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This is the coolest little guitar. I was thinking about maybe making one (or similar...). What about the maple fingerboard. I assume it would need to be finished to keep it from getting soiled... right? I assume you simply finish it along with the neck and remove the finish from the frets when dressing them. Do you concur?

http://www.dreamguitars.com/detail/3540 ... _parlor_3/

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Probably have use some kind of epoxy that will hold up to the strings.

This board is epoxy-sealed to pop the birds-eye maple and top-coated with lacquer for protection. We've found that a higher, wider stainless fret effectively limits finish wear to just nails, versus actual string contact. I don't have recent shots of this 2014 guitar, but the reports from the owner suggest no real wear on the finished board.

Like Tele and Strat maple boards, we seal, fret, initial dress (fret ends), shoot topcoats, then do final dress and take excess lacquer off with that.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Think about persimmon for the fingerboard. It is pretty white and as hard as ebony.

Beautiful! I want to do one like this sometime as well. I'll probably go with thin CA glue for the fingerboard finish, since it penetrates. And do it before installing frets so I can sand it all super shiny.

Fender has been doing it for... How many years? That is one cool looking little guitar for sure.

I'm doing one! ......sometime.....

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Pat

I like the polished CA idea but wonder at what point in the process one would cut the fret slots. Thoughts?

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George :-)

I wouldn't worry about getting glue in the slots. I always file a little bevel on the slot edges just before installing frets, to help them slide in easier and not chip on the way out when refretting, and that should get any lip of glue that accumulates right at the edge. Any that migrates further down will probably just soak into the endgrain and harden it, which is a good thing on a softer wood like maple. Worst case, you could grind the barbs on the tang narrower, or go at it with one of those StewMac refret saws... or a regular slotting saw if there's no binding.

Interesting. Thanks, Dennis. Like many others, I'm trying to move away from using tropical hardwoods and finding readily available substitutes that are domestic to North America is a bit of a challenge.

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George :-)

Cool little guitar.

Something that is popular with the knifemakers is "stabilized" woods. Basically they vacuum impregnate the wood with some sort or catalyzed resin, so you end up with something close to plastic that can be shaped, sanded and polished. I could totally see having some maple (or walnut or whatever) fingerboards treated like this.

Certainly fender has been making maple fretboards for decades, and they often end up looking dirty and worn as the finish wears off. This might be a way to avoid the issue and might even improve the tone as it is much denser than untreated wood.

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