Robert Irizarry

Thanks for the clarification.

For more information, see Novax Guitars and Doolin Guitar's tutorial Cutting A Fanned Fret Fretboard. Note that the design is patented and requires a licensing fee although I believe it only applies in the U.S.

Very nice work! Looks great.

Alright now. Here's some progress. I just finished flush trimming the body and doing a 5/16" roundover. I'm very happy with the overall results though I had my share of beginner issues. Here's a quick shot of it hot off the presses (sitting on my homemade router table): A bit tired. I'll have more on it tomorrow. edited 10.24.2006 - So here is a better image of the guitar body. It hasn't been sanded down and cleaned up yet. The bit of schmutz on the left side is some glue from a small repair I had to make when I ripped out a small section with the router during the flush trim phase. Overall, I'm pleased with the repair - it did not affect the lines of the body at all. Before I proceed with any further routing of the body, I'll be ordering up the materials in order to build a neck. I had thought of borrowing the neck of a low end Steinberger. However, I've been encouraged by my success so far so I'm going to give it a try. I'll also be working on a pickguard design. I don't particularly care for the pickguard on the Kleins and I've got some ideas that are best served by a full pickguard design - more on that at some later point. I picked up some french curves yesterday so I'll be starting this shortly. In addition, I'll be posting to my blog about this step and include some additional pictures and details. As always, I appreciate comments, suggestions, etc.

The whole conservation of movement ties right into the whole idea of developing proper muscle memory through attention to technique. One of the things that I struggled with during my first go round was the whole lack of information regarding approaches to technique. I actually took a few lessons from a rather well regarded school at the time. For example, I would be told "okay, this is how you finger the scale" without an explanation as to how to best approach it. The closest I got was "practice more" but practicing the wrong way only built bad technique which then made it harder to grow beyond beginning or intermediate stages. As I said before, I'm glad I found the material. I also want to say that Jaime's work has been a huge influence in getting me to think about ergonomics. I suffered from chronic back pain for a number of years and still did as I approached the guitar this time around. Jaime's emphasis on technique and form made me think about factors possibly contributing to my condition and ways to mitigate them. This launched me into very intense research into the topic of ergonomics and related subjects. Largely, my battle with back pain has been successful and I no longer suffer from the chronic back issues I once had.

I'm in a similar boat. As a matter of fact, I only recently returned to the guitar after a failed attempt in my early twenties (now approaching 40). I wish I had this material sooner.

I have it and I think its excellent. One of her major focuses is on guitar playing as a physical activity - one that requires you to train the body in specific ways in order to attain the necessary technique. Developing muscle memory and involving only necessary muscles are related important aspects. You may want to take a look around at the forum over on Jamie's site as well. It will help you develop a better idea about the material in the book.

Stew Mac carries pre-slotted fretboards in various radii including a compound radius (which I personally thought was cool).

Welcome! Project Guitar is a great place with some great people as well. I've learned a great deal here since joining in February 06. Take some time to look around and read. A lot of stuff has already been asked and you can oftentimes find it by just doing a quick search on the forum. I spent my first several weeks just reading...

I built a router table over the weekend so flush trimming the body is just around the corner...

sexybeast - Take a look at Anatomy of a TK. Luthier Todd Keehn uses a flat radius as standard on his guitars and has some comments to support his use of it. If anything, it serves as inspiration...

I'm hoping for some input from players with Fanned Frets on their guitars or basses. I've read in a few places that they are more comfortable to play but in what ways? What about a Fanned Frets neck makes it more comfortable? Does it lend itself to one particular fretting hand position over another? Any input is appreciated!

Sorry if things have been quiet - life has been a bit busy. However, I do expect to get some work done on flush trimming shortly. I'll post with further progress pics...

You could always throw carbon fiber with epoxy over the top like Parker Guitars does to prevent dents. That would toughen it up substantially while retaining the pine's light weight...

Very cool! I'll have to add your blog to my list of regulars. How'd you make the mockup image btw? I'm also a bit nervous about getting to the tummy cut stage in my own build...

Huh? What exactly happened?

Thanks Jaycee! I've been looking for that kind of detailed photograph on an asymmetrical neck...

Interesting enough idea but how do you "connect the dots"? That is, how do you drill the holes needed to run wiring among the components? Wow, eleventuple post. I don't know how you did it Robert, but for my continued sanity, try not to do it again!

As Drak points out, your choice of bridges will be the first challenge. Take a look at the guitars over at Black Machine. They use fixed bridges and their bodies are just a fraction over an 1" thick!

Unfortunately, there aren't very many options if you are trying to go headless AND spend as little as possible. It is far cheaper to build a conventional guitar. Short of rolling your own solution as pointed out by fryovanni's link, its going to cost some money. Musicyo.com sells Steinberger parts but does a poor job of keeping parts in stock. They can go months without parts. There are alternatives out there such as ABM and ETS but they are not cheap. I'm also in the process of building (attempting to build) a headless instrument - a guitar in my case. My current "solution" is to purchase one of the low end Steinbergers ($300 range but currently out of stock as well) and use its neck, bridge and headpiece. However, I've been investigating alternatives that could potentially cost less as well. Take a look at my blog posts Alternative Headless Guitar Design - TK Instruments and Alternative Headless Guitar Design - Soloette for a couple of designs that use conventional parts in an unconventional manner in order to achieve a headless design. These two designs may give you some ideas that might be applicable to a bass guitar. I also have a third such post in the works...

Lovely work and I like the body shape as well. Let's see some more!

Sounds great. Let me know if you can use additional pictures of the disassembled R-tremolo...

One way would be to use a Kahler type behind the nut locking mechanism which would allow you to make the nut anything you like. Thanks for the update!

This is too cool! I'm really excited to see this. I've been wondering about trying something like this as well. I'm just not quite at that point in my own build. This picture may help to clarify scottyd's work. Its one of several photos I took of my R tremolo when I decided to disassemble it a while back to better understand its workings. scottyd - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE continue to share your progress! Any details on how you went about making them?

Beautiful work and a cool thread over at talkbass.com! I was wondering about the fanned fret neck - how do you calculate the correct angles for the frets?