carbon fingerboards - London Luthiers.

[Thomas Stone]

Have any UK talkbassers come across a UK dealer for carbon fingerboards or luthiers (preferably around london) that are prepared to work on carbon finger boards?

I've got quite interested in the idea of getting one.

Any help would be much appreciated

thanks,
thomas

[tobytimber]

I haven't come across cf fingerboards myself, but try Bridgewood and Neitzert in Stoke Newington, they work on basses and are fairly open minded when it comes to new materials or methods. At least they used to be when I worked there.
Do you know where one can get hold of cf boards? From what I know about the material, having used it for flight cases and various repair projects, it is a bugger to work with.
Just checking before I continue, we are talking about double bass fingerboards? I can't find any mention on it on the web. Am curious though.

[Mike Crumpton]

Toby - can you tell me why carbon fibre is 'a bugger to work with'? Personally, I was thinking of making my own endpin from cheaply available rod more than anything else such as fingerboards. However, it would be good to know in case I came across a DB fitted with such.

[mpm]

check out www.mosesgraphite.com....

[tobytimber]

Mike,
I found cf excellent for getting all my sharp tools blunt in record time. And I found the dust quite irritating. Even more so than ebony dust. Not just up my nose but also on the skin. I was just imagining reshaping a fingerboard made from cf and didn't fancy it much (mind you, I hate doing ebony boards).
I'm no great fan of using scraper or sandpaper for shaping boards, and I my attempts on using a plane on uni directional cf resulted in torn out strands of fibre and a very blunt plane.
I can't see much of a problem in making cf endpins though, as long as you use a metal point.

[JoeyNaeger]

Carbo fiber is a fantastic material but you really have to be careful with it. The dust can be harmful to your lungs so it's suggested you wear a mask over your mouth and nose. Wearing long sleeve shirts and pants is a good plane too. One thing people do is to spritz water on the part as they are cutting it to prevent the dust from flying everywhere. You can get carbon fiber at places like www.mcmaster.com or www.dragonplate.com
The stuff is incredibly expensive, especially since there is now an industry wide shortage of it.

[FredH]

I found the dust quite irritating - Toby

I can second that, I've worked a lot with fiberglass, carbon and Kevlar. All these things can be very irritating. One thing I do is coat my exposed skin (forearms, neck, etc...) with baby powder. The baby powder fills the pores before the glass/carbon or absolutely worse Kevlar gets in and starts itching. Not 100% but helps.

And always use a mask.

[Adrian Cho]

How does it change the sound? I assume it's lighter than wood so the neck resonance would be different right?

[Thomas Stone]

It was the Moses Graphite fingerboards that first caught my eye, but i'd really like to see one in the flesh before making any judgements.

the thought of mail ordering one blind doesn't appeal much, but $240 (plus p+p) seems pretty reasonable, especially if it lasts a long time and i would imagine it would make an improvement in sound to the rosewood board i've currently got fitted

[Mike Crumpton]

Thanks Toby and to Mike and all - as an excema and asthma sufferer it's been good to be pre-warned as to what this stuff can do. Given my fingerboard is not A1 this might well be on a future shopping list.