Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, finally got the correct FB (Thanks John!!)

Everything dryfits nicely. (Again, if anybody lives within a 100 miles of Huntsville, AL, and has a binding slot cutter, please contact me).

This FB is different from others I have seen. The fret slots are "pocket" cut (they do not go all the way across the FB. John has explained this to me. Just wonderiing about the experience level out there with this design.

Mike

Were the slots cut that way or were they cut first and binding added to the sides?

No side binding. Just "pocket" cut. John told me that Martin is doing it that way now.

NBD. Was just wondering if any otheres had worked with this new design.

Mike

If you're talking about blind slots, then Kevin Ryan and Ron Thorn have both been using that style of slot on all their guitars for a long time. I haven't found anyone using the idea before Ron, so I'm pretty sure he was the first to use it. I don't think you can get much better endorsement in either the acoustic or electric worlds than those two.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

This is the kind of fret board that John Watkins offers and he calls faux bound. Saint Lutherie also offers these and in both cases they are CNC made from one, solid fret board blank.

I have used them a bunch of times now and think that they are great. You have to cut your frets just as you would for a bound board, nipping off the tang at both ends. The Stew-Mac fret tang nipper is what I use and there was a thread here a while back with some other alternatives mentioned.

BTW IMHO the solid outer edge seems to produce less back bow after fretting by providing a board that is not slotted all the way through.

It's interesting that Martin went to these - CNC proliferation at Martin.

Makes sense. I will post a pic of it tonight for those who are unsure of what I am talking about.

If you sliced off two strips, one from each side of the fingerboard, prior to cutting the fret slots (on a table saw or fret saw/miter box), then carefully glued the sliced off strips back on afterwards, wouldn't you end up with exactly the same strength FB as a CNC milled one? Perhaps even stronger, given the glue joint? If done carefully, the joints would be virtually undetectable, surely? This is how I plan to do it when I want FB's with a monotonic look.

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Dave buddy that is essentially a bound fretboard and I agree the benefits are the same, but the work required is not. These faux bound fret boards come completely ready to use, radiused, bound, etc. But OTH you have no choice for the binding beyond the fret board material.

Before I tried the faux bound boards I always bound my boards even ebony with ebony because I like the cleaner look and no fret slot ends to fill.

Binding a board will not give you the same effect unless you also cut the slots to match the radius of the board. The arc of wood left under the frets adds significantly to the stiffness of the board. So you'd need to radius the board, use another jig to cut radius-matching slots, and then bind it.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services