PDA

View Full Version : General asking - fingerboards



Dennis Peacock
12-11-2015, 2:44 PM
Making my own fingerboards. How tight are the tolerances? Is perfect at 0.009" or less acceptable for difference between one end and the other?

Shawn Pixley
12-11-2015, 3:31 PM
Dennis,

I am not sure over which dimension your 0.009" deviation is at (Length, fret position, thickness, radius, straightness, etc. so I can't give a great answer. But in general, I don't think it is a big problem. All guitar tuning is a compromise.

Equal temperament divides the octave into twelve exactly equal semitones. The resulting equal divisions are a logarithmic function of the speaking length of the string, rather than pure fractions, and thus are not a true analog of the natural harmonic series.


Equal temperament is the ultimate compromise. Tonal purity is sacrificed for ease of modulation. Depending on your viewpoint, equal temperament either a) makes every key equally in tune, or b) makes every key equally out of tune... The idea is to make it possible to play all intervals and chords, in all keys, with the same relative accuracy. Although every key is very slightly out of tune, every key is also useable. No key sounds worse than any other key. The same applies to all chords. Theoretically, that is. In practice, certain intervals and chords can still sound dissonant.

That said, Unless it is a prominent fret position 1/100" (rounded) won't make a big difference.

Dennis Peacock
12-11-2015, 8:46 PM
Ok, sorry that I wasn't more clear.
We have a jig that puts the radius on the fingerboards we are making. The difference is this:
headstock end:
A ---- B
| ---- |
| ---- |
C --- D
Body end
The difference after routing is D being a difference of .009" thicker than A, B, or C. We do feel that this could be an error or something built into the jig and we are tired of fidgeting around with the jig trying to make it absolutely perfect with no difference between each corner of the fret board. Just wondering if the thicker corner off of the jig is enough to really fret over?

Gerry Grzadzinski
12-11-2015, 9:40 PM
Probably not, as the frets get filed flat after installation, which would eliminate any minor fretboard errors.