Switching scale lengths on fretless?

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Fretless Banjo Players

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A group for fretless players to exchange information and ideas.

309 Members, Created 1/28/2011 -

Administrators: Marc Nerenberg (owner)

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From retread on 1/19/2014 6:37:47 AM

I'm a rank beginner on the fretless, but having a lot of fun with it, and six months in at least my spouse no longer grabs for her car keys when I reach for the banjo.

I started very economically, with a little A-scale kit from Backyard Music (which I love), but I'm about ready to find a bigger (as in, somewhat louder, with a wood rim instead of a wood top) brother for it.

My question is this: will it tend to mess me up if I have fretless banjos with two different scale lengths, or is it no problem to switch back and forth between A-scale and G-scale? I guess an overlapping question would be, do you experienced players prefer one or the other, and why? I do find the A-scale very comfortable to play. (On the other hand, there's that nice Goodtime fretless...) Thanks very much for your thoughts.

5 Comments
	Strumelia says: 1/19/2014 7:22:03 AM If you play regularly, you will find your fingers learn to quickly adapt to playing on various fretless scales after less than a minute of playing. What seems odd now will soon become no big deal. In fact, a bonus of fretless playing is that you can slide the bridge up and down to accommodate a substantially higher or lower tunings and keys you may want to try out.
	Marc Nerenberg says: 1/19/2014 7:52:17 AM I have three fretless banjos with drastically different scale lengths (very tiny, medium and very large), and I've never experienced any need to adjust to the difference. I don't think we "remember" absolute lengths - what matters is the relationships between the positions of the various notes. The transitions between various instruments seems to me to be pretty much automatic.
	Dave Vinci says: 1/19/2014 9:22:39 AM I have 2 fretless banjos and the scale length is a wee bit different from one to the other. What I do is make a C chord and sound the strings and then adjust the position up or down the neck so it sounds right... then just trust your fingers, they remember where things are from there. Sounds a bit silly, but it really does seem to work. Try it. -Dave
	guywolff says: 1/20/2014 8:22:58 AM The way I find my way around different length fingerboards & when I move my bridge to play in A&D is by doing a few slides from the bottom string up to the note on the next string and so on across the strings . A few of those and your off ;you know where the intervals are on that banjo . If you get lost .Do the same in the tune to remind your fingers.A note you know you want ;just slide up to it from the string below . It helps to be in tune by the way .. Yours Guy
	retread says: 1/20/2014 8:59:29 AM Thank you all for the helpful replies! That clears that up. Yes, Guy, I agree - being in tune does help!
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