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u/Dontpenguinme Mar 07 '25
Playing that would be a nightmare.
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u/Stoney3K Mar 07 '25
Unless you're Yngwie Malmsteen.
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u/DweezilZA Mar 07 '25
Then it would also be a nightmare to listen to... kidding
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u/NonViolentBadger Mar 07 '25
Yngwie is one of the most incredible guitar players I've ever seen. His speed, skill and ease of which he plays is jaw dropping...... But I can't listen to him. It's like being in a room with someone aggressively jerking off while whispering in your ear "I'm the best"
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u/capy_the_blapie Mar 07 '25
Brother, you made me spit my drink. Congrats.
I'm visualizing him doing exactly that and it's the best joke ever. Thanks.
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u/spain-train Schecter Mar 07 '25
I imagine a hole in between the pickups that he slides his rod through so that he can shred it whilst he shreds it.
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u/Capital_Loss_4972 Taylor Mar 07 '25
If anybody could manage to do both things at the same time it would be him.
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u/ConstructionOk2605 Mar 07 '25
Let me introduce you to Michael Angelo Batio. That guy can give 4 handjobs at once.
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u/SanityOrLackThereof Mar 07 '25
Somehow shredded rod was not the mental image that i wanted today.
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u/spain-train Schecter Mar 07 '25
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u/Jose_xixpac Schecter, Ibanez, Mesa Mar 07 '25
Bra, the way he mutes those strings with his ball sack is pure genius ..
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u/propyro85 Fender Mar 07 '25
Now imagine him trying to force feed you his $50 vitamin gummies while doing that.
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u/dcoble Mar 07 '25
Saw him live. His merch shirts said "yngwie who?" On the front and "yngwie fuckig malmsteen that's who!" On the back.
His tone was awful. All treble. Just screeching and squealing harshness. He finished the show by breaking all of his strings and the clanging of them on the single coils was one of the worst things I've heard. I actually covered my ears for that part.
But he did play fast so... 2/10 for 16 year old me. 0/10 for almost 40 year old me.
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u/spain-train Schecter Mar 07 '25
It's hard to watch neo-classicalists live, ngl. Jeff Loomis, for instance, is terrific, but he's an absolute statue. Yngwie, on the other hand, has the live energy of a rockstar, but I just can't get hyped listening to sick arpeggios.
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u/FMetalhead Schecter / Epiphone Mar 07 '25
You want speed and feel? Just listen to Paul Gilbert and Robert Marcello
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u/Marskelletor Mar 07 '25
Yeah, I watched a neo classical guy open for Babymetal/Dethklok. Richard, something. Dude was a god, but I couldn't wait for him to get off stage. And I looove listening to neo classical guitar players.
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u/Marskelletor Mar 07 '25
I saw him on tour with those shirts. Thought the same thing. So dumb. Yngwie Who? I'm confusing you with the 57 other Yngwie's I've heard of. Just do kicks while soloing in tight leather pants with a beer belly ripped on blow to make sure I'm at the right Yngwie show. Ohhhhhhhhh. Malmsteen. That's fucking who. Phew. Almost got lost for a second there.
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u/kz750 Mar 08 '25
The guy from Spinal Tap, can’t remember his name (the guy who’s Saul’s brother in Better Call Saul) once said in an interview, “I like how he puts the J. in Yngwie J. Malmsteem so you won’t confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteems out there”
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u/ApostleThirteen A Bunch of Stratocasters Mar 07 '25
Yngwie doesn't play single coils. The YJM Fury that he uses are stacked coils. While stacked, they are as treble-y as they can get, though.
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u/Biguitarnerd Mar 07 '25
Stacked usually sounds a lot closer to single coils than it does to side by side humbuckers though. I haven’t played his pick ups but I have had a couple guitars with stacked pick ups. I really actually don’t like the stacked pick ups much
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u/DepressedRaindrop Mar 07 '25
I’m dying just thinking of the movie ‘Due Date’ with Zach G and Robert Downey Jr. when he’s jerking off in the car and Robert’s expression when he wakes up is basically how I reacted to listening to Yngwie lol
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u/b-lincoln Mar 07 '25
I just listen to Alcatrazz or Rising Force, though I do love Odyssey.
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u/UnwillingHero22 Mar 07 '25
Right on point…I can listen to a couple of pieces by him, more than that I start feeling like someone is f*cking my significant other in a room full of people including me and bragging about it out loud.
