If you don't have a perfect fretboard, you will never have a good ukulele. It is pretty basic, those frets have to be perfectly-exactly spaced. In addition the fretboard needs to be made of dense hardwood to withstand all the finger activity, and it of course wants to add to the looks and resonance of your instrument. With these rosewood tenors I want to use Ebony. I only had two pieces of black Gaboon ebony left- and so I ordered some Macasser Ebony from Luthiers Mercantile Inc. They came yesterday. Nice wood, quarter sawn, dense, hard and heavy with some brown stripe. Will match nicely with the East Indian tenor especially.
This is how I cut the slots, A special narrow blade is put into the table saw. Adjusted to just the right height to seat the frets, the spacing is determined by this template that indexes to a little pointed pin protruding from the face of the sled. The fretboard is placed against the saw blade and squared up by the face of the sled. It is then attached to the template with double back tape (the small white rectangle seen) thus as the template is moved the fretboard follows.
You can see the small brass pin inserted into the index slot of the template under the right hand arrow. Actually
the template is turned the wrong way in this photo. You start at the wider separations but I wanted to have the arrow pointing at the indexing pin for this photo. The spacing on the upper side of the template is for Baritones
the template is turned the wrong way in this photo. You start at the wider separations but I wanted to have the arrow pointing at the indexing pin for this photo. The spacing on the upper side of the template is for Baritones
Here are the slotted fretboards. I slotted nine of them today, It is always better to make a number of parts once you are set up to do a job. The ebony on the right is the all black stuff, The Macasser ebony on the left has stripes. These fretboards will soon be carefully measured and sawn with the proper taper. I will make them 1 1/2 inches wide at the nut end. I find that to be better width than the standard 1 3/8ths .
I used to measure and saw the fret slots with a hand saw. Very difficult to get the perfect accuracy that is achieved with a template and a table saw sled.
I used to measure and saw the fret slots with a hand saw. Very difficult to get the perfect accuracy that is achieved with a template and a table saw sled.
