The making of a Classical Guitar - Fingerboard 'Benu'

Guitar #10, 'Benu'.
A beautiful and light aged Red Western Cedar that will pair with the back and sides of 'Green Ebony'. The bracing is my take on the traditional 7-Fan Bracing System, based in Hauser, with inspirations from Friederich for the Cedar.
This video shows the making of the fingerboard. This piece is made out of a beautiful exotic Ebony. I like to make bindings to hide the fret tangs, so the guitar will always be in great playing condition, and also beautifully neat. It adds a few hours to the construction, but I think it is well worth it.
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www.crevelsguitars.com/
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@chriscrevelsguitars
#guitar #guitarmaker #luthier #craft #woodworking

[@chriscrevelsguitars]

Tell me, do you prefer a normal fingerboard or one with bindings hiding the fret tangs?

[@Txomo]

clever to use these pins to position the fingerboard to glue it. Did you drill the pins holes before cutting the fret slots or after?

[@chriscrevelsguitars]

Thanks! I drill the holes after the fret slots, so I am sure they will be hidden under the frets

[@joeyoungs8426]

On acoustic and electric guitars I do prefer binding. However, on a classical I cut the tangs back and fill the slot with fretboard dust and super glue. It finishes better, looks cleaner and any expansion/contraction of the fretboard is unnoticeable. When I bevel the frets I also ever so slightly bevel the fretboard so fret sprout is eliminated. I’ve done this on my last five builds and I’m really pleased with the outcome initially as well as long after completion. Although after watching your method I wish I’d done it that way for the cocobolo fretboard I recently used to complement a redwood top. My method has been fine for ebony but the cocobolo’s varying color means my method is noticeable on close inspection. Well done and thanks for the enlightenment.

[@chriscrevelsguitars]

Hey Joe, thanks for the input! Yeah, I think your method should be less time consuming, and for ebony the looks should be just as good. I've done it before on Rosewood and was a bit disappointed, so I switched to binding in all cases, unless the client doesn't want it. On a different subject, may I ask, where do you source your redwood?

[@joeyoungs8426]

Edit: Both surprised me with very smooth and deep bass. The trebles are equally impressive. It’s not your traditional sound but I love how they sound. Curly and wide grain I used mahogany bracing and sitka for the fine grain.

[@joeyoungs8426]

@@chriscrevelsguitars I’ve tried posting the source and a few lessons learned but it never shows up.

[@joeyoungs8426]

@@chriscrevelsguitars So how about this: tonewood and you append the dot you know what.

[@joeyoungs8426]

@@chriscrevelsguitars Lessons learned: the curly and wide grain are very brittle. The fine grain a bit less so and closer to cedar but care is essential. Both seem to stain easily. You appear to primarily use hide glue so that shouldn’t be an issue but titebond types turn gray-ish. My recent build I used a purfling (titebond as the glue) with a black leading edge and the water based dye slightly bled into the top. So on close inspection there’s a blue-ish gray fuzziness around the perimeter of the top. At a glance it’s not so apparent but there nonetheless. It also does not like super glue the same way spruce doesn’t. So if I use redwood again I’ll have to find an approach to the purfling issue. While I prefer black leading edges for purfling I may switch to white for redwood. I’m not a fan of super glue for construction so sealing the channel and using super glue doesn’t appeal to me. I may seal the channel with hide glue, let it set and then install the purfling with hide glue. However I’m not sure if hide glue would be receptive to that approach though I suspect it would be. I’m also not sure if that would prevent the bleeding. I’ll definitely use some scraps and test that approach given my preference for black.