First build looking for some insight

Discussion in 'Luthier's Corner' started by hemmerlinj, Jun 14, 2020.

  1. hemmerlinj

    hemmerlinj

    Sep 21, 2012
    Astoria, NY
    After accumulating some wood and parts to build a guitar over the past 15-20 years I've finally actually started to build one. Actually 2. A J Bass style and and Tele style(that's going to my old man). I bought the templates rather than trying to do this absolutely totally from scratch. Anyway I routed out the necks over a month ago. Let them sit as in my reading for the past 15 years about building a guitar this is recommended. Today I just routed out my fretboards. I placed them on top of my neck blanks to see how they fit and both blanks are just ever so slight wider. Like maybe 1/128 inch total.

    First question, is this anything I should worry about? Should I put the template back on and route it back to size again or is it such a small amount that I can just go ahead with gluing on the fret boards and make it go away as I carve and shape the necks?

    Second question, this is probably just from typical wood expansion from some of the humidity changes since I had routed out the shape the first time, right? Or could it be possible that there is a discrepancy between the router bits I used. the bits used to route the neck blank were larger diameter pattern following bits. Both an upcut spiral pattern following bit and a top and bottom bearing pattern following bit. On the fretboards I used 1/2 inch pattern following as it was the only bit I had that was a 1/4 inch cutting depth to allow me to take several passes to work threw the fret board. I don't have a band saw and didn't want to use my jigsaw as I was worried about tear out. Worked perfectly.

    Thoughts?

    Thanks,
    JH
     
    Beej likes this.
  2. dwizum

    dwizum

    Dec 21, 2018
    If you really mean 1/128" (.0078125") versus that being a typo, then that is absolutely not a problem and it will easily disappear as you shape/sand and blend the fretboard to the neck. That's a really small difference, like the thickness of two sheets of paper!
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2020
  3. hemmerlinj

    hemmerlinj

    Sep 21, 2012
    Astoria, NY
    I'm guessing that it's that amount. I haven't tried measuring it with a my digital calipers or anything. Just based on it being less than a 64th which is the smallest I can measure with any of my shop rulers. The differences is just big enough that you can see it just around the edges of the fretboard and just feel it with a finger or catch it with your fingernail. I figured it probably wasn't that big of deal and after carving and sanding it would be taken care of.

    Thanks.
     
  4. dwizum

    dwizum

    Dec 21, 2018
    Yeah no problem. And congrats on your sense of precision, it'll come in helpful on the parts that actually do matter!

    Worry about the top surface of your fretboard being the right dimension (and, even there, being accurate to 1/64" or even 1/32" is probably fine - 1/128" is probably far higher accuracy than anyone has ever worried about for fretboard width). The bottom edge of the fretboard - where it meets the neck - will get blended in and cut to the correct dimension anyways. If you look at most instrument neck profiles, the sides of the fretboard aren't perfectly perpendicular to the top - rather, they're part of the curved profile of the neck itself. So, really, when you cut the fretboard blank to size, you're setting the width of the top surface, knowing that you will naturally blend the bottom where it meets the neck when you shape the neck.
     
    hemmerlinj likes this.