Half semitones fretboard

[Eugen C]

Hello again

I have a request from a customer - he wants me to refret his bass and add frets between the existing ones to be able to fret half semitones notes.

How can I calculate the fret spacing?

I searched the web and I found this:

http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/

If I put "24" in the "Calculation method" field it will solve my problem?

Thank you

[Ron Ellison]

I suspect that that would give you two octaves of normal spacing. I did a spread sheet to calculate fret spacing and used 17.81715 as the divisor which gave me the most accurate measurement at the twelfth fret. If you use 35.15 as the divisor you get 24 frets to the half string length. Is this any use?

[Fred Quarrie]

Have you suggested to your customer that he should try a fretless bass?

[Jeffrey L. Suits]

Or that he's insane?

[Eugen C]

:D

He already has a fretless one, I think that he is just.... different ;)

[Jeff Highland]

http://windworld.com/features/tools-resources/exmis-fret-placement-...

Use 24 tones to the octave

[Eugen C]

Thank you, very good link :)

[Paul Verticchio]

The first thing that went through my head when I saw this post was "Just what we need; twice as many  chances for a bassist to play in the wrong key or out of tune." (:

At least intonation won't be a problem. With half step frets, the half steps will always be out of tune.

If your friend could clarify something for me: What would the note be that's fretted at the 9th fret (on the new half step neck)? Would it be a C sharp & a half? Is that used very often in Western (hemisphere) music?

All comments made in kind jest & for grins only. (:

[Kerry Krishna]

I actually had a fretboard like this one built for a J-200 clone that I owned for years. It was a LOT of trouble to get it all together, and lessons learned were many. One was ,past the 12th fret, the fretwire HAD to get thinner and thinner.

 In the end, I had one gent who was able to actually play the thing, no one else could, including me. 

[John]

Sometime in the mid 80's I had a Turkish customer that wanted quarter tone frets in his guitar however he only wanted 3 it has something to do with the Saz having quarter tones in the same places. He had me put them between the 2nd and 3rd the 4th and 5th and the 6th and 7th frets. I happened to have a book with the measurements although later on he told me it didn't really matter, the quarter tones were passing notes and they didn't sound in tune to him either. Over the next few months I had several other guys come in to get the same thing done. After the first one it was easy money and very happy customers.

[Eugen C]

I think that my customer plays oriental music.

[Paul Verticchio]

"I think that my customer plays oriental music."

Now that makes sense to me (not hat it needed to). Like Kerry said, I've 'seen' a few guitars with this type of mod; just never a bass.

Does your customer have a website where we will be able to hear your "customized" results?  I really enjoy Asian flavored music.

Best regards,

Paul

[Eugen C]

I don't think that he has a web site.

And "oriental" in this part of the world (Eastern Europe) is more of "turkey music" or arabian music.