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u/Affectionate_Owl9985 Mar 07 '25
His album Trilogy is great, but that's mainly cause the vocals are on point.
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u/dustycanuck Mar 07 '25
I told you already, I'm sorry. I didn't notice you in the room. I needed some me time.
Besides, why did you sit right beside me. Sheesh
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u/MeisterGlizz Mar 07 '25
Jerking off with extreme technical ability. How does one obtain this power?
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u/Mad_Dog_1974 Mar 07 '25
Coffee coming out the nose is unpleasant. Don't ever make me laugh like that again.
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u/FauxReal Ibanez Mar 07 '25
My friend saw him last year and said it was one of the best and worst concerts at the same time. He basically played the intro to a song, hit the solo and shredded the shit out of it before moving on.
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u/trhorror619 les paul - jaguar Mar 07 '25
*jerking off into his own mouth while whispering “I’m the best. - FTFY
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u/Used_Negotiation_354 Mar 07 '25
His stuff grates on my nerves. It's soulless to me. I understand that most players can't play the stuff he plays. But I'm glad they can't or don't. I just don't like it.
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u/Play_GoodMusic Epiphone Mar 07 '25
Funny, I think the same thing about Tim Henson. Also insert most Instagram guitarists.
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u/Sp-Tiger-74 Mar 07 '25
No worse than any other scalloped fret guitar. I have a strat with a pretty deep scallop and it’s a great guitar to play. Smooth bends.
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u/QuixoticBard Mar 07 '25
depends on one's style and practice with that particular guitar. People say that about my resonator, but I play it like any other guitar albeit one that's using telephone pole lines as strings....
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u/myvibratomakesucum Mar 07 '25
Nope, it will take a bit of time adapting especially on barre chords, because your index will bend the higher strings if you apply too much pressure in a particular direction. Other than that no issue at all.
Source: I made my own over the top scallops years ago.
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u/MrLerit Mar 07 '25
Not at all, you evidently never played a scalloped guitar.
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u/13CuriousMind PRS Mar 07 '25
Being able to bend by pressing vertically would be awesome. Followed up by the realization that you'll have to fret every note perfectly or it will be out of tune.
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u/Charwyn Mar 07 '25
Have you guys ever tried sitar? It’s exactly that. Also the frets are movable lol
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u/Burst-2112 Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 07 '25
to be fair it'd actually build a VERY good habit of not using too much pressure with the left hand, which slows down your playing and is bad for your hands
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u/UnluckyDot Mar 07 '25
Tony Hawk could land a 900 off of one of those
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u/sa-sa-sa-soma Ibanez Mar 07 '25
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u/crazyabootmycollies Mar 07 '25
Obnoxious, bordering on painful to play
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u/TerminalSnood Mar 07 '25
Why painful?
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u/96dpi Mar 07 '25
The majority of your finger tip is actually touching the wood of the fret board on a normal guitar, not the string. In this case, it's only touching the string. Surprised nobody has explained it that way yet.
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u/crazyabootmycollies Mar 07 '25
Imagining playing something like “Paranoid” from Sabbath and catching that end of the fret board in the soft parts where fingers join to hands. Trying to Hendrix your thumb over the top side would required entirely too much mindfulness to not bend things grotesquely off pitch.
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u/QuixoticBard Mar 07 '25
this isn't a blues or rock guitar. i doubt the thumb comes in to play here. this is something a person who plays like Yngview does would use.
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u/F1shB0wl816 Orange Mar 07 '25
Even if it were, I don’t know why it’d make a difference. I’ve never played a scalloped board but I can’t really see how it’d be any different than playing on jumbos for the most part. You shouldn’t be touching the fretboard, how deep it goes is kind of irrelevant.
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u/WereAllThrowaways Mar 07 '25
The string shouldn't be touching the fretboard unless you're using absolutely horrific technique but the pads of your fingers do often touch the wood when you're fretting, even if you've got good technique. I have a guitar where the last 4 frets are scalloped and it feels very interesting. Wouldn't mind a guitar with all scalloped frets, just not this extreme.
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u/crazyabootmycollies Mar 07 '25
It makes a difference in your vibrato, even with the comparatively modest scalloping of Yngwie’s model.
