Members DarkHorseJ27 Posted October 26, 2012 Members Share Posted October 26, 2012 Some time ago I was introduced to the movie The Phantom of the Opera and fell in love with the music. Among other things it got me listening to vocals much more than I had before. One of the results of that is the way I now like to do vibrato. With vocal vibrato (and most instruments for that matter) the pitch fluctuates above and below the resting pitch. I've developed a strong preference for this, and of course most guitar vibrato just goes above the note and back to the resting pitch. There is classical style vibrato, but its too subtle for my taste. I've tried a few vibrato systems but I like the sound of finger vibrato better and didn't like the added headaches when doing a set-up or changing a tuning. What I've ended up doing is instead of just grabbing a note and adding vibrato is I go the fret below and pre-bend a half step and add vibrato to that. It's a pain in the ass sometimes but I've gotten really OCD about my vibrato. Another consequence of doing this is bends and pre-bends have become a lot more prominent in my style. One of the advantages of a salloped neck is additional control of bends and vibrato. I'm not very heavy-handed so I don't think the learning curve would be to large. What does EC think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steadfastly Posted October 27, 2012 Members Share Posted October 27, 2012 That being the case, it looks like the scalloped neck is a good choice for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted October 27, 2012 Members Share Posted October 27, 2012 I don't think scalloping helps you prebend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members straycat113 Posted October 27, 2012 Members Share Posted October 27, 2012 You better play one first as it is going to feel totally different since your fingers do not hit the fretboard. If you have played a guitar with super jumbo frets and liked it you will pretty much be fine. A great vibrato is a guitarists DNA and that is great that you are really working on yours but maybe you dont have to go to such extremes. Most of the greatest signature vibratos are from Blues based players and they are not using a scalloped neck lol. Years ago when I was in my heavy blues phase I got into BB King who I was never much of a fan of before. But I picked up his heavy use of his signature index finger vibrato which is a finger most players neglect when playing and it helped immensely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DarkHorseJ27 Posted October 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 27, 2012 Originally Posted by straycat113 You better play one first as it is going to feel totally different since your fingers do not hit the fretboard. If you have played a guitar with super jumbo frets and liked it you will pretty much be fine. A great vibrato is a guitarists DNA and that is great that you are really working on yours but maybe you dont have to go to such extremes. Most of the greatest signature vibratos are from Blues based players and they are not using a scalloped neck lol. Years ago when I was in my heavy blues phase I got into BB King who I was never much of a fan of before. But I picked up his heavy use of his signature index finger vibrato which is a finger most players neglect when playing and it helped immensely. I wasn't considering jumbo frets because I've found I prefer acoustic size wire, for greater space between the frets. However, upon further research, pretty much every scalloped neck has jumbo frets or something close to it already. I know a few places offer "narrow and tall" fret wire, so perhaps that could be an easier and cheaper answer than scalloping. I'll just have to measure the fret sizes on my acoustics and look up the size of jumbo frets and see the the "narrow and tall" compare.You are right about blues players having some of the best vibratos. If your point that a scalloped neck isn't necessary for a good vibrato then you are correct. However, it doesn't mean it can't help. In my opinion why so many more blues players have better vibratos than those who usually use scalloped necks (metal players) is because vibrato is so much more important to their style than it is to metal players. Furthermore, the main reason some metal players use scalloped necks isn't for better control of bends and vibrato. To quote my college statistics class, another case where correlation does not equal causation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted October 28, 2012 Members Share Posted October 28, 2012 I know you don't want a floating tremolo as you'd like to use your fingers but you can, with practice, make it sound like your fingers. Have you given it enough time? I had to practice to get mine to sound organic but now I like it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DarkHorseJ27 Posted October 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 28, 2012 Originally Posted by billybilly I know you don't want a floating tremolo as you'd like to use your fingers but you can, with practice, make it sound like your fingers. Have you given it enough time? I had to practice to get mine to sound organic but now I like it better. That was a thought I had, and other advantages include putting vibrato on open strings, chords, and harmonics. However, I not entirely sure it is worth the extra headaches during set-ups and when changing tunings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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