Etheriel Custom guitar - Ordering now, Advice?

[Xiphos7]

Hi all, this is my first thread so be nice lol
Ordering a custom 8 string, fanned fret from a NSW, Australia Luthier company (not sure on the size but i know it's fairly small) called Etheriel guitars.
this is what i got for a first quote:

Thank you for your inquiry.

So that’s fanned fretted: 28” on the top and 25” on the bottom? If so, that’s certainly possible.

Quote
$1950 AUD (Australian dollars)

Features
-8 string custom fanned fret
-Set neck
-EMG 808X pickups bridge and neck
-ABM 3210 single bridges
-Gotoh machine heads.
-Chrome hardware
-Inlays are standard Etherial features (if you want them)
-Includes Etherial handmade hardcase.
If you want to use BareKnuckle Pickups instead of the EMG’s it will be around $2100 AUD.
If the quote is acceptable to you, I’d be more than happy to discuss in more detail what you would like as a custom. Ie shape and design etc.
:::::::::
So my question to you the more experienced is, Considering I'll be keeping this guitar in either Standard 8 or down to Tosin Tuning, or Meshuggah tuning, What Fanned scale would you recommend? I absolutely hate floppiness (nothing suss) so i don't want the bottom string to be too loose(and yes i know i can just change the string gauge) I'm not just a chugger, i will be using all of the strings for alot of clean stuff, so would the Bareknuckle pickup be worth the extra cash? aaaand finally, i'm not too visually artistic, if anyone has any awesome inlay/ body designs they'd like to share i'd really appreciate it.
thanks in advance for any and all advice

 

[Fiction]

28" to 25" Would be fine for Tosins Tuning and Standard Tunings.

Depends on whether you like the EMG 808X Pickups, If you dont, its your custom, so i'd go with whatever pickups you want. You're already forking out for a custom, whats wrong with throwing a LITTLE more to get the perfect pickups.

Check out instruments you're into, and gather what shapes you want. Send them to the luthier and I'm sure he can work something out with you, give him some ideas, he will probably have experience in sketching. So say you want the usual Super Strat, but with a kink/notch in the back (a la intrepid styled) Tell him where, send him pictures and he can probably get back to you with a sketch.

Enjoy the instrument! Post a NGD

 

[Deadnightshade]

-Having experience from 26.5" , 28" and 28.53" scale eight strings,I'd say pump the scale to 29" or 30" . It's not that 28" doesn't work,it's just it doesn't sound as great as it could with a bigger fan.

Personally I didn't have a problem with a 3" inch fan with the 7th fret as perpendicular one,except from barring chords after the 12th fret.

My advice is to go 25.5"-29" , and have the 9th fret as perpendicular.That's what I would do now because: the first frets are anyways roomy for you to fret chords , no matter the fan is bigger, and you'll shift the fan of the higher frets so that they are more comfy for barring.


-Whatever the fan is,will you have the pickup parallel to the bridge saddles or not?There's a limit to the angle of an 8 bar-type (see emg,lace alumitones etc) string pickup in order for it to take strong signal from all strings,and even worse for passive ones with poles,cause you have to worry about string spacing.

There's a huge debate about having the pickup angled or straight at fanned fret applications.Strandberg and some others don't bother angling the pickup (at least not much).If the instrument quality is good,you won't experience in any way the complete opposite of what the fan is trying to achieve.But since you're anyways throwing the money,if I were you,I'd order lace alumitones X-Bars with 4.5" width so that the pickup is parallel to the bridge (if you go with tight string spacing) or in worst case scenario just a bit offset compared to parallel with the bridge (for bigger string spacing).

I repeat that since you're using it mostly for cleans,even straight pickups won't affect the quality of your tone,provided you got good components on your guitar.

 

[Hollowway]

^ if the OP hasn't played a fan before anything over 3" (even at 3" for that matter) may be hard to navigate).

OP, before you order you should use Fret Find to make up a scale diagram and play with it. Make sure you can tolerate the scales. And also consider lengthening the treble scale if you can't handle the fan.

 

[Deadnightshade]

^ if the OP hasn't played a fan before anything over 3" (even at 3" for that matter) may be hard to navigate).

That would be true,I was just trowing an idea..It depends on the OP's will to experiment.

OP, before you order you should use Fret Find to make up a scale diagram and play with it. Make sure you can tolerate the scales. And also consider lengthening the treble scale if you can't handle the fan.

I second lengthening the treble side...Apart from my fanned fret,I have a 28.53" straight scale guitar and even the treble strings sound fine,I just string them lightly (custom gauges starting from 8's for half step down tuning).

BTW would't it RULE if someone would invent cheap fretboards (without a neck) from indifferent sonically cheap materials that allow you to wiggle around frets at different scales?There was a thread 1-2 weeks ago from some guy that made a carbon fibre bass sitar with fanned frets that get "tied" around the neck,rendering them movable.

 

[vampiregenocide]

Is that sorta what you're thinking?

 

[Deadnightshade]

Is that sorta what you're thinking?

No that's not it...And that's certainly not a cheap solution...

I found the thread:


http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ba...002-fosse-carbon-vina-bass-movable-frets.html

 

[Xiphos7]

Thanks for all the replies everyone
I might've exaggerated how much clean i play, I will be using it for alot of high-gain stuff too. I don't really understand what the advantages are to angling the pickup with the bridge? something to do with the sound being picked up at the same point along each string relative to distance from the bridge?
So now i'm thinking maybe a 26(or 25.5) - 29" scale?

