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Regarding fingerboards or lack there of

Long story skip below if impatient ;)

I've got a production run going to cut costs and hopefully make better gits.

Hardwood is getting hard to source, especially small pieces. So I visited the one place in town that has it in stock.

Unfortunately the smallest boards I could find were 15/16" x 6"x 8-9 feet. I bought one red maple and one 'rustic (aka knotty) walnut for $25 each. (the good walnut is $50).

I don't have a shop so a friend of mine sliced them up into a bunch of 15/16 and 3/8" strips. From there I can hand saw down lengths that I need. This also gets my cost to the same or less than the pre-cut poplar from Home Despot (including compensation for friends work)

So far so good. But the few I built before were using 3/4" necks with a 1/4 fingerboard. (poplar and holding up well... my bass has rosewood fingerboard, much harder so extra support)

Now with the 15/16th neck + a 1/4 fingerboard I feel the necks might be getting thick. They are harder wood than the poplar and I'm laminating pieces together (various oak and walnut thicknesses and trying to get best grain alignment).

I'm not concerned about strength now but thickness. This also means that they are a little wider (approx 1/4") than the 1.5" poplar pieces I was using.

========So the question is:::

How important does everyone feel an actual finger board is. I know they are great for hiding truss rods (which I'm not using). They also dress things up a bit and make gits look pretty.

They also can strengthen and hide the neck scarf joint which I plan on adding to all of them.

I do plan on adding frets to most of them. I have two concert uke's and a strum stick in progress and many more blanks to glue up.

Of course replacing a messed up fret board could be done without replacing the entire neck. But the rosewood finger boards I ordered cost as much as the neck itself anyway. So it wouldn't be cheaper, maybe slightly easier, I just need to be careful.

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a laminated neck could look cool under the strings. The tops will be finished nice and are hardwood so I don't think string wear is really an issue.

Personally I'm fine with it, curious what everyone else thinks though.

Would it seem unfinished? I know it's CBG's and there is no wrong way...but people do have opinions.

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Another option is to have friend split the 15/16" necks I have into two 3/8" pieces and add the 1/4 fingerboards. Then is 5/8" hardwood neck too thin? Not strong/stiff enough?

Or have him plane the necks down to 3/4... I'm really trying to have him do as little as possible. I want them to be MY creations and buying him beer or building him instruments can get expensive.

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on April 5, 2016 at 2:08pm

Haha, I had a feeling you'd say that Wayfinder ;)

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Permalink Reply by john mackay on April 8, 2016 at 6:37am

oh dont start that of again we've already had 2 lengthy debate on this no rule malarky.lol

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Permalink Reply by Bristol Blue on April 9, 2016 at 2:45pm

LOL Wayfinder , I presume you have seen the film "Woodstock" ?

Instead of "No rain !" we can chant "No Rules No Rules No Rules ! ....." :-)

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Permalink Reply by Sharecropper on April 5, 2016 at 1:17pm

I'm a big fan of building with a fingerboard. The fingerboard glued to the neck adds tons of strength and helps resist bowing with humidity changes and time under string tension. Plus if I mess up the fretting I've only messed up the fingerboard ! I like oak, over maple, for it's strength and both are available at Lowes in our town. Have we met ?

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on April 5, 2016 at 2:12pm

Yeah, I like fretboards too. Just trying to minimize outsourced labor :D

Not too worried about the ukes, at 10" the neck doesn't have much room to bow. It's the 36" piece used in neck throughs I'm more worried about.

I don't believe we've met. I'm in GJ. I hadn't thought about Lowes, tried Sutherlands and Home Depot. Intermountain Wood out towards Fruita is where I got my boards.

Did you do the Nutcracker box the cigar store has? If not there are three of us in the area ;)

I like your bike wheel build.

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Permalink Reply by Sharecropper on April 5, 2016 at 3:20pm

No ,I did not build the one in the cigar store. If we haven't met ,there are four of us in the area, that I know of. The bike wheel build was commissioned by Browns Cycle and displayed in their store Christmas display two or three years ago . Thanks .

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on April 5, 2016 at 1:40pm

What if you cut a strip off each 15/16" board and used them for fingerboards? Just put the maple on the walnut and vice versa, 15/16" should be plenty thick.

Also I directly fretted a walnut neck uke and I thought it looked great as well.

Lastly for a hardwood source - in my area we can get reclaimed flooring cheaper than box store 1x4 prices and it is far superior wood, old and stable oak or maple.

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on April 5, 2016 at 2:22pm

The main issue is tools. I'm working with small hand tools on the back of my truck :D So anything like cutting thin strips is tough and have to pass it off to friend. Then I gotta compensate, etc..

Haven't found reclaimed wood around here yet. This is a weird area, not a lot of money, but also no good junk scrounging.

I think most of the old buildings are just being refurbed, and most of the new development is in new areas. I think the prices I got on the hard boards is decent, just have to work around the limitations. It's definitely cheaper than the Box stores. I spent $8-10 to make a striped neck from poplar, but I'll get 12-20 necks out of the $75 I spent on hardwood/cutting.

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on April 5, 2016 at 2:23pm

Thanks for the replies.

I'll just roll with it, I'm not making specific 'models'. So some may get fingerboard treatment, some not.

Good for price variations too.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 8, 2016 at 9:17am

Sledge Hammer/Straight Axe handles can be had at some hardware stores. Usually made of Hickory and very strong. Some don't even need to be flattened/planed on one side, just cut fret slots for a radius-ed fingerboard.