (instrument)

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...

in order to gain bow

Bow (music)

clearance on each individual string

Strings (music)

A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...

.

The length, width, thickness and density

Density

The mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...

of a fingerboard can affect the timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...

of an instrument.

Most fingerboards can be fully described by the following parameters:

w₁ — width at nut (close to headstock);
w₂ — width at half of scale length (if fretted, usually the 12th fret);
h₁ — profile height (thickness) at nut;
h₂ — profile height (thickness) at half of scale length;
r — radius (may be non-constant);

Radius

Depending on values of radius r and their transition over the length of the fingerboard, all fingerboards usually fit into one of the following four categories:

1	Flat	Both nut and bridge are flat. The strings are all in one plane, and the instrument does not have a radius (the radius is in a sense infinite).
2	Cylindrical	The fingerboard has a constant radius, and the fingerboard, the nut and the bridge all have the same nominal radius (that of the fingerboard is strictly speaking a little smaller than that of nut and bridge).
3	Conical	The fingerboard has a varying radius, usually linearly progressing from to . Sometimes it is also called a compound radius. The nut and bridge are both curved but the nut radius is smaller than that of the bridge.
4	Compound	While not strictly conical, with a curved nut and linear bridge. All parts of the fingerboard will have some curvature, but the fingerboard shape is not strictly a cone.	, usually

Notes:

is a scale
Scale (string instruments)
In stringed instruments, the scale length is the maximum vibrating length of the strings to produce sound. In the classical community, it may be called simply "string length" or less often "mensure." On instruments in which strings are not "stopped" or divided in length like for example the...

.
designates a place on fingerboard, changes from 0 (at nut) to (at bridge).
describes radius depending on place on fingerboard.
is a non-linear function.

The larger the radius, the flatter the fretboard. Looking down from the headstock, the fingerboard can be seen as a surface section of a larger cylinder. The fret has a slight curve to it, and that arc can be extrapolated to a circle with a center point. The radius is the distance to that point. If you draw a perpendicular line from the middle of the fret to the center point of the theoretical cylinder, you can visualize the outer circle. The fret wire is a section of the circumference of that circle. A 12" radius means the center point is 12 inches from the fret. That’s a smaller circle than one with a 17" radius, and the outside surface of the larger circle is flatter.

Classical guitars, some 12-string guitars, banjos, dobros, pedal steel, and a few steel stringed acoustic guitars have flat fingerboards. Almost all other guitars have at least some curvature. However some recent five and six string electric basses have flat fingerboards.

For guitars, smaller radii (7.25–10") are said to be more comfortable for chord and rhythm playing, while larger radii
(12"-16" and up to infinite radius) are more appealing to fast soloing. Conical and compound radius fingerboards try to merge both of these features. The nut end of the fingerboard has a smaller radius towards the nut to ease in forming chords. The bridge end of the fingerboard has a larger radius to make soloing more comfortable and prevent "fretting out" (having the string press against a higher fret during a bend).

A Brief History Of Discovering The Conical Fingerboard in 1978 by luthier Denny Rauen can be found in American Lutherie #8/Winter 1986 and String Instrument Craftsman May/June 1988 under the title "Multi-Radius Fingerboards".
This special radiusing is a standard on many of Denny's custom built guitars and refret work beginning in 1978. Articles by Denny Rauen about the "Multi Radius Fingerboard" are the first published documents detailing the initial use of a conical fingerboard for the specific purpose of improving string bending while still retaining the ability for comfortable chording while playing guitar.

Bowed string instruments tend to have curved fingerboards, to allow single strings to be played. Those of the modern violin family and the double bass are strongly curved, however those of some archaic bowed instruments are flat.

Examples

Examples of some instruments' fingerboard radius parameters:

