Day 4: The Fretboard - where the action is

Today was a short day so I set the soundbox aside and started work on the fretboard. The fretboard has to stand up to contact from fingers and steel strings, including the sideways bending of strings to achieve vibrato or a change in the pitch of a played note. The latter effect is characteristic of blues guitar. The fretboard material must therefore be hard and durable. Ebony and rosewood are the traditional choices. I selected one of three available African ebony blanks based upon subtle grain patterns and color variations which can only be seen upon close inspection.

Precise positioning of the frets is important, otherwise the guitar will not play in tune up and down the neck. The scale length in this case is going to be 25.4", and Chuck has a jig which is used to ensure the exact spacing required when cutting the slots in the fretboard. The ebony blank is stuck to the underside of a plexiglass template with two sided tape. This is placed on the jig which is then slid over the table saw with a 0.025 blade set to a height which will cut a slot part way through the fretboard. The plexiglass template is then shifted until the next notch mates with a pin on the jig and the process is repeated until all the slots are cut.

The sides of the fretboard are cut to a taper and small strips of ebony glued to each side so that the slots are not visible at the edges of the fretboard. This will give a pleasant smoothness and feel to the edges of the finished fretboard.

Classic guitar fretboards are flat, steel string guitar fretboards generally have a gentle curvature to them. Chuck doesn't do things by half. He makes fretboards with a compound curvature - 12" radius at the narrow end and 16" at the wide end. He has another jig for this of course. The fretboard is mounted on a cradle with double sided tape. This cradle rolls on two pieces of wood with the necessary curvature and a hand held router makes several passes over the fretboard as the cradle is moved and locked incrementally across the jig. When finished the fretboard has the desired curvature and the ebony bindings on the sides have blended in so that the fret slots appear to start and end within the fretboard.