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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Finishing the Fingerboard

So a few posts ago I cut the slots in the fingerboard. Now it needs to be tapered to the correct shape bound and the marker dots and frets installed.

It is rough tapered on the band saw and fine tuned with a apron plane or a block plane whichever is handy.

Then the fingerboard is bound, I am not a big fan of the look of unbound fingerboards, I don't like seeing the fret tangs, I know it is common in classical guitars but not something I like. Usually I use a contrasting wood for binding but this time since I am keeping the decoration simple I just used some 1mm strips of ebony I had ripped off the fingerboard before slotting.

The dots are installed and finally the frets.. With a bound fingerboard the tangs of the frets must be removed from the end of the fret where it overhangs the binding as there is no sot in the binding to receive the tang. There are special made nippers to do this or various contraptions to hold the fret while you file off the tang (nippers don't work on stainless frets) But I just took some cheaper common nippers and ground a slot in them so the fret sits flat

A half done fret and nippers,
you can just see the slot ground into the bad of the nippers

Close up of fret

Completed fingerboard with gold mother of pearl marker dots



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