Model	r	w₁	w₂
Modern Fender Stratocaster Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top... American guitar	9.5" (241 mm)	1 11/16" (42.8 mm)
Vintage Fender Stratocaster Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top... guitar	7.25" (184.1 mm)
Gibson Les Paul Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson... guitar	12" (305 mm)	1.68" (43.053 mm)
Ibanez Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce... guitars	Ibanez provide many different radii on their guitars. Their RG and S series have a 400-430 radius fingerboard, meanwhile their artcore have 12" (305mm)
Jackson Jackson Guitars __FORCETOC__Jackson is a renowned brand of electric guitar that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson.-Early years:Grover Jackson obtained ownership in Charvel's Guitar Repair of Glendora, California in the 1970s with a promise to bolster Charvel's business... guitars	16" (406 mm) or compound, from 12" (nut) to 16" (heel). A compound radius is common on their newer models
Warmoth guitars	Compound, from 10" (nut) to 16" (heel)
PRS Guitars PRS Guitars PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland. PRS Guitars was founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of high-end electric guitars.-Materials:... Regular	10" (254 mm)	1 21/32" (42 mm)	2.25" (57.1 mm)
PRS Guitars Wide Fat and Wide Thin		1 11/16" (42.8 mm)	2.25" (57.1 mm)
PRS Guitars 513		1 43/64" (42.4 mm)	2 3/16" (55.5 mm)
PRS Guitars Hiland		1 21/32" (42 mm)	2 7/32" (56.3 mm)
PRS Guitars Santana	11 1/2" (292 mm)	1 21/32” (42 mm)	2.25" (57.1 mm)
PRS Guitars Custom 22/12	11 1/2" (292 mm)	1 47/64" (44 mm)	2 19/64" (58.3 mm)
Most electric guitars with LSR roller nuts	9.5" to 10" (241 mm to 254 mm)
Most electric guitars with Floyd Rose Floyd Rose The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name... bridge	10" (254 mm)
Traditional Classical guitars	flat (no radius)	Variable by maker	Variable by model
Martin acoustic guitars	16" (406.4 mm)	Variable by model
Gibson acoustic guitars	12" (305 mm)
Full size (4/4) violin Violin The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....	42 mm	24 mm	40 mm

Scalloping

A fretted fingerboard can be scalloped by "scooping out" the wood between each of the frets to create a shallow "U" shape. The result is a playing surface wherein the players' fingers come into contact with the strings only, and do not touch the fingerboard.

The process of "scalloping" a fingerboard well, if done by hand, is tedious work, usually done by careful filing

File (tool)

A file is a metalworking and woodworking tool used to cut fine amounts of material from a workpiece. It most commonly refers to the hand tool style, which takes the form of a steel bar with a case hardened surface and a series of sharp, parallel teeth. Most files have a narrow, pointed tang at one...

of wood between the frets, and requires a large investment of time. Consequently, it is relatively expensive to have done. Generally scalloping of fingerboards is done by a special milling machine which has 22 or 24 (according to the neck dimensions and number of frets) wood cutting tools. This equipment saves time to the process and dimensional stability like scalloping the wood in the neck's radius same in all fret spaces.

Scalloped fingerboards are most commonly used by shred guitarists, most notably, Yngwie Malmsteen, who, like Ritchie Blackmore

Ritchie Blackmore

Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...

(of Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

) uses scalloped fret boards, and had a signature model of Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster

Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster

The Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster is a replica of the guitar used by Swedish heavy metal guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen, made by Fender. It came originally with two DiMarzio YJM single-coil pickups paired with a DiMarzio HS-3 Stack humbucking pickup...

developed with Fender. Ibanez JEM series guitars, designed and played by Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

, come standard with the last 4 frets scalloped. In 2008 Ibanez made available their E-Gen

Ibanez E-Gen

- Origins :The Ibanez E-Gen was introduced in 2008 as Herman Li’s signature model. It is derived from the Ibanez S prestige models. - Features :...

model, a Herman Li

Herman Li

Herman Li is a British Chinese musician, best known as a guitarist for the power metal band DragonForce.-Playing style:Li draws influences from rock, all sub-genres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early-90s arcade, and PC games...

signature, which includes four scalloped frets (21st to 24th). Karl Sanders

Karl Sanders

Karl Sanders is an American musician, most widely known as the founding member of the American Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile. He was born in California, and lives in Greenville, South Carolina. Karl is endorsed by Dean Guitars, and has two signature models by KxK Guitars...

of the death metal band Nile

Nile (band)

Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and art, as well as stories by H. P. Lovecraft.- History :...

also uses several guitars with scalloped frets, including several Deans

Dean Guitars

Dean Guitars is an American manufacturer of guitars. It was founded in 1976 by Dean Zelinsky in Chicago, Illinois and is currently under the ownership of Armadillo Enterprises in Tampa, Florida.- History :...

, and KxK Guitars.

In the 1970s, English guitarist John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin (musician)

John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...

played with Shakti (band)

Shakti (band)

Shakti was a group which played a novel acoustic fusion music which combined Indian music with elements of jazz; it was perhaps the earliest practitioner of the musical genre world fusion....

, along with Indian violinist L. Shankar

L. Shankar

Lakshminarayanan Shankar, also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer.-Early life:...

