I have used nylon tie-wraps for a number of 2 and 3 stringer CBGs, and it works fairly well. I like tie-wraps because you don't have to commit to a fixed fret location... you can "tune" them by incrementally moving them up or down the neck and plucking the string while watching your digital tuner. The thing I don't like about them is that they mute the strings some what, and I suspect this muting problem will also exist for the mono-filament fishing-line fretting method described earlier in this thread.
Other advantages if tie-wraps:
1.) If you make a mistake locating a fret, it is simple to fix.
2.) It's easy to change the fretting on your instrument. If you want
to try the blues scale, or a dyatonic scale, or a chromatic scale, or
some pentatonic scale, it's a matter of moving, adding or removing
tie-wraps, and there is no re-working necessary on the neck or fretboard.
3.) You can color code them in a number of ways...
a.) If you can find 7 different color tie-wraps of the same size, can color code you
notes on a diatonically fretted neck. You'll need 12 different colors to color code
a chromatically fretted neck. I think that will be too difficult to find, unless you
happen to know some key person in the tie-wrap manufacturing industry. (f you
do, give him our names too.) Pentatonic scales will need just 5 colors.
b.) With black and white tie wraps, you can color code the major key notes with white,
and the accidentals in black (like a piano's keyboard). This will help diatonicaly
"stuck" people make the leap to chromatic scales a bit easier by giving him or her
"training wheels". Also, playing the black frets (the accidental notes) may be a
Now that I have looked at the first picture of my previous post a bit closer, I see that it is just a close up photo of the front side of the neck, not the back side. Sorry about that.
Oh, I've seen this idea before on "The Uncle Bob Guitar Project" website. It looks to be an easy way of fretting an instrument, but I haven't personally tried it. Here are a couple photos from the UncleBob site:
Above, the backside of the neck, showing how the fishing-line fret wire is wound to each next fret position.
And here is the front side of the same neck, showing the sound box as well. More details on fretting can be found about half way down the page on this page of their web site. If you have done this before, how well does it work / play?
Hi all, about those fishing line frets, attach a small screw & washer in the back of the neck above the nut to hold the end of the line. After marking the fret spacings on the neck file a small ' v ' at the edge of the top side of the fret board & wind the line into these, when you get to the end have another small screw & washer to wind around, then tighten the screw to hold it. It is very simple really. Get a copy of Wfret or Fret calculator off the net, these are free programs that will give you any scale length you want & print out the fret marking spaces to transfer to the neck. Hope this helps, I will post some pics later of the fret winding, bye
Comments
I have used nylon tie-wraps for a number of 2 and 3 stringer CBGs, and it works fairly well. I like tie-wraps because you don't have to commit to a fixed fret location... you can "tune" them by incrementally moving them up or down the neck and plucking the string while watching your digital tuner. The thing I don't like about them is that they mute the strings some what, and I suspect this muting problem will also exist for the mono-filament fishing-line fretting method described earlier in this thread.
Other advantages if tie-wraps:
1.) If you make a mistake locating a fret, it is simple to fix.
2.) It's easy to change the fretting on your instrument. If you want
to try the blues scale, or a dyatonic scale, or a chromatic scale, or
some pentatonic scale, it's a matter of moving, adding or removing
tie-wraps, and there is no re-working necessary on the neck or fretboard.
3.) You can color code them in a number of ways...
a.) If you can find 7 different color tie-wraps of the same size, can color code you
notes on a diatonically fretted neck. You'll need 12 different colors to color code
a chromatically fretted neck. I think that will be too difficult to find, unless you
happen to know some key person in the tie-wrap manufacturing industry. (f you
do, give him our names too.) Pentatonic scales will need just 5 colors.
b.) With black and white tie wraps, you can color code the major key notes with white,
and the accidentals in black (like a piano's keyboard). This will help diatonicaly
"stuck" people make the leap to chromatic scales a bit easier by giving him or her
"training wheels". Also, playing the black frets (the accidental notes) may be a
good introduction to pentatonic scales.)
-Rand.
Now that I have looked at the first picture of my previous post a bit closer, I see that it is just a close up photo of the front side of the neck, not the back side. Sorry about that.
-Rand.
Oh, I've seen this idea before on "The Uncle Bob Guitar Project" website. It looks to be an easy way of fretting an instrument, but I haven't personally tried it. Here are a couple photos from the UncleBob site:
-Rand.