The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is a part of most stringed instruments. A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs It is a thin, long strip of wood that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run. Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs Glue or adhesive is a compound that adheres or bonds two items together 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 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. A musician is a person who plays or writes Music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music An instrumentalist plays a Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound 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 above the fingerboard. This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores In Music, a bow is moved across some part of a Musical instrument, causing Vibration which the instrument emits as Sound.
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Frets
A fingerboard may be fretted, having raised strips of hard material perpendicular to the strings against which the strings are stopped. A string is the vibrating element that is the source of vibration in String instruments such as the Guitar, Harp, Piano, and members The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a Stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck 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 or mandolin, or movable, as on a lute. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles A mandolin is a musical instrument in the Lute family (plucked or strummed Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either Fretted or unfretted and a deep round back or more specifically to an instrument from Fingerboards may also be unfretted, as they usually are on bowed instruments, where damping is generally not a problem due to the prolonged stimulation of the strings. In Music, a bow is moved across some part of a Musical instrument, causing Vibration which the instrument emits as Sound. 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, where arched frets attach at the edges of the fingerboard; unfretted strings run below the frets, while fretted ones run above. The sitar ( Hindi: सितार Urdu: ستار Persian: سی تار) is a Plucked stringed instrument. 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.
Steel-string and electric guitars may have the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th or 10th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st frets marked by inlays, normally small dots but occasionally trapeziums or other shapes. These are normally repeated on the side of the neck where the player can more easily see them. The 12th fret, and 24th fret if present, are normally marked differently (e. g. two dots) to indicate the octave. Classical guitars do not have inlays or fret markers, but some players, especially beginners, like to add self-adhesive fret markers on the side of the neck.
Materials
On bowed string instruments, (such as violin, viola, cello, and double bass), the fingerboard is usually made of ebony, rosewood or some other hardwood. The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member The viola is a bowed String instrument. It is the middle voice of the Violin family, The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli —the c is tʃ The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed String instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. Ebony ( Diospyros ebenum) also known as India Ebony or Ceylon Ebony depending on its origin is a Tree in the genus Diospyros The term hardwood is used to describe Wood from broad-leaved angiosperm Trees mostly Deciduous, but not necessarily in the case of tropical On some guitars a maple neck and fingerboard are made from one piece of wood. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles Acer ( maple) is a Genus of Trees or Shrubs They are variously classified in a family of their own the Aceraceae, or A few modern innovative luthiers have used lightweight, non-wood materials such as carbon-fiber in their fingerboards. [1]
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. The distance from the center of a Sphere or Ellipsoid to its surface is its Radius.
Many bowed string instruments use a visibly curved fingerboard, nut and bridge in order to gain bow clearance on each individual string. 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. 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 In Music, a bow is moved across some part of a Musical instrument, causing Vibration which the instrument emits as Sound. A string is the vibrating element that is the source of vibration in String instruments such as the Guitar, Harp, Piano, and members
The length, width, thickness and density of a fingerboard can affect the timbre of an instrument. The density of a material is defined as its Mass per unit Volume: \rho = \frac{m}{V} Different materials usually have different In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different
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). | r = r1 = r2 = const |
| 3 | Conical | The fingerboard has a varying radius, usually linearly progressing from r1 to r2. Sometimes it is also called a compound radius. [2] 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. | r(x) = f(x), usually  |
Notes:
- l is a scale. For the musical (rather than instrumental scale, see Pythagorean tuning.
- x designates a place on fingerboard, changes from 0 (at nut) to l (at bridge).
- r(x) describes radius depending on place on fingerboard.