, using an acoustic guitar with a fully scalloped fretboard. McLaughlin explained that this feature increased the ease and range of string bends by eliminating friction between finger and fretboard. The scalloped fretboard also made possible the use of rapid, microtonal variation which is so important in Indian music, as exemplified by classical Indian Sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

music.

Experimental luthier Yuri Landman

Yuri Landman

Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...

made an electric guitar for John Schmersal

John Schmersal

John Schmersal is an American musician best known for being a founding member of indie rock band Enon and synthpunk group Brainiac. He is also a touring member of Caribou.In 1998, Schmersal released his first solo album, under the name John Stuart Mill....

of Enon

Enon

Enon was an indie rock band founded by John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Steve Calhoon. Currently, Enon is situated in Philadelphia, though the band is known for being part of the New York music scene.-Biography:...

called the Twister with a partial scalloped neck for only the thin strings, (like little playground slide

Playground slide

Playground slides are found in parks, schools, playgrounds and backyards. The slide may be flat, or half cylindrical or tubular to prevent falls. Slides are usually constructed of plastic or metal and they have a smooth surface that is either straight or wavy...

s).

Other examples of lutes with scalloped fretboards include the South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

n veena

Veena

Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...

and Vietnamized guitar (called đàn ghi-ta, lục huyền cầm, or ghi-ta phím lõm).The Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental musical instrument builder Yuichi Onoue made a deeply scalloped electric guitar for Vietnamese microtonal playing techniques.

Scalloping can be:

Full, i.e. all frets from the first to the last are scalloped.
Partial, when some of the top frets are scalloped for fast soloing. Popular examples include half scalloping (12th to the last fret, used by Kiko Loureiro
Kiko Loureiro
Kiko Loureiro is a Brazilian Heavy metal guitarist who has worked with bands such as Angra, Silent Moon, and Blezqi Zatzas....

of Angra
Angra (band)
Angra is a Brazilian metal band from São Paulo, Brazil known for its symphonic interludes, highly technical instrumental playing and Brazilian regional elements.- Biography :...

, among others) or few top frets scalloping (19–24, 17–22, etc.), utilized by such guitarists as Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

. When done by hand, sometimes fretboards can be scalloped half below D or G string, as in the case for Turkish luthier Kenan Turgut.

Note that filing the wood while scalloping also touches inlays

Inlay (guitar)

, thus fingerboards with complex and intricate inlays usually aren't conducive to scalloping, as it would damage the artwork. Simple dot or block markers survive the procedure well.

Advantages and disadvantages

The "scooped out" nature of scalloped fingerboards creates a number of changes in the way the guitar plays.

Most obvious, is that the fingertip only comes into contact with the string, not the fingerboard itself, creating less friction

Friction

Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...

for bends and vibrato

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...

s, which results in more overall control while playing.

However, that is also one of the main disadvantages. Many players, especially new players, may find a scalloped fingerboard to be too different to play easily — if the strings are light for the player and/or the player has the tendency to press too hard on the fingerboard, it does take practice to play in tune on a scalloped fingerboard. The player must first become accustomed to not actually touching the fingerboard, which may take some time. Playing a scalloped fingerboard requires a careful application of pressure: too much can change the pitch of the fretted note, as during a bend, and too little pressure can cause fret buzz. As a result, the majority of guitar players choose to use a traditional fingerboard on their instruments.

Scoop of fretless bowed-string fingerboards

Fretless bowed-string fingerboards are usually scooped lengthwise in a smooth curve, so that if a straight edge is held next to the board parallel to a string, some daylight will show between them, towards the centre of the board. Usually the scoop is slightly greater on the bass side, less on the treble side of the fingerboard. Different string materials or different styles of playing may call for differing amounts of scoop; with gut strings requiring the most, and solid steel-core strings the least. A typical full-size (4/4) violin with synthetic-core G, D, and A strings will show 0.75 mm of scoop under the G string, and between 0.5 mm and zero scoop under the E, which generally has a solid steel core on instruments with modern set-up.

On guitars, specifically steel-string and electric guitars, the relief (or "dip") is adjustable by altering the tension on the steel truss rod inside the neck. Relaxing the truss rod allows the pull of the strings to increase the dip, and vice-versa. Classical guitars do not need truss rods due to the lower tension of nylon strings, but should still exhibit some degree of dip.

Frets

Materials

Parameters

Radius

Examples

Scalloping

Advantages and disadvantages

Scoop of fretless bowed-string fingerboards

See also