Ritchie Blackmore style scalloped neck

[snowblind56]

I would like to see scalloped necks like the ones Ritchie Blackmore uses.  On the low E side, there is virtually no scallop, but it tapers down to a full scallop on the high E side.  I know the lack of demand and the tooling costs would prevent this from happening though...

 

[jkrake]

well, it would be nice if all of us were well known artists and we could sit in a work shop with a master fender luthier to make the guitar EXACTLY to our specifications, but alas we're not. so the next best thing for us is warmoth.  I wish warmoth did an Eric Johnson neck, but it's sort of in between the standard thin and clapton/boat...so it's not in their near future plans, i know i e-mailed them.  i find scalloped necks to be a little too touchy personally.  my vibrato always ends up being eratic and not as smooth as i'd like. but i guess if you do speedier stuff, like yngwie...it's alright. me i'm more of a blues based guy

 

[stubhead]

1) I have a standard Warmoth scalloped neck on my main guitar and I love it, but it has occurred to me that the scallops are at least twice as deep as they need to be to function. 1/8" would be fine. You don't actually add vibrato or bend notes by squeezing them in, unless you're a weightlifter.... are steroids to be the new metal Jack Daniels? ("Oh, Petru-cci....")

2) It's super easy to re-contour a boatneck or fatback a little smaller, all you need is some calipers and rasps and sandpaper. And of course, a "target" size in mind before you just start happily sanding away... Obviously you void the warranty - if you compare that to the misery and anguish of playing bad music on a crappy guitar neck you despise & vilify for the rest of your life? 2 hours a day X 365 days a year X 20 years = 14,600 hours that you could've sounded better, or (more likely) thought you would've sounded better if you'd just had a good neck, all for 200 bucks. Hmmm. People spend 200 bucks to go play GOLF, for Pete's sakes - ONE TIME - hit a little ball as far as you possibly can, then go fetch it yourself - hmmm. People fly to SCOTLAND to play GOLF - "Yes honey it's another box from Warmoth. At least I didn't have to fly to SCOTLAND...."

The neck's not gonna warp anyways, more likely your brain'll go first. :blob7:

 

[artnaz]

I would love a Blackmore Scallop too!  :headbang:

Now I'm looking for someone who can do it for me. I bought an old used neck for $30 to practice a bit, but I can't get nice identical and symmetrical scallops. So the Blackmore stuff is really not done for me...  :-\

 

[jkrake]

I would like to see scalloped necks like the ones Ritchie Blackmore uses.  On the low E side, there is virtually no scallop, but it tapers down to a full scallop on the high E side.  I know the lack of demand and the tooling costs would prevent this from happening though...

don't worry my suggestion for warmoth electric banjos was far less popular and is far less cost effective.

 

[neilium]

My experience with scallops has been:

- Scallops don't have to be nice and symmetrical, because they basically take the fingerboard out of the equation. Granted, you want everything to look nice, but if you start modestly and slowly, you can usually get it good enough.

- You don't need to scoop out that much wood. Go slowly. The Dremel contour sander is a good tool for this.

-I haven't tried Blackmore scallops, but I don't see what advantage they would offer. Even with 9's, it's damned hard to push the strings out of tune, especially on a 25.5" scale guitar.

-For me and the way I play, scallops are unnecessary. I scalloped one guitar, and it is a fun experiment. I practice on it all the time, and I've found that it has lightened my touch and made me a more nimble player regardless of which guitar I play.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you're interested in scallops, skip the half measures and get a full scallop neck. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have any problem getting your money back on ebay.

 

[DiMitriR33]

i personally don't see an advantage to an asymetrical scallop. that's just me.

 

[artnaz]

The advantage of the Blackmore asymetrical scallop is that you still have contact with the wood on the lower positions, because it's not so deep there. Secondly, if you fret a not, you don't put your finger in the middle of the two frets, but closer to the fretted fret, right? Well that's exactly the deepest spot on a Blackmore scallop. This makes much more sense to me.

However, if you only want to play "in the air" without touching the wood, the form of the scallop doesn't matter if it's deep enough.

 

[neilium]

Secondly, if you fret a not, you don't put your finger in the middle of the two frets, but closer to the fretted fret, right? Well that's exactly the deepest spot on a Blackmore scallop. This makes much more sense to me.

However, if you only want to play "in the air" without touching the wood, the form of the scallop doesn't matter if it's deep enough.

IME, the depth of the scallop doesn't really matter. Anything deeper than 1/16th of an inch is just extra work. Regardless of where the deepest part of the scallop is, the flesh of your fingers won't be touching the fingerboard.

On an unscalloped neck, for the bass strings you're already playing "in the air". I'd be surprised if your bass strings touch the fretboard when played above the fifth fret.

Artnaz, I give you credit for trying to do the work yourself. I'll bet you if you try again it will go better.

 

[artnaz]

You're right that the strings never touch the fingerboard, but your fingers do. Even with a scalloped fingerboard. If I have sweaty fingers I see some marks on the fingerboard after playing. It's not that I press the strings hard, but when bending a lot, I fret the strings from beneath.

I'll try to finish this neck with symmetrical scallops. If I get even scallops at the end, I'll probably buy another cheap neck to do the Blackmore stuff... A lot of work to do it by hand though...  :confused4: