Phil Mailloux Posted March 16, 2005 Report Share Posted March 16, 2005 (edited) For those who have followed the thread on my 6 string fretless bass, I decided not to do a Vine of Life on the fretboard but instead a marquetry fretboard, like in the picture from conklin at the bottom. From what can be seen on the pic the wood is not inlaid in the fretboard but its actually many pieces attached together that make up the fretboard. My question is: considering that my truss rod and two carbon rods will be directly under the fretboard, how do I glue all this to make sure pieces of the fretboard don't delaminate with the pressure of the rods. 1. Should I glue everything together with Titebond? or epoxy? then glue the fretboard on the neck? 2. Should I glue every piece one-by-one on the fretboard first? what sort of glue should I use? Anybody on this board work for conklin or alembic? (Yeah, I didn't think so...) Edited March 16, 2005 by Phil Mailloux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneMonkey Posted March 16, 2005 Report Share Posted March 16, 2005 Not that I know 100%, but I can tell you that my fingerboard is 3 pieces glued together (I cut the fingerboard blank from the laminated neck blank) lengthways and it seemed rather likely that these could come unglued, especially as they were at the edge of the blank so I don't think that they got the right amount of pressure when glueing (probably a good job I ballsed up the inlay and introduced it to the wall of death, Drak style ). What I thought about doing (before I knackered the inlay) was to route out a shape in the back roughly 5mm from each edge than the fretboard and glue in a solid plate and sand it smooth. But hey, that was just my thoughts, I never tried it so I can't say if it would be any good or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 16, 2005 Report Share Posted March 16, 2005 If I was doing this I'd glue the marquetry to a 1/8" solid piece and thus stabilize the whole affair. The problem is that all of the different woods that yo are using shrink and swell differently. Granted not much but it is enough to cause long term stability problems. Doing this also gives youthe ability to take the fretboard off in one piece if you should ever need to do such a thing. Like your truss rod breaks. If you try to remove an unstabilized marquetry board you'll get a jigsaw puzzle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassisgreat Posted March 16, 2005 Report Share Posted March 16, 2005 Sound advice from the good dr! I would also consider your radius if you use this method. Make sure that the slab you glue it to is thinner than the edges of your raduised fingerboard so the base won't show. I look forward to seeing this bass completed, it's a beauty so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 Looking at the posted pic more closely.....it more or less resembles a maple fretboard with some oversized inlays. If done this way.......you have main structure of maple fretboard making sure the whole shebang doesn't bulge up under trussrod pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted March 18, 2005 Report Share Posted March 18, 2005 If I was going to do that to a fretboard. I would inlay the material to a solid fretboard. It will be structurally better, and it allows you more artistic freedom with the inlay material. Just my opinion. Peace,Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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