Fret size & sliding into a note

AK99

I always liked the Neil Geraldo solo on the Rick Springfield Jesse's Girl, but could never manage to get the sliding into a note parts, or indeed the sliding double-stops, to sound anyway decent.

Came across a tutorial video which recommended using your thumb to anchor your hand between slides, which helped greatly, but I still struggled in terms of losing notes as they got damped somewhere mid-slide.

By a random coincidence, was noodling on my old Aria Pro ZZ yesterday, which must have the smallest frets known to mankind... and tried the solo - and lo and behold the slides started to work (almost) perfectly

Is that a thing - jumbo frets are much harder to use for slides and best avoided, or is it just one needs to practice harder and  longer and just figure it out ?

Lewy

You can slide fine with big frets. You may just need to adjust your touch.

Some people do find it hard to adapt their physical approach to the instrument though and that has them ruling out certain specs including fret size. Personally I think that’s a bit of a slippery slope and adaptability is a worthy skill to develop.

For example, some people will say that a neck slightly thinner than their favourite has them in agony with cramping up. Some other people can switch from guitar, to mandolin to upright bass without any issues. They just don’t expect the instrument to bend to them

AK99

Lewy said:

You can slide fine with big frets. You may just need to adjust your touch.

The smaller frets give me the impression that you need less pressure to hold the note and avoid damping when you slide up a fret or two - whereas with the bigger frets, it seems to me that you have to press much harder to stop the note dying.

Wondering if that actually is the case ?

Lewy

AK99 said:

Lewy said:

You can slide fine with big frets. You may just need to adjust your touch.

The smaller frets give me the impression that you need less pressure to hold the note and avoid damping when you slide up a fret or two - whereas with the bigger frets, it seems to me that you have to press much harder to stop the note dying.

Wondering if that actually is the case ?

I just had a quick go on a guitar with vintage tall frets, one with jumbo frets and one with a scalloped neck with super jumbo frets and couldn’t feel or hear any difference in either the amount of pressure or the sustain. 

viz

Hmm. I have the 3rd option. Jumbo frets help me to sustain notes. 

Fingers657

I’ve got to admit I’ve grown to like jumbo stainless steel frets over the last year or two .
Fingers just glide over them with decent strings.
They don’t pit or scratch like thin or medium jumbo frets made from other metals.

AK99

Found this on a reddit post:

Vintage will typically give you the best tone. As you fret the note you will be bending the string less and give a more consistent tuning, but you need to play right on the fret. Fret buzz will hound you. Bending notes is challenging. Jumbo's are the easiest to play as you can put your finger anywhere between the frets and you won't get any fret buzz. Due to the height, they are also the easiest to get loud "hammer on" (trill) notes. Awesome for bending. Bad news is due to the height, sliding is harder on your fingers and not as smooth. Medium Jumbos are the "right in the middle" fret height. Good sounds from "hammer on's" (trills), you have a good amount of room to put your fretting finger without fret buzz, and string slides are not too hard on the fingers. Also string bends work well. It seems they each have their place. Medium is usually considered the best all around players fret. Typically found on most Strats and Les Pauls, etc. Jumbos are great for beginners (easy to fret), fast blues (hammer time), and tunes with lots of distortion (Metal).Usually found on beginner guitars and specialty units. Smaller frets are given the name "Vintage" for a reason. They work, but are harder to play. Not too popular any more

Don't know how experienced the chap/lady is - but they do seem to be articulating the same problem re sliding between notes with taller frets.