Source for pre-slotted bass fingerboard

[Alexander Higgins]

I'm looking for a bubinga or reddish rosewood (african?) Pre-slotted fingerboard for a 32.5" scale bass. Most of the online vendors stock or make more typical 34" scale. It looks like I could have one custom made through LMI, but they don't list 32.5" as available. They do radius sanding also. Any other leads out there?

[David King]

You could lop the first fret position off a 34" scale board and get 32.25" or so. I can do 32, 33 34, 34.5, 35 and 36. I've never heard of a 32.5". How did you come up with that? I'd suggest DIY starting with fretfind2d and a simple miter-box and gents saw with .024" kerf.

[Alexander Higgins]

Dave
I screwed up, its actually a 33.25" scale used by only one Famously Litigious American Manufacturer, near as I can see. I can't find anyone who has that as a standard scale length for pre-slotted fingerboards, emailed LMII to see if they can do it. Assuming i want to keep the bridge where it is, is there any reason I couldn't just switch to a 34" scale length and add one or two frets at the body end? Its 20 frets now, why not 21? That would give me a ton of choices on fretboard makers.

[Peter Wilcox]

I don't know if I understand your question correctly. If you are going to switch to a 34" scale, that means the distance between the nut and the saddle has to be 34". If you are going to leave the bridge where it is, that means you'll have to make the neck 3/4" longer. You can't use a 34" scale fretboard for a 33.25" scale length - it won't play in tune. If you want to make a 34" fretboard shorter, you have to cut it at the first fret giving a scale of 32.092, or the 2nd fret with a scale of 30.291. Then, of course, you have to make the neck shorter.

As David says above, I too would suggest you make your own fret board - it's not that hard. I use a cheap Harbor Freight saw - mine has a kerf of 0.022", and although it's a little flexible, it works fine for me.
http://www.harborfreight.com/japanese-f ... 39273.html

[David King]

You can also choose a 35" scale to lop the first fret off of getting you to 33 or so.

[Alexander Higgins]

Since this will be my first full build, im trying to balance my ambition against lack of practical experience. I figured on using a pre-cut and pre-radiused fingerboard. Its probably cheaper than having to buy a fret saw and radius sanding block, though I still might need one to level frets. If I can't find one in the odd 33.25" scale, I was considering extending it to 34", which seems to be readily available. I get that means the neck would get 3/4" longer, which doesn't seem like a big deal.

[Mark Wybierala]

I've done what the folks above are describing to acquire shorter scale bass fingerboards. Please be sure that you understand the basis of fret scales. There is a lot of flexibility in selecting a scale length but there are some rules that are not at all flexible.

It may be that to avoid a potential problem, you ought to draw out your plans in full scale which was one of the greatest tips I ever got from this forum many years ago.

You can use any scale measurement that you want and the fret scale calculator at Stewmac works great but you absolutely must understand the rules of fret scale that are not flexible. Everything must continue to have a calculated measurement relationship to the bridge which will change with the slightest change to the fret scale of the neck and exactly where the heel of the neck ends (Nut to heel measurement). If you understand what I'm saying then there is not a problem. If you don't, then you need to get a better grasp on the implications of fret scales or you'll find yourself with a lot of wasted labor and materials. ...no insult intended.

[Jedi Clampett]

find a local guitar maker to build one for you, I bet many people on the mimf forum would be glad to make one for you, just ask

[Alexander Higgins]

Thanks for advice, all. A forum member PM'd me and offered his services to cut a slotted fingerboard at 33.25" scale, I may well take him up on it.

On a broader note, I'm trying to decide on best sequence for the fingerboard. I want it to be bound with fret ends over the binding (no "nibs" up onto fret ends), so I'm wondering if it makes sense to just get a flat pre-slotted board and radius it myself. I'd have to sand the binding down to radius anyway. I've seen some builders online who make the whole fingerboard, complete with binding and frets, position dots, etc. and then glue that to the neck as an assembly. I've read that this is risky as the frets tend to backbow the fretboard as they are hammered in, but the advantage for a beginner like me would be that if I screw up the fingerboard, I won't have to pry it off the neck. Opinions?

[David King]

If your fret tangs are sized correctly to your slots, the backbow is temporary. You simply have to flex the board forward to drive the fret barbs into the sides of the slots. This is standard procedure after any fret job before wicking glue under the frets.

