Is fret board wood quartersawn normally?

[legiticus]

Or is only the neck wood typically quartersawn? I also understand that woods like flame maple and quilted maple, etc. are always flatsawn, but I'm more interested in plain maple at this point.

Thanks.

[LukeR]

Ill have a crack at this... I could be wrong, so please correct me if I am...

Fretboard timber is generally 'exotic' timber- ebony, rosewood et al, some species of which are endagered, and, in any event, are very expensive to buy. Quatersawn timber causes alot of waste- alot more than slad cut timber.

Bearing those 2 factors into account (expenisve cost AND the waste associated with quatersawing) I doubt it would be commercially viable to produce quatersawn fretboard matterial.

Another aspect is that quatersawn timber is considered less attractive to look at then slab cut timber. Considering that fretboard materials are chose to be asethetically pleasing (in particular, the definition in the grain of rosewood, for example) quatersawn timber- being more expensive to produce- would result in a less attractive (and therefore less commerically valuable) timber.

I dont think it would be wise to

1. Produce an item in a more cost prohibitive way, that

2. Will produce less market value than the cheaper option.

Therfore, I would imagine that most fretboards are not quatersawn.

Again, I dont know for certain, but I think this is the more probable Senario.

Regards,

Luke

[Myka Guitars]

Another take on this is the structural aspect of the wood. Quartersawn wood is more stable and has consistent grain pattern that helps to stiffen the neck. While I can't argue that flatsawn wood is more attractive than quartersawn (or vice-versa) I do have many pieces of quartersawn fingerboard material that is just plain gorgeous.

In a manufaturing setting flatsawn woods may be more or less unavoidable but I build my guitars one at atime and I always use quartersawn woods for my fretboards unless otherwise specified by my clients (and not being able to talk them out of it).

I really don't know where you get the idea that quartersawn wood is less valuable since it is almost a requirement for guitar building. When building fine, custom instruments the difference in between a flatsawn piece and a far more superior quartersawn piece is rarely discussed in terms of price. Most of my clients would not dream of using anything but quartersawn wood for the fingerboard (and neck, soundboard, back and sides, etc). Why would they?

Here is a decent article to look at:

What is quartersawn wood?

[LukeR]

Hi

Well, I guess I was wrong . I knew that quater sawn timber was vital for the necks, but i didnt really think about the effect on the fretboard. I was thinking more along the lines of purchasing fretboard timber from non luthier based supplyer.

Oh, what I meant by more valuable i meant in the context of, say, flame maple, where the visual quality of the flame equates its price (and applying that to fingerboards). I think I read in the Hiscocks text that quatersawn timber was 'boring' to look at in comparision to slabsawn- thats why I made the inferance

(although obviosuly beauty is a subjective, not objective thing).

Thanks for clarifying the issue though.

Luke

[erikbojerik]

My take...the simple act of gluing on a fretboard will (by itself) help to stiffen the neck. If you already have QS wood for the neck, I think the different contribution to the overall neck stiffness between a QS and a FS fingerboard will be minimal. Not zero, but minimal.

If it is readily available, go with it. If however you have a figured piece of FS that you absolutely love, you don't really lose much by going that route.

[mushy the shroom]

If neck stiffness is an issue, can't you just use those carbon reinforcement rods?

[legiticus]

My issue is not so much strength in the fret board as it is looks. I will definitely be going with quartersawn maple for the neck wood.

I want to use maple for the fretboard but all the plain maple fretboards I've looked at have a rather plain flatsawn figuring that isn't attractive. I guess I could find some flatsawn maple that doesn't have alot of figuring.

[LukeR]

Hi guys,

Just to add fourther credance to Myka Guitars' comments, here is an interview with Carl Thompson, the guiy who makes/made Les Claypool's basses.

He lists some very good reasons for using quater sawn ftreboard timber.

Sorry for the wrong info- anyway, here is the interview

http://www.ctbasses.com/CTinterview.html

Cheers,

Luke

[Myka Guitars]

If neck stiffness is an issue, can't you just use those carbon reinforcement rods?

You certainly can use carbon fiber reinforcement. I do in my necks and I really like what it does in terms of stability. Tonally it is fairly transparent but it does add increases stiffness which seems to increase the resonance of the piece as well. The coolest extra benefit is the elimination of dead spots in the neck.

Now to keep on topic...

You know I wasn't thinking so much about maples when I first answered the question. I was mostly answering the general quartersawn wood question. Maples are gernally the exception to the rule beacuse the quilting figure is more intense when flatsawn. There may be other woods as well. For example I recently purchased an Indian Rosewood piece that I cut fingerboards out of. The figuring is intense flatsawn and I cut a couple that way just in case I decided to use one. The quartersawn cut is also beautiful but in a different way. If I do use it you can be sure that the neck wood is dead on quartersawn and I will use carbon fiber too. Sometimes I make my fingerbaords so thin that they don't add much to the strength of the neck. This is the way I would use flatsawn fingerboards since the neck is then made a bit thicker instead.

I built an acoustic guitar of all quilted maple that was definitely flatsawn. It was beautiful but I had some problems with it warping in the back and sides during the construction and also after it went under string tenstion. Not to say that I wouldn't use it again. I would (it was beautiful, sounded great, and my client insisted on it). It was just the most unstable acoustic guitar I have ever built and the only difference is the flatsawn wood.