Hal, I went to one of my local Home Depot's yesterday and they no longer carried maple either. One of the guys in the shop started his first cbg on Friday and he picked up two maple boards at another HD earlier that day, so I'm guessing maple must be getting harder to get or harder to sell and that soon I'll have to get all my maple from a lumber yard.
John, I'm very much a newbie to the cigar box guitar building. My first three used fretboards that were nearly flush with box lid and using a 1/4 threaded rod or eye bolt the string height was acceptable but inconsistent among the three different instruments. The necks were mounted with no pitch. My fourth instrument I had another flush mounted fretboard but I angled the contact points of the neck that mount to the lid by about 2 degrees and was able to use a bridge and saddle and came out of it with a really nice action. My current build which is #5 the neck itself is flush with the lid and no pitch which will make the fretboard about 1/4" proud. I'm planning to use a fender style bridge on this.
Hi Charlotte, can I ask advice ... what is a good depth to make a fretboard and how high above the box lid should it stand proud, or does it run flush with the box lid..?
Thanks, Charlotte. I've considered doing that myself. Like I said, all the HD's here have stopped carrying maple. On top of that, my local exotic wood supplier, whom I got my 1/4" woods like bloodwood, purpleheart, lacewood, etc. from, is on the verge of closing his doors after 50 years. Don't know what I'm going to do for supplies.
Hal, I forgot to answer the question about the 1/4" stock. I have a band saw with a resaw blade on it and I cut my own fretboards out of a thicker board, in this case that curly maple 1x2x11feet. I also resaw the wood for my peghead faceplates.
mop doesn't contrast with maple so I needed something darker. I also use a forstner bit but the tootsie roll looking stuff is epoxy putty and it comes in various wood colors and it has excellent adhesion and sets up ready to sand in 10-15 minutes, although there are some varieties of the stuff that are slower to set up. I drill the holes for the dots and cut and mash/mix some epoxy putty (this was mahogany flavored, but they also make black) and smash it down in the holes and squeegie it with a razor blade leaving it a little proud. I also use alcohol on my razor blade when I squeegie the puttly. When it has set up I clean up and level with a sanding block and 150 grit paper.
Charlotte - what's your easy method? (I usually use a forstner bit and mop inlays). BTW - I envy you. Home Depot in my area has stopped carrying all maple hardwoods. Does yours carry 1/4" stock or did you rip it from 1x?
Comments
Hal, I went to one of my local Home Depot's yesterday and they no longer carried maple either. One of the guys in the shop started his first cbg on Friday and he picked up two maple boards at another HD earlier that day, so I'm guessing maple must be getting harder to get or harder to sell and that soon I'll have to get all my maple from a lumber yard.
Thanks charlotte, I guess its trial and error lol ...!! I'll let you know how I get on ..!
John, I'm very much a newbie to the cigar box guitar building. My first three used fretboards that were nearly flush with box lid and using a 1/4 threaded rod or eye bolt the string height was acceptable but inconsistent among the three different instruments. The necks were mounted with no pitch. My fourth instrument I had another flush mounted fretboard but I angled the contact points of the neck that mount to the lid by about 2 degrees and was able to use a bridge and saddle and came out of it with a really nice action. My current build which is #5 the neck itself is flush with the lid and no pitch which will make the fretboard about 1/4" proud. I'm planning to use a fender style bridge on this.
Hi Charlotte, can I ask advice ... what is a good depth to make a fretboard and how high above the box lid should it stand proud, or does it run flush with the box lid..?
Thanks, Charlotte. I've considered doing that myself. Like I said, all the HD's here have stopped carrying maple. On top of that, my local exotic wood supplier, whom I got my 1/4" woods like bloodwood, purpleheart, lacewood, etc. from, is on the verge of closing his doors after 50 years. Don't know what I'm going to do for supplies.
Hal, I forgot to answer the question about the 1/4" stock. I have a band saw with a resaw blade on it and I cut my own fretboards out of a thicker board, in this case that curly maple 1x2x11feet. I also resaw the wood for my peghead faceplates.
mop doesn't contrast with maple so I needed something darker. I also use a forstner bit but the tootsie roll looking stuff is epoxy putty and it comes in various wood colors and it has excellent adhesion and sets up ready to sand in 10-15 minutes, although there are some varieties of the stuff that are slower to set up. I drill the holes for the dots and cut and mash/mix some epoxy putty (this was mahogany flavored, but they also make black) and smash it down in the holes and squeegie it with a razor blade leaving it a little proud. I also use alcohol on my razor blade when I squeegie the puttly. When it has set up I clean up and level with a sanding block and 150 grit paper.
Charlotte - what's your easy method? (I usually use a forstner bit and mop inlays). BTW - I envy you. Home Depot in my area has stopped carrying all maple hardwoods. Does yours carry 1/4" stock or did you rip it from 1x?
It is and I got it at Home Depot!!! The board was 11 feet long and every bit of it looks like that. Ninety two cents a linear foot.
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