 

[Deadnightshade]

Thanks for all the replies everyone
I might've exaggerated how much clean i play, I will be using it for alot of high-gain stuff too. I don't really understand what the advantages are to angling the pickup with the bridge? something to do with the sound being picked up at the same point along each string relative to distance from the bridge?
So now i'm thinking maybe a 26(or 25.5) - 29" scale?

Yes..Close to the bridge you get more high end and snappier sound , far away from the bridge the tone gets warmer.

The way fender bridge single coils are angled for instance,the pickup is closer to the bridge at the first string (thus snappier sound) , and further away from the bridge at the last string (thus warmer sound).

That is the exact opposite of what fanning the fretboard is trying to achieve.

So there is a tendency to have the pickup angled parallel to the bridge (as a neutral point,like regular straight scale humbuckers), instead of perpendicular to the neck axis,. The last means the pickup picks the bass side further from the bridge ,and the treble side closer,SUPPOSEDLY ending to a fender-esque sound.

Note,however,that if you have an ultra-wide pickup or the correct string spacing,you can also slant the pickup reversed-fender style,so as to amplify the fan effect.

 

[Xiphos7]

Ah, cool, but i thought the main idea behind using more than one scale was giving the bottom strings more vibrating room while keeping the normal scale on the top strings?

 

[Deadnightshade]

Ah, cool, but i thought the main idea behind using more than one scale was giving the bottom strings more vibrating room while keeping the normal scale on the top strings?

By vibrating room i'll take a wild guess and suppose you mean having bigger tension so that they are not floppy


For the low strings:
Being able to tune to a certain tension with thinner strings due to the longer scale,gives you a more focused,guitar-like tone,with a more defined high end and less inharmonicity compared to using a huge string at a smaller scale.The bass sounds like a bass because in has higher inharmonicity,due to the strings being really thick compared to the scale length (even though you got greater scale lengths than the guitar and higher tension).

For the high strings:
Supposedly in order to reduce excess high end snappiness in the high strings,having a smaller scale here makes the tone more mellow and full (if you go with a gibson scale for the first string and you use for example one gauge up what you use at a 25.5" or 25.6" scale guitar),or just allow you to keep the scale and the gauges you are used to,if you start the 1st string with your regular 6 string scale.

 

[Xiphos7]

By vibrating room i'll take a wild guess and suppose you mean having bigger tension so that they are not floppy


For the low strings:
Being able to tune to a certain tension with thinner strings due to the longer scale,gives you a more focused,guitar-like tone,with a more defined high end and less inharmonicity compared to using a huge string at a smaller scale.The bass sounds like a bass because in has higher inharmonicity,due to the strings being really thick compared to the scale length (even though you got greater scale lengths than the guitar and higher tension).

For the high strings:
Supposedly in order to reduce excess high end snappiness in the high strings,having a smaller scale here makes the tone more mellow and full (if you go with a gibson scale for the first string and you use for example one gauge up what you use at a 25.5" or 25.6" scale guitar),or just allow you to keep the scale and the gauges you are used to,if you start the 1st string with your regular 6 string scale.

ahh yes that's exactly what i meant lol
to my understanding i thought the point of the multi-scale is all about the string tension, the bridge angle and pickup angle just being an effect of that.
On my 7 string (27" scale) now to acheive a reasonable tension at the low tunings like Meshuggah i have an .80 i think.. lol it was awhile ago..
that's why i want a multi-scale, because i want the advantage of a longer scale for the lower strings, but the advantage of the shorter scale for the higher strings, i thought that was the main point of the multi-scale

 

[Hallic]

28” on the top and 25” on the bottom

you want an inverted fan?

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

I think OP is just one of those folks who calls the low strings the top strings because they're at the top of the fretboard, laterally speaking.

 

[Deadnightshade]

I think OP is just one of those folks who calls the low strings the top strings because they're at the top of the fretboard, laterally speaking.

Even my local luthier does it..And he does his job 30 years now,having made over 500 instruments (most of them basses) It's a matter of perspective

 

[Hallic]

aah, i see. When using that perspective playin at the first couple of frets is higher up the neck and playing near the 22th fret is lower down the neck?

i just was shocked to hear about an inverted fanfret

 

[Xiphos7]

No, i call the lowest (pitch-wise) strings the bottom strings, that part was in the quote from the luthier.

 

[Hollowway]

No that's not it...And that's certainly not a cheap solution...

I found the thread:


http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ba...002-fosse-carbon-vina-bass-movable-frets.html

Actually I thought you were talking about removable magnetic FBs:



Not sure how well they stay on, but the concept is cool. There used to be a company called Novatone that would do that for you. You could have one fretless, one fretted, etc.

 

[Xiphos7]

Just another question, i've heard some really amazing tone from piezo pickups, anyone got any advice on whether they would be worth putting into the guitar? considering im spending $2100aud anyway?
I've been busy with the luthier working on the design, i'll put up (what seems will be close to the final design) after this post

 

[Xiphos7]

This is the latest design, although i just emailed him back, i think i might keep the grey background colour around the outside consistent over the whole body, or the black in the middle over the whole body. Hopes i'll be making an NGD in around 4 months