I'm on vacation in FL right now visiting a friend who is a guitar/uke luthier. He's putting the finishing touches right now on his first fanned fret guitar, and it got me thinking that fanned frets could be a good solution on tenor banjos and tenor guitars to help minimize that floppy G string.
We're talking of possibly building me a tenor guitar like this. The scale at the E string would be around 19.5 to 20 inches, and the scale at the G would be around 22 to 22.5 inches.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Especially any possible complications that could arise with this configuration?

PS here's a photo of myself testing out his new guitar last night:

Funny, the photo gives an almost Escher-like perspective. My eye wants to see the frets as straight and the neck twisted in some sort of weird twist.

Never had the experience of playing one of those, though.

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Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips

Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.

I'll see about getting a better photo of the guitar. It's really cool... It has an integral cocobolo armrest that's not visible in the photo.

Dave Ogden (C&F member daveogden) has one.
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Well, the wife put her foot down on a new instrument. She even went so far as to say it's stupid to want or need more than one whistle. So I guess you'll be seeing a Burke, Busman, Milligan, and some Freemans soon FS.

Any shoes coming up for sale?

I played guitar for 25 years on the same single instrument before I suddenly realized it's actually perfectly fine to own more than one guitar (there was this guy who said "You only live once and then you'll be dead for a long, long time"). Owning more guitars (large, small, nylon, steel, 12-string, 6-string) got me out of the 25-year no-progress rut. I learned more about music and guitar playing the next four years than during all of the previous 25 years, and it just continued over the following years. Bought another one some months ago and its different character made me try to play differently, and I'm now a better player than I was half a year ago. I recently got back to one of the first 'extra' guitars I bought 15 years ago (a small travel-sized acoustic) and it excels at certain styles played in certain rooms. I could apply what I recently learned to that old guitar.

Getting out of the 'one instrument is enough and all you shall ever need' idea was the best thing I ever did.

A spouse should not even think of having a say in what his/her partner needs or wants in the area of interest of said partner, as long as the economy is there. I wouldn't dream of trying to stop my gf from buying whatever she wants and can afford. Ten harps? Go for it! If and when she asks for advice when having to choose I give it, but that's it.

-Tor

My wife has three so far, I've gladly paid for them all. I've never ever regretted spending money on music (especially instruments). To paraphrase an old saw, music will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no music.

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Deartháir don phaidir an port.

Tor wrote : ... my experience (almost) exactly. The recent introduction of an old banjolele to the household has revived and renewed a whole catalogue of half-forgotten tunes ... and encouraged the subsequent purchase of a mandolin ... and encouraged an interest in finally learning clawhammer banjo ... and so it goes on ... ENJOY

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"I'm playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order."

How many handbags are enough, I wonder?

Any wife coming up for sale?


Putting one's foot down on a new instrument is one thing (if you share money), but making a musician sell their instruments is just pure evil!

I love my wife. I am not allowed to buy any instruments that are incompatible with me singing while I play an instrument. I love wind instruments.

I'm glad MTGuru pointed out the Escher like quality of the picture. I would have never known what was going on.

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Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
白飞梦

I think fanned frets are a gimmick because the actual scale extension for the basses is so small. Besides, many stretches are not made easier by the fanning, so you might as well just get a long scale guitar instead.

Notice that all the four-fifths instruments (violins, violas, cellos, mandolins) have straight necks. Even though it would be very easy to make a "fanned fret" violin, especially since you don't actually need to fan the frets!