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I am preparing an Ebony Fingerboard for a classical guitar. I am having difficulty tapering the fingerboard because it is not perfectly flat.

Is it absolutely necessary to taper the fingerboard? Cumpiano mentions that it creates a geometric ralation to the bridge, or something to that effect.

Is it necessary? If so, any advise would be great.

Thanks

_________________
Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

I assume you're talking about a taper on the top, and not the side-to-side taper. I have built plenty of classicals without a taper, however the key if you don't have a taper is to make sure your neck angle is set correct otherwise your action could be way off.

One thing to consider, your plane must be extremely sharp to plane correctly, and ebony is very dense and hard so this is critical. Make sure your plane is sharp enough to shave hair with. If you are having difficulty using the hand plane, you could always make a large sanding block. StewMac sells some nice heavy pieces of steel and sandpaper for fret leveling. This would also work very well at sanding the fretboard.

Good luck!

John

I emailed Cumpiano about a year ago and asked him about this. He builds his classical necks in the same plane as the top--no set. Instead he tapers his fingerboards. If you build on a solera with a set (Courtnall)you don't need to taper.

Doug,

I think you are talking about a taper from the nut down to the guitar end of the fretboard. The nut end would thicker than the guitar end for example. If this is correct then no taper necessary unless you for some reason have too big a gap at the bridge location and you can't get the saddle low enough for the correct action at the 12th fret. Or, if you have a neck angle built into your construction method that requires a fretboard taper. If this is the case then as John mentioned you must have a very sharp plane or you could use a sanding board with 60 or 80 grit paper on it to do the job. I have had ebony fretboards that gave me no trouble when planing and then I have had others that couldn't be planed at all and I had to use the sanding method. Get yourself a piece of hard wood about a foot long and a couple of inches thick. The width could be around the size of your feetboard or a little less. Run it across the joiner one time to get it nice and flat and then glue a piece of rough grit paper to it. This will give you a taper in no time flat.
On your next guitar, calculate the taper and or thickness needed of your fretboard before gluing it on the neck. Then you can shim one end as you run it through a thickness sander or planer to get the measurement needed. This is much easier then doing it on the guitar.
Hope this info helps.
Good luck.
    

Thanks guys. On my first, I had to reverse my taperering efforts to get 3/16" at the saddle location (an absolute pain in the arse). I remembered this, which was easy , and today I clamped the fingerboard (5/16" thick) to the neck shaft and measured the gap at the saddle location (between the bottom of a straight edge and soundboard). I am at 1/4".

"I guess I don't need a taper???? Cumpiano's tolerance is a gap between 3/16" and 1/4.

Thanks

_________________
Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

You should be fine Doug
Happy Building!

Still kind of curious......what's the point of the taper?? What's the difference between a tapered and un-tapered fingerboard that yields, say, 1/4" gap at the sadle location?

Thanks

_________________
Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

There is no difference other than the fact that you needed to sand the fretboard to get the 1/4 inch gap at the bridge. If your neck comes in flat to the top then you would probably sand or even plane the entire fretboard evenly to get the gap. If your neck comes in at a slight angle like many Spanish builders neck's do, then you would need to sand more on the guitar end of the fretboard to get the 1/4 inch gap. Your fretboard would have a ramp on this end and would need to be thinner, thus the taper.

Robbie (and others),

I'm just curious, when you check for the gap at the saddle location, do you use two 5-pound weights (one on each side of the upper bout) to simulate string tension, or do you just shoot for your 3/16 to 1/4 gap without any simulated tension?

John

I don't use the techinque of simulating string tension