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.
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
Rand Moore
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.
Dec 31, 2010
Rand Moore
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.
Dec 31, 2010
Henry Strat-o-varius Lowman
Feb 10, 2011