Is this the stupidest use ever of fan frets?

[tauzero]

A Mobius Megatar 12-string with fan frets: https://auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/catalogue/lot/e53d7924c06085ff4c734b0b1af356dc/63b778f7668dabe928d3800924a99077/the-guitar-auction-four-day-sale-lot-42/

 

As it happens, I own (but can't play) a Megatar with the more rational parallel frets. How on earth are you supposed to play one with fan frets? And how would you string it as AFAIK all Megatar/Chapman Stick tunings have the bottom string in the middle of the fretboard? An idea whose time will never come. Unsurprisingly, it got left on the shelf at the auction.

 

[Woodinblack]

Indeed, that doesn't really make any sense. I assume thought that it isn't meant to be strung like a chapman stick?

[Stub Mandrel]

As a bass vi and a baritone guitar?

[Hellzero]

It could have been even more stupid: A fretless version...

[LowB_FTW]

2 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

It could have been even more stupid: A fretless version...

Fanned fretless?

 

Mark

[Hellzero]

Yep @LowB_FTW, and fanned fretless basses do exist: I saw a few.

[Paulhauser]

The normal (ie non-fanned) nut essentially negates the whole idea of multiscale?

I'm wondering if the dark grey thing is not a nut but a string guide and the first, fanned fret is a zero fret, then it's all good....I'm confused 🙂 
(if you zoom in you can see the cut slots for the strings on the "nut" )

[Woodinblack]

8 minutes ago, Paulhauser said:

I'm wondering if the dark grey thing is not a nut but a string guide and the first, fanned fret is a zero fret, then it's all good....I'm confused 🙂 

 

Yes, the first fret on a chapman style instrument would be the zero fret, as you can't tap an open string.

[tauzero]

On 12/09/2025 at 16:29, Woodinblack said:

Indeed, that doesn't really make any sense. I assume thought that it isn't meant to be strung like a chapman stick?

 

Probably - the thickest string is on the left rather than in the middle. But the hand on the bass side (assuming it isn't played with both hands on the treble side) has to cope with frets that are fanned in the wrong direction for the anatomy of the hand.

[Woodinblack]

Maybe it is meant to be played more like an NS:Stick, but then the fan frets make very little sense. I suspect it was one of those 'because I can' rather than 'because I should' instruments.

[andruca]

13 hours ago, Paulhauser said:

The normal (ie non-fanned) nut essentially negates the whole idea of multiscale?

I'm wondering if the dark grey thing is not a nut but a string guide and the first, fanned fret is a zero fret, then it's all good....I'm confused 🙂 
(if you zoom in you can see the cut slots for the strings on the "nut" )

 

If the 1st fret we see is a zero fret then those dots on fret 2 are misplaced, and confusing (should be 1 dot @ fret 3). Looks more like a mockup someone photoshopped, not a real life instrument, but apparently it's real.

Edited September 14 by andruca

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, andruca said:

Looks more like a mockup someone photoshopped, not a real life instrument, but apparently it's real.

more concerning is a lack of muting below the 0th fret

[snorkie635]

Last saw one of these being played at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

[Pea Turgh]

It’s tuned H to N

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, andruca said:

 

If the 1st fret we see is a zero fret then those dots on fret 2 are misplaced, and confusing (should be 1 dot @ fret 3). Looks more like a mockup someone photoshopped, not a real life instrument, but apparently it's real.

 

The dots are where they are on a standard Megatar, with dots on the second, 5th, and 7th frets. There should be some form of damping between the fret closest to the nut (which would be a zero fret) and the next one. And it's definitely real otherwise it wouldn't have been in the Gardiner and Houlgate auction.

 

Strangely, looking for an example of a Megatar that shows the damping, there's at least one other fan fret one in the wild, definitely a different one to the one in the auction: https://reverb.com/item/57475214-mobius-megatar-megatar-1997-black-brown which shows the damping.

 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, andruca said:

If the 1st fret we see is a zero fret then those dots on fret 2 are misplaced, and confusing (should be 1 dot @ fret 3). 

 

Although the numbers are irrelevant (there is no real standard for that), the chapman stick railboard have a fret marker on the 2nd fret (2, 7, 12, 17 - who knows why).