- f(x) is a non-linear function. This article describes the use of the term nonlinearity in mathematics
Classical guitars, some 12-string guitars and a few other 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 (9-10") 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). Finger vibrato is Vibrato produced on a String instrument by cyclic hand movements
Bowed string instruments tend to have curved fingerboards, to allow double stopping of adjacent strings. A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument (like a Marimba) or stringed 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 parameters:
| Model | r | w1 | w2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Fender Stratocaster American guitar | 9. The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of Electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares 5" (241 mm)[2] | 1 11/16" (42. 8 mm) | |
| Vintage Fender Stratocaster guitar | 7. The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of Electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares 25" (184. 1 mm)[2] | ||
| Gibson Les Paul guitar | 10[2]–11[2]–12" (254–279–305 mm) | 1 11/16" (42. The Gibson Les Paul is a solidbody Electric guitar originally developed in the early 1950s 8 mm) | 2 1/16" (52. 3 mm) |
| Ibanez guitars | 12" (305 mm)[2] | ||
| Jackson guitars | 16" (406 mm)[2] or compound, from 12" (nut) to 16" (heel). Ibanez (ˈaɪbænɛz or /aɪˈbænɛz/ is a Guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki and based in Nagoya Aichi, Japan. Jackson is a Guitar manufacturer originally owned and operated by Grover Jackson a partner of Wayne Charvel of Charvel Guitar Repair. A compound radius is common on their newer models | ||
| Warmoth guitars | Compound, from 10" (nut) to 16" (heel)[2] | ||
| PRS Guitars[3] Regular | 10" (254 mm) | 1 21/32" (42 mm) | 2. Warmoth Guitar Products Inc is an American Manufacturer and distributor of electric Guitar and bass parts catering particularly PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in Stevensville Maryland. 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)[2] | ||
| Most electric guitars with Floyd Rose bridge | 10" (254 mm)[2] | ||
| Full size (4/4) violin | 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. Floyd Rose is the organization that licenses distributes and manufactures the Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo invented by Floyd D The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member The Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster is a replica of the guitar used by Swedish Heavy metal guitarist Yngwie J The result is a playing surface wherein the players' fingers come into contact with the strings only, and do not touch the fingerboard. A string is the vibrating element that is the source of vibration in String instruments such as the Guitar, Harp, Piano, and members
The process of "scalloping" a fingerboard well is tedious work, usually done by careful filing of wood between the frets, and requires a large investment of time. A file (or hand-file) is a Hand Tool used to shape Material by cutting Consequently, it is somewhat expensive to have done. Thus, scalloped fingerboards are most often found on custom instruments and a few high-end guitar models. Scalloped fingerboards are most commonly used by shred guitarists, most notably, Yngwie Malmsteen, who had a signature model of Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster developed with Fender. Shred guitar or shred refers to lead Electric guitar playing that relies heavily on fast passages the act of playing fast passages on an electric guitar is termed Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn in English (born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck on June 30 1963 in Stockholm Sweden) is a Swedish The Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster is a replica of the guitar used by Swedish Heavy metal guitarist Yngwie J Fender Musical Instruments Corporation of Quincy Illinois is a manufacturer of stringed instruments such as solid-body Electric guitars including the Ritchie Blackmore, of Deep Purple fame, also used a scalloped Stratocaster. For the rugby league footballer of the same name see Richie Blackmore (rugby league Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968 Other examples of lutes with scalloped fretboards include the South Indian veena and Vietnamized guitar (called đàn ghi-ta, lục huyền cầm, or ghi-ta phím lõm). South India is the area encompassing India 's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union Veena (also spelled 'vina' Kannada: ವೀಣ Malayalam: വീണ Tamil: வீணா Telugu: వీణ is a Plucked stringed
Scalloping can be:[4]
- Full, i. Veena (also spelled 'vina' Kannada: ವೀಣ Malayalam: വീണ Tamil: வீணா Telugu: వీణ is a Plucked stringed 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) or few top frets scalloping (19–24, 17–22, etc), utilized by such guitarists as Steve Vai. Steven "Steve" Siro Vai (born June 6 1960 in Carle Place New York) is an American Instrumental rock Guitarist
Note that filing the wood while scalloping also touches inlays, thus fingerboards with complex and intricate inlays usually aren't conducive to scalloping, as it would damage the artwork. Inlays on Guitar or similar Fretted instrument are visual elements set into the exterior wood 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 string only comes into contact with the frets and the fingertip with the string, not the fingerboard itself, creating less friction for bends and vibratos, which results in more overall control while playing. A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a Stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck Friction is the Force resisting the relative motion of two Surfaces in contact or a surface in contact with a fluid (e Finger vibrato is Vibrato produced on a String instrument by cyclic hand movements Vibrato is a musical effect produced in singing and on musical instruments by a regular pulsating change of pitch, and is used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to Another advantage is that the player only needs to apply a fraction of the pressure to a scalloped fingerboard to make the note sound, as compared to a traditional fingerboard. This allows the guitarist to play faster because they don't have to invest as much effort into fretting each note. [1][4]
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. And it does take practice to play well on a scalloped fingerboard. The player has to first become accustomed to not actually touching the fingerboard, which may take a while in itself. Playing a scalloped fingerboard also requires a careful balance of pressure; because too much pressure can change the pitch of the fretted note, as during a bend, and too little pressure can cause fret buzz. Finger vibrato is Vibrato produced on a String instrument by cyclic hand movements Fret buzz is one of the many undesirable phenomena that can occur on a Guitar or similar Stringed instrument. As a result the majority of 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 scoop (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.
See also
References
- ^ Luthier David Rivinus' site explanation of why he doesn't use ebony fingerboards
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guitar neck radius article at Warmoth
- ^ PRS Guitars FAQ: What are the differences between necks you offer?
- ^ a b Scalloping article at Warmoth
- Stringworks U brief description of fingerboard for violins, violas, & cellos
- Violin construction detailed specification sheet by Alan Goldblatt (PDF, 18KB)
- The Scalloped Fretboard Guitar article
Dictionary
fingerboard
-noun
- (music) A flat or roughly flat strip on the neck of a stringed instrument, against which the strings are pressed to shorten the vibrating length and produce notes of higher pitches.
- A miniature skateboard that is driven with the fingers.
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