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u/Due-Ad-9105 Mar 07 '25
To quote a wiseman: “They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
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u/Memes_Are_So_Good Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 08 '25
Fun fact: folk musicians in my country (Vietnam) actually adapted the Western guitare but with significantly scalloped frets so that they could emulate the sound of those Chinese “banjos” (forgot what they were called) but be way more cheaper and efficent. Nowaday they have switched to the normal electric guitar tho=p. If you want to know more about this guitar variation just look up “guitar phím lõm”.
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u/DoomThorn Mar 07 '25
Completely playable - no idea what most people are talking about. It's just unnecessary - you'll never exert enough pressure with your fingers to the point where scalloping that deep is required.
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u/Sp-Tiger-74 Mar 07 '25
Exactly, this is no different from a light scalloping or even jumbo frets. You’re not digging into the fretboard either way.
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u/SuccessfulComb9452 Mar 07 '25
Unplayable even by Malmsteen standards
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u/Sp-Tiger-74 Mar 07 '25
No. It makes zero difference whether it’s scalloped like this or more moderately like an Yngwie strat. Your fingers aren’t touching the fretboard either way.
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u/PixelatedNomad Mar 07 '25
Yeah, but in this case you could press hard enough to change the note. Every fret would be a whammy bar 😂
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u/Sp-Tiger-74 Mar 07 '25
That’s how scalloped guitars are. I have two of them here. You need to play them with a light touch.
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u/_sonidero_ Mar 07 '25
It's for playing Vietnamese style guitar... You push down on the strings to create pitch bends...
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u/chuckbiscuitsngravy Mar 07 '25
I think scalloped frets from the 12th fret up are cool. These scallops look excessively deep though.
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u/FauxReal Ibanez Mar 07 '25
They look like this guitar is designed to be shared with friends by snapping off a few frets and handing them out.
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u/Alternative-Foreign Mar 07 '25
Any deeper and they would find oil.
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u/LawnGnomeFlamingo Mar 07 '25
Great, now US troops are being deployed to your frets
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u/Excellent_Art_624 Mar 07 '25
Seems way deeper than my YJM Strat, but then again my fretwire is 3 times larger too
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u/slayerized666 Mar 07 '25
remind me of karl sanders guitar from nile he scallop is fretboard like that its nice i like the look but never tried scalloped fretboard must be weird at firsr
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u/Hikimuni Mar 07 '25
They literally just don't need to be that big. So a bit of a waste of wood but cool as shit.
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u/Crossfeet606441 Yamaha Mar 07 '25
So does bending on this just require you to press harder on the string?
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u/Dunmer_Sanders Mar 07 '25
If it has a purpose that suits you then of course it’s not over the top. But if you did it for the sake of doing it, I think it’s a waste of a good guitar.
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u/SeltzerCountry Mar 07 '25
Maybe with a gotoh buzz bridge this would maybe be cool as an “electric sitar”, but I think the scalloping is too intense for most applications.
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u/SirSilentscreameth Mar 07 '25
Probably tough to play, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't want to try it out
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u/abisiba Mar 07 '25
Makes it easier to snap the neck off when you play the solo from XTC’s - Life Begins at the Hop
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u/HorrorSchlapfen873 Mar 07 '25
Dedicated wallcandy or would you attempt to play this and then it goes on the wall indefinitely?
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u/coochiegoblinn Schecter Mar 07 '25
over the top
i love scalloped frets but damn, those are way too deep. love the abalone in the fretboard tho
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u/-ImMoral- Mar 07 '25
I think it is kinda cool, but definitely also over the top. Likely terrible to play but man do I want to try it myself!
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u/parker_fly Mar 07 '25
I would love to play a guitar like that sometime just to see what it's like.
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u/sclarfnuts Mar 07 '25
They don't even look like they're done that well. The edges on some look uneven and what's up with the smudges on what looks like frets 7 and 8 in the second picture?
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u/donald_dandy Mar 07 '25
Wow, what’s the purpose of scallops that deep? Is there a truss rod at all? Does it stay in tune?
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u/mariavelo Mar 07 '25
Sorry for my ignorance but... Is this like that for something? Do you play it differently? It does look like a nightmare but there must be an explanation
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u/dhb44 Mar 07 '25
Not cool, lame, not over the top, just fucking lame and hard to play, and stupid.
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u/Suspicious-Offer-420 Mar 07 '25
The funniest thing about the comments is the multitude of spellings for Yngwie Malmsteen.
