Acoustic fanfrets - anyone play standard tuning?

mikew · February 2021

Does anyone own one and play predominantly in standard tuning? I like the idea but haven’t got sucked into alternate tuning yet.

GTC · February 2021

I don't own one but I did have an extensive try out on one of Alan Miller's excellent hand made fan frets - mainly using standard. I was surprised how normal and comfortable it felt compared to a conventional parallel fret guitar. Lower fret left-hand stretches (actually right hand for me because I'm left-handed - as was the model I tried) - e.g. spanning 6th string first fret and 1st string 5th fret - were a bit more challenging though

steveh · February 2021

I've played loads and, ultimately, arrived at the point where I think the fan is a gimmick.
If you want to change the feel, the alternative is to change the string gauge rather than the scale length, i.e. use a heavier low E rather than increasing the scale length and using a standard gauge.
Given string gauges generally available, I'm not sure I'd wanrt to play much in standard on a fan, unless very slight (in which case what's the point?).

I have liked loads that I've played but I think that's because most have been great guitars rather than because they are fanned per se.
I've also not been "tripped up" as often as I thought I would.
However, getting a luthier to make a fan costs a fair bit more and, ultimately, I don't think it's worth it.
As ever YMMV.

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Acoustic fanfrets - anyone play standard tuning?

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