New fretboard

Well sometimes things go south no matter how careful you are. The ebony fretboard for the soprano reso was first in line to get the frets pressed in, and it couldn’t take it. Maybe the slots were too narrow, the saw might need some extra set. Or maybe the wood was brittle and short grained. Hard to tell when it’s black. 

First pic shows the underside, with bends at the two fret slots I started with. 

So I thought about ways to remedy this but decided that a new fretboard was the only way out, forward or wherever, but south. 

I chose lilac, the hardest wood species in Swedish nature. My friend Ludvig gifted me a trunk of unusual diameter, and I have used it for a number of fretboards.  First I planed it with my* Stanley no.6.

Then I scraped it with a cabinet scraper that was actually sharp and in good shape. 

Then I made one edge straight, also with the no.6, and slotted it on the wee Proxxon table saw. I marked out the width at the nut and 12th and made the taper. You see my no.5 in the background, I used that to hog off most of the material and finished with the number 6. 

For the inlay I came up with another symbol for twins, and routed it out with my Proxxon drill/router. 

And I had a lot of ebony leftover... so I made sticks to go into the channel. 

And shaped them. That was a bit fiddly. In the pic I’ve started glueing them in. 

And the end result, I think it turned out better than the the first one. The dots on 3, 5 and 7 are 2 mm pencil leads. I covered the dots with dabs of superglue, hopefully that will keep it from rubbing off on the fingers. 

*My father might disagree so don’t discuss the no.6 with him. 

Fretboard ends

Hi gang! (Both of you.) I have been busy on many weekends since it’s hunting season in Sweden, but some progress is made. Li really liked the concept I use for the fretboard ends on resos, so she ordered a similar style for her soprano. In the pic I’m roughing out the shape with a coping saw. 

And the end result*.



The walnut fretboard of the tenor wanted a wee slope on the middle part. Would you believe I’m just now getting used to files? After more than 40 years of neglect and lack of respect. 



I place fret dot markers, and let two of the rods go through and into the neck to stop the fretboard from sliding around when I glue it in place. 



*The pun is always intended. And often arrived at after hard work and deliberation. 

Inlays, and woes

I got cracking on the inlays. Li gets her name at the 12th fret, the resos get a symbol that will sort of go over the 12th. I routed out the channels with my Proxxon router. 

And the wee symbol I chose for the twins’ fretboards. I routed those freehand and they turned out ok. 



Then I mixed some milliput and filled the cavities. I’ve done that before with great results, it turns hard and sort of bone white. It’s supposed to harden in 12 hours...



... but that old shite had gone old and turned to, you guessed it, shite. Here I am digging it all out after a week or so. I’ve since proceeded to fill with another material. Can’t believe the limited shelf life, I mean what’s six years?!