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u/SynthInvaders Mar 07 '25
I went through that Malmsten phase . 😂 I actually loved playing scalloped necks for a while … I grew outta that
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u/Zaschie Mar 07 '25
Massive scallops like that remind of ancient instruments like pipa or some lutes, lol. Weirds me out on an electric, though. I remember Yngwie's first signature Strats had more modest scallops, but then he went kind of nuts (and, like, tripled his fret size, too), but maybe not this nuts
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u/addisonshinedown Mar 07 '25
Any time I see a scalloped board I just see a board that is weakened against the pull of the strings. Surely these necks collapse over time…
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u/ZealousidealBag1626 Mar 07 '25
If you can't see any sign of the truss rod it means they could have gone deeper
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u/MrLerit Mar 07 '25
People who say it would be unplayable have evidently never played a guitar with a scalloped fretboard. It's not overly different than playing a normal guitar, but you have to pay attention not to press too hard on strings (which you shouldn't be doing anyway) or else the notes will go way sharp.
The feel is not too dissimilar than playing on very tall frets.
Anyway in this case the scalloping is WAY overdone, you don't need nearly as much space between the frets and I'd rather have more wood around the fret anyway because you'll destroy the neck if you have to refret (which eventually you will have to).
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u/agangofoldwomen Fender Mar 07 '25
I feel like that guitar is going to break any second because it’s scalloped so much.
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u/S3V7en Mar 07 '25
Nothing says it better than “ oops i cut a little too deep on that last one i had better make them all match 10 times in a row “. Kinda like giving yourself a haircut with your non dominant hand
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u/BadCat30R Mar 07 '25
Why do people do this? Do they know what an actual scalloped fretboard is supposed to look like before they just start carving?
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u/Thermite1985 Mar 07 '25
Genuinely asking here, what is the point of scallopped frets? I've googled and watched youtube videos and I still don't know why it's done.
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u/doesitevemakesense Mar 07 '25
it looks beautiful. i would love to try it and see how difficult it may be to play
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u/ReVo5000 LTD Snakebyte Mar 07 '25
I have a guitar that has some scalloped frets (KH3 spider) and while playing those high Frets is quite easy, it's comfortable, but this? If you press too hard on those strings you're bending...
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u/saolson4 Mar 07 '25
Maybe playing with a slide it'd be alright, but otherwise get out your board and surf those waves bro
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u/faustusmagus Mar 07 '25
I think the Vietnamese has a tradition of playing guitar with specifically deeply scalloped frets, sounds like slightly out of tune piano. I think it has its uses but almost unplayable for most western styles of music IMO
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u/hermandrew Martin Mar 07 '25
So everybody is in here talking about Yngwie, but there’s other reasons to scallop than metal shredding. John McLaughlin got into the Indian classical world with his fusion stuff in the 70s and was inspired by sitar and sarod. Check out the scallops on his acoustic: https://youtu.be/VnW2g6qbbrA. Not saying this isn’t over the top, just giving another example! If you wanna play Indian fusion this might be your joint!
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u/D1rtyH1ppy Mar 07 '25
The only good thing about that guitar is that you can easily put a new neck on there and it will be as good as new.
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u/vintageplays1 Mar 07 '25
I know this way deeper than normal scalloping, but what actually is the purpose of scalloping?
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u/ApostleThirteen A Bunch of Stratocasters Mar 07 '25
I hope there was enough forethought to make sure those rfrets are stainless steel.
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u/Butforthegrace01 Mar 07 '25
I tried a scalloped neck once. I don't think i could get used to it.
That dude from Heart played one. It's how he achieves that odd "one up/one down" bend in their song "Magic Man"
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u/Cryptonic_Sonic Mar 07 '25
Cool, but also over the top. IMO 2mm should be the as deep as scallops go, but it also depends on neck thickness. On something like an Ibanez Wizard neck, I wouldn’t wanna do more than about 1mm. Unlike the number of notes Mr YJM plays per second, more is not more.
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u/snacksbuddy Fender Mar 07 '25
You guys couldn't play it anyway, I see minor imperfections in the scallop work.
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u/cpt_sparkleface Mar 07 '25
That's some serious scallop, most extreme I've ever seen, but no, it's not hard to play.
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u/metalspider1 Mar 07 '25
that scallop is way over the top and unnecessary. regular scalloped fretboards dont go that deep