RE: Finger board thickness

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yourwhathurts69

Posts: 117
Joined: Sep. 16 2009

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ricardo

Congratulations on your collection, but you didn’t even tell us the actual height of the strings. If the 7mm guitars with clean action on the fingerboard were the majority then there would be nothing special, (or difficult to construct?), about the “goldilocks” set up that clearly distinguishes a flamenco set up from a classical set up. Higher than a centimeter is perfectly normal for classical guitars. Lower than 7mm on flamenco guitars I have seen many times, where your nails pop into the soundboard with each picado stroke, where you realize a millimeter thick gopleador makes a difference. The main issue is that there is a general misconception that a low action (buzzing strings)=flamenco set up, and that it is “easy” to make the Goldilocks set up happen on each instrument if desired.

I don't think the rest of the setup has anything to do with my point which is that a 7mm string height may not have always been the goal. Otherwise, the builders would have made a lower bridge to allow for at least some saddle clearance. I'm only discussing flamenco guitars. There may be a preference by many today for a 7mm string height, but I have to wonder if that was always the case...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 18 2023 20:06:54

estebanana

Posts: 9353
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to Stu)

As a design guideline, make the bridge first so that it expresses the final action height you want, then build the guitar around that.
My ideal is a bridge with 3mm of saddle showing and a 2 mm range of adjustment in saddle height. Make the guitar so the action you want at fret 12 can be achieved by that 2mm up / down window of healthy saddle height.

For a 7.5 saddle height I’d make the ‘saddle mound’ or midway thickness of the bridge between 5 and 6 mm high. Then the saddle projects above that 1.5 to 2.5 mm to get a final saddle height.

I’m tired and it’s late so I might not be thinking clearly, but if you want 7 to 8mm saddle bridge thickness is going to have to be 5 or 6 mm

It’s perfectly fair to trim down a high saddle mound ( or whatever that area is called with the saddle slot)

Also my hats off to anyone who can dial in perfect flamenco action every time without some planed in adjustments to fingerboard.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 19 2023 16:04:47

RobF

Posts: 1611
Joined: Aug. 24 2017

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to Stu)

Heya Stu. John Ray (aka johnguitar) just posted about the traditional method he uses to fit the fingerboard. It’s a different technique than what’s been described in this thread and makes a lot of sense.

https://johnguitar.com/fitting-the-fretboard/?fbclid=IwAR0Sp8GmezGcoI0F7SXNAvIdTGFcONdHXTbapjqvZG56mWFE_npk4Gy01k4

Thanks for the pro tips John

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 21 2023 3:45:45

Fawkes

Posts: 104
Joined: Feb. 11 2015

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

That's very interesting, thanks John, and for posting Rob.

If I understand this right you end up with a certain amount of relief built in, that amount depending on the angle of your neck.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 21 2023 5:43:26

RobF

Posts: 1611
Joined: Aug. 24 2017

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to Fawkes)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fawkes

That's very interesting, thanks John, and for posting Rob.

If I understand this right you end up with a certain amount of relief built in, that amount depending on the angle of your neck.

Yeah, it’s nice to see the various methods and techniques employed by different makers. There’s always something to learn.

I suspect what Stu was experiencing last summer might have been due to his having inadvertently followed John’s method when prepping his neck prior to fitting the fingerboard.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 21 2023 16:43:19

estebanana

Posts: 9353
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

Re:

John’s method, I’ve done this too without realizing it’s the traditional way. It makes sense- you start to gingerly plane across the neck around the 7th fret and feather it into the 12th fret body join. It’s a subtle difference that happens over several inches of transition. In my case I’ve noticed I need to plane the fingerboard a bit after to get it where I like.

Some fingerboards are more flexible than others, but all that he said about ebony is true, ebony along the grain is rubbery in a way. It tends to take a set in shape once it’s trained to place for a long time.

If you leave the top about 1mm thicker ( approximately) at the area where the fingerboard overlaps the top, you can safely plane that area down between the body joint and the sound hole and get the fingerboard to nest in there.

I’ve done it both ways - it’s always interesting to compare, I believe the tapering of the underside of the fingerboard is an American thing… developed by Americans who were backwards engineering Spanish methods in the 60’s

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2023 2:23:33

Jim Frieson

Posts: 19
Joined: May 28 2014

RE: Finger board thickness (in reply to Stu)

How far the neck is bent down , how the neck is joined to the body , how the upper body construction is done , how high the dome is at bridge if there is a dome, all factors .

An almost flat surface from the nut to the soundhole , the soundhole area just a little raised , the straight edge touching only the bridge area and at the nut , and a gap of
2 mms plus or minus between the ruler and the top at soundhole :
That allows for a thicker fingerboard .
I like 8 at the nut and 6-7 over the top .

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 22 2023 5:35:11