Official Luthiers Forum!

Is it OK to slot a bunch of fingerboards only to store them for use at a much later date? I'm worried that the kerfs may weaken the board so much that it affects the stability of the wood while in storage.

I'm sure others will come along with better answers, but I don't think it is much of an issue. I doubt that stewmac and others slot their boards right before they ship them. . . not to mention all the packaged kits out there. I slotted a board about a year and a half ago for a project that never happened. It looks fine so far.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I store pre-slotted boards. I sandwich them between a couple pieces of 3/4" plywood that is straight and wind it with that sticky-plastic-wrap-on-a-spool thingie. No problems so far.

Alan D.

I agree with Todd. I bought a bunch of pre-slotted fretboards from Colonial Tonewoods at a swap meet at least 4 years ago and haven't gotten around to using them because I've been doing a lot of alternative scale builds. At the time I was told they had been sitting around his shop for years as well. I store them in a stack without stickers and they are perfectly flat. But, it probably depends on the individual piece of wood.

Bob

I've had them stacked for years and have not seen any movement worth mentioning. And if it does move a bit it sure straightenes out in a hurry when it gets glued to finger board.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I think it doesn't matter so much when fingerboards are warped, since it's thin enough that when glued to necks it will be straight. I am sure it wouldn't be good if it's excessively warped though.

I think the real issue is having to build to many different scales, however for those of you who mass produces or builds only to one scale, it would be more efficient to store the fingerboard slotted.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I have built with several different scale lengths too, but the majority of the instruments I build are guitars with either 25.4" or 24.9" scale. For me, it makes sense to keep a few fingerboards in the most common woods for these scales on the shelf, as it is easy to make a few extras when I have the machines and jigs all ready to go. That way I save some of the set-up time, and won’t have to stop whatever I’m doing to go and make single, standard fingerboard. I also make one off instruments where I make most or all of the parts as I go, but “mass producing” rough shaped standard parts is a great way to cut production time (I rough shape and keep several neck blanks, tops with standard rosettes, glued up backs, kerfed linings, end blocks etc. around for the same purpose).

Anyways, I haven’t noticed any problems with keeping slotted fingerboards around for a long time. I keep my shop between 40-50 %RH year round, which probably helps.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin