NOVAX ® FANNED-FRET ®
INSTRUMENTS
WINNER
Industrial Design Award, 1992
The Fanned Fret Concept
The NOVAX ® Fanned-Fret ® concept evolved from a desire to
produce an instrument with balanced tone and string tension. As a guitar player
and professional repair technician with extensive experience, Ralph Novax had
grown dissatisfied with the performance of instruments as they existed. Lack of
definition in the lower frequencies, harsh, percussive trebles, and general
"muddiness" of tone seemed pervasive, even when the performance of these
instruments was optimized. Experimenting with composite materials and
state-of-the-art electronics only made matters worse by highlighting these
problems. Ralph's repair experience led him to examine scale length as a
possible solution.
What Is Scale Length
The vibrating length of the string (the "scale length") is
determined by the "nut" and the bridge "saddle." Fret placement is a
ratio based on scale length so longer scales have more distance
between frets.
Why Is Scale Length Important
Scale
Length influences both the tonal quality of the notes produced and
the tension of the string at a particular pitch. The tonal effects
of scale length are crucial to the final tone of the instrument.
Woods, hardware, and electronics act as "filters" to string tone.
They do not produce tone of their own and only modify input from the
vibrating string. If particular harmonics are very strong, or
altogether absent, those characteristics will be present in the
final tone of the instrument.
Why
Fanned Frets
The "fanning" of the
frets results from manipulating the scale length of the bass side of
the neck relative to the treble side: the fret spacing is wider for
the long scale and closer for the short scale.
Looking inside a grand piano,
or at a harp, we see that the string lengths vary with the pitches
of the strings. But fretted instruments are traditionally
constructed to a single scale length, negating the benefits of scale
length relative to pitch. Since there are relatively few strings on
most stringed instruments, compromises are made and string gauges
are manipulated for workable results. Players, accustomed to the
compromises of single scale-length construction, are often
pleasantly surprised by the richness and clarity of Fanned-Fret ®
instruments. When the fanned-fret concept is applied to the
six-string guitar, the resulting instrument has a "focused" sound -
clear, articulate and balanced. Some players say "more in tune" or
"more accurate."
One of the real advantages of
the Fanned-Fret ® concept lies in its application to instruments like
the seven-string guitar, eight-string guitar, five-string bass,
six-string bass, baritone guitar, and mandolin. The range of tunings
and number of strings force compromises that make these instruments
poor performers or even impractical when constructed with the
traditional single scale-length. The fanned-fret concept addresses
those problems and makes these instruments playable and practical.
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