[John Catto]

Fretting the board before it's glued on is one of those things you'll never get anyone to agree on. I always do Gibson style "nubs" on bound fingerboards so it's part and parcel of the procedure of doing that, nowadays I do unbound boards that way too. I was terrified the first time I did it (with a Les Paul replica), I suspected all kinds of things would happen,. When I finally did it it, it revolutionised my neck building. If you think about it before you fret/glue up your neck blanks flat (or should be), your fingerboard's flat, so assuming the frets go in solidly and you glue the fingerboard down properly nothing should change. After fretting the fingerboard will have a slight upward bow, it's slight and you can press it flat with your little finger, that's all. If you leave it for a few weeks even that will mostly go away.

This used to be the de-facto way that companies did the fingerboard, Gibson, Gretsch Martin Hofner etc. etc. all did it like that. I'm always inclined to say that fretting after the boards glued on (along with all the accompanying levelling of the board etc. is very much an approach that comes from guitar repair rather than scratch building. People who come from repair and have done hundreds of refrets and so on just think that way. As I said in another thread I use titebond for fingerboards and have never had the problems people report (this is with usually Brazilian or Ebony boards). Occasionally I'll have a tiny bit of up-bow directly after glue-up but it's always gone in a few days and ancient history by the time the finish is done and buffed out.

[Keith VanDen Heuvel]

John, I am not sure I follow - you do unbound fingerboards with the "nibs"? Could you elaborate a bit? Is more of the process or the finished product? I am interested in seeing an example.

Thanks, your comments are always insightful.

[John Catto]

Ah, no (how would that work!?) but I do fret unbound boards off the guitar then glue them onto the neck. Usually that's after the neck has been fitted and glued in. I only mentioned it because there's only really a procedural reason to do it with a bound neck with nubs. It's still simpler (to me anyway) to do an unbound neck that way as well. I'll see if I can find any pics of the procedure else I'll detail it in a bit.

[Mark Wybierala]

John, I think your assessment of fretting practices is probably fairly true between builders and builders who come from a repair background. I've done two major construction classes with professionals and both fretted on the fretboard prior to gluing it to the neck. I, on the other hand fret fully completed necks and one of my initial goals when I began building was to build one-piece maple necks Fender style. It just became routine for me to glue fingerboards in place prior to fretting. There are some very cool advantages to fretting prior to gluing. I sometimes even forget that it can be done the other way and in some aspects it can be easier. I should revisit this.

I do not enjoy refretting Gibsons with nibs but I've done it a few times. Doing it from scratch is much more fun and easy.

[Alexander Higgins]

Another advantage of fretting prior to gluing the fingerboard onto the neck would seem to be the ease of working against a flat surface without having to worry about supporting the neck while pressing in frets. I think I will go this route. Thanks all.

[David King]

As long as you use a caul on the fret side when you glue the fingerboard on all should be forgiven. No caul and 40 pounds of clamps on the neck can give unpredictable results.

[John Catto]

I use a caul (read as sanding block) at the body joint end. After trying everything under the sun I realised I get the best results using a heavy duty zip tie at every fret more or less. It applies huge amounts of pressure, centers the fingerboard on the neck, keeps the sides locked down AND, most important, I can see what I'm doing. When I'm done I cut them off. I know Stewmac sells something similar but (maybe) purpose built (they're sort if like plastic pipe clamps) but honestly regular zip ties work just as well.

[David King]

John, do you have some sort of a zip-tie tightener pliers gizmo to get them tight enough? It's hard for me to imagine that you could get 100psi with those as I imagine that they'd stretch. Maybe they come pre-stretched or maybe the ones you're using are a whole lot beefier than what I'm used to seeing.

[John Catto]

I just use vice-grips to pull them tight. The StewMac things have a little wheel that tightens them, I wonder how much leverage you get going with that but the pressure is shared over all of them http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Clamp.html . Spread over the full width of the board I think this actually seems to be generating more even pressure than other clamping methods I've used. It certainly works.

[John Catto]

Don't know if you've ever heard this but in the old (70s) BC Rich workshop they used to do it with rope! Just start winding it around tight and go from end to end. Apparently this is how all the Mexican luthiers who worked there learned to do it building acoustics. They also had these big home-made knives that they used for shaping the necks.