Different vibrola Chet used

[bill raymond]

Most modern fretboards are laid out using the same formula Sloane used for his ruler. Gibson, however, has used a different, less accurate--but still passable--formula known as the rule of 18; the first fret distance is 1/18th of the total scale length, the second fret space is 1/18th of the scale length minus the first fret spacing, et c. The 12th root of 2, which give an accurate spacing, uses the divisor 17.817. Gibson, for some reason, starts out laying out their fretboards with an inaccurate formula, then often compound the error when tooling errors occur.

[Mike Nye]

Most modern fretboards are laid out using the same formula Sloane used for his ruler. Gibson, however, has used a different, less accurate--but still passable--formula known as the rule of 18; the first fret distance is 1/18th of the total scale length, the second fret space is 1/18th of the scale length minus the first fret spacing, et c. The 12th root of 2, which give an accurate spacing, uses the divisor 17.817. Gibson, for some reason, starts out laying out their fretboards with an inaccurate formula, then often compound the error when tooling errors occur.

I don't know, but I've been told . . . that there are CAD programs with solutions that if the length of scale is imputed from nut to bridge, fret positions are accurate to within +/- 2Hz throughout the entire scale of a razor-straight fingerboard.

[Norm]

It would be interesting to know if Gretsch used the older 'rule of 18' when the '59 was made. Guitar fretboards, by their very nature, cannot be made to play perfectly in tune but Chet seemed reasonably content with his '59 (except for the slight modification at the fretnut. He favored that guitar for over twenty years.


The gibson guitar on page 149 in mamg, the one with all the violin fine tuners on the Bigsby harp strings, indicate an unhappy guitar, one that its owner felt he had to resort to gadgets (effective as they might have been) to make it tune better.

I suppose Chet's ear might have been more sensitive to whether a guitar was in tune or not as he got older. That's one of those questions we will neve know.

Paul mentioned once that their road guitars had a lot of dings and such but the scars and wear on the gibson on page 149 seems excessive. Like I said, it doesn't look like a happy guitar and it is the only one that shows that much wear and tear if, indeed, that's all it is...

[Mike Nye]

It would be interesting to know if Gretsch used the older 'rule of 18' when the '59 was made. Guitar fretboards, by their very nature, cannot be made to play perfectly in tune but Chet seemed reasonably content with his '59 (except for the slight modification at the fretnut. He favored that guitar for over twenty years.


The gibson guitar on page 149 in mamg, the one with all the violin fine tuners on the Bigsby harp strings, indicate an unhappy guitar, one that its owner felt he had to resort to gadgets (effective as they might have been) to make it tune better.

I suppose Chet's ear might have been more sensitive to whether a guitar was in tune or not as he got older. That's one of those questions we will neve know.

Paul mentioned once that their road guitars had a lot of dings and such but the scars and wear on the gibson on page 149 seems excessive. Like I said, it doesn't look like a happy guitar and it is the only one that shows that much wear and tear if, indeed, that's all it is...

I'd heard from someone years ago that Chet had Gretsch send his guitars either without fingerboards or without fret slots cut . . .

[Eddie Estes]

I think from what I sort of picked up from hearing Paul talk is that both he and Chet were always
on the lookout for things to make a guitar better.
Let's face it no guitar plays perfect in every key. That is why they use a tempered tuning.
The best guitars get really close.

Experimenting is something everybody does. I think Chet and Paul and Ray Butts
were always trying to improve things. Just like Sam Kennedy is now with his pickups.

[Norm]

I'd heard from someone years ago that Chet had Gretsch send his guitars either without fingerboards or without fret slots cut . . .
'

I think if that had been the case Paul would have said something about it. If you think about it that really makes no sense and if you've ever refretted a guitar yourself you know what a labor intensive chore that can be. The idea that (as implied) Chet cut his own slots or had them done by an aftermarket builder doesn't make a lot of sense. I did a refret once and cannot imaging tackling actually cutting the slots and doing the job. Just the refret was a lot of work.

Paul said Chet held onto his main '59 because the fingerboard played better than the usual Gretsch guitars. After that he seemed to give most of what they sent him away.

I think most guitarists imagine "what if" and Chet had two guitar companies willing to make him whatever he wanted.

It might be interesting to try a fretless guitar but they would be extremely hard to play accurately.

He did have Gibson send him a guitar with no frets and may have had Gretsch send him one, too. He used the fretless Gibson (possibly on the Bottom Line show) but not to any great extent that I'm aware of.

It is easy to see how asking Gibson to provide him with an experimental fretless to that expanding to " Chet had Gretsch send his guitars either without fingerboards or without fret slots cut." through a few retellings.

I remember one guy saying "Chet Never recorded using Gretsch guitars but Always recorded using Fenders." He, of course, had heard this from 'somebody in the business."

I ain't saying he never had guitars sent by Gretsch minus frets or fingerboards, I'm just saying it's not likely.

Just making conversation here...