Official Luthiers Forum!

Owned and operated by Lance Kragenbrink
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:18 am


All times are UTC - 5 hours


Forum rules


Be nice, no cussin and enjoy!




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 4:31 pm 
Offline
Contributing Member
Contributing Member

Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:17 pm
Posts: 128
First name: Dave
Last Name: Baley
City: Goleta
State: California
Zip/Postal Code: 93117
Country: USA
Focus: Repair
I was examining a Vega (presumed, it did not actually have a label) small acoustic, from 1930 plus or minus some years, recently and was surprised to discover it had fret end nibs exactly the same as found on Gibson necks. I haven't closely examined a Vega previously but did manage to find others on the web that appeared to have fret end nibs as well. I was quite surprised. I have a few questions about fret nibs that I think folks on this forum may be able to help answer.
1) did Vega necks always have nibs (obviously only the bound necks)?
2) When did fret nibs show up on Gibsons?
3) Did Vega copy this manufacturing technique from Gibson or the other way around?
4) How many other companies made their necks in such a way as to produce nibs?

Just curiosity about this. I had thought that Gibson was the only one to do this.

Thanks
Dave


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 3:03 pm 
Offline
Koa
Koa

Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:57 pm
Posts: 735
Location: Austin, Texas
it's really not the neck, it's the fretboard

I don't really know any specific history of gibson, but I have a memory of some comments made about the early Jackson guitars (my '84 Rhoads is in this group)...in that case the board was fretted, then tapered with a bandsaw (cutting frets flush with the edge at the same time of course), then bound (trimming flush with top of board necessarily leaves the nibs at the frets), then glued to the neck

I'm pretty sure this is just a time saving technique as I for one prefer the fret going as far as possible...if I ever get that Rhoads refretted I'll have that done as opposed to trying and preserve the original state...not likely that'll ever happen as there's plenty of fret left after the last 37 years


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:05 pm 
Offline
Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
User avatar

Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:49 am
Posts: 12973
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
First name: Hesh
Last Name: Breakstone
City: Ann Arbor
State: Michigan
Country: United States
Status: Professional
The nibs resulted from the methodology of manufacture. I'm not up on this but David Collins my business partner has studied the nibs from a historical perspective including traveling to the Parson's street Gibson plant to forensically examine old tooling that remained in the factory around ten years ago.

I do recall the wire wheel being a part of this story and we see the tell tale cross grain scratches on Gibson fret boards going way back.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: DennisK and 41 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
phpBB customization services by 2by2host.com