Comment

Comment by Rand Moore on April 15, 2011 at 1:27pm

HI John.

The ply (veneer) I used was cut into 8 inch wide strips so I could easily carry it home (I depend on local mass transit, which is pretty good here in Shenzhen). On this instrument, it was too short to run vertically and so I ran it horizontally. Being ply, I knew it wouldn't make that much difference which way I put it. However, if you butt the fretboard up against the plywood sound board like I did on my square box guitar, then the weather gets hot and humid, you might end up with an impacted fretboard which can be forced upward causing the highest pitched frets to buzz and or interfere with each other. I had to cut a slot between the fretboard and the soundboard and re-glue the fretboard to fix the problem.

 

The long heel was done to make sure I had plenty of glue surface to hold the side strips once the tail piece was wedged in and glued in place. The problem with the long heel is that it makes it a bit difficult (uncomfortable) to reach the highest pitched fret or two. I can do it, but someone with smaller hands might not. I plan to make it about an inch shorter next time.

-Rand.

Comment by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on April 15, 2011 at 7:31am

Interesting that you have the grain for the top running across. If it's ply then it will be running both ways anyway. The long heel looks rather elegant. Very nice indeed.