Lining Up The Fretboard For String Alighnment.

[billm90]

do you guys have tips or tricks on how you get your neck or fretboard aligned right squrely to the body so the strings are perfectly straight to the bridge?

This is a classical guitar. A very wrecked classical, that will never be classical again.

I removed the old fretboard since it was screwed up, built a new one based on the old one. when I line the board edges up with the neck edges, it results in my high string being 1/4 an inch off at the bridge from where I want it.

I have done this twice now.

How can I get a good idea of where my strings will be, so I can get the fretboard set right?

I have 2 other classical guitars I am planning to do some other things to that involve removing the fretboards, build new FB and glue back on. I cant go through this on these 2, they are in decent condition.

[erikbojerik]

Either the neck is not straight, or the bridge is in the wrong place (or both).

[billm90]

Either the neck is not straight, or the bridge is in the wrong place (or both).

say I built this thing from scratch, how would one go about locating everything (neck and bridge)

Do you just draw a line up the middle and try and line everything up?

Do you have a jig?

should I temp glue some posts and fishing line from headstock to bridge and try and find my edges for bridge and neck?

The bridge is loose, so I can move it anywhere. but the marks of where it was is telling me it is off.

The neck has never been removed. It could be wrong. it has not occured to me that would be the issue. hmm

I am starting to hate acoustics.

[pariah223]

generally you mark centerline on the fingerboard, centerline on the body should already be there since its the seam, line the two up and use a long straight edge to assure the center line is a straight line from the nut to the bridge. Then you gotta also make sure the centerline of the bridge is centered as well. its all about that center line.

[jaycee]

Have you taken the neck off the guitar? if you haven't and it's a straight fretboard replacement i.e. nothing else has been removed, then it should line up.

Anyway try this, measure the width of the figerboard at the top and the bottom, half those measurements and draw a line to connect those points, this then gives you a centre line. Assuming the guitar top is a 2 piece you have a centre line on the guitar allready, align the two centrelines and that should give you your answer.

[billm90]

Never removed the neck.

It appears to be slightly bent, but not enough to give me the bad result I was getting.

I found the old fret board, lined it up and it is closer then the new FB.

Compared the new to the old, and the only issue I see on the new is I am like 1/16 an inch wider at the 12th fret. this is something I could easily remove once I have the FB set correct.

I didnt want to mark the guitar top, then I thought of using tape as a guide. this thing is probably not even worthy of a topic on here anymore. I am going to just line up everything using tape, glue the fret board on and deal with any other issues that may come of it not being exact on the neck.

Perhaps I should of just started over, but... I have other projects to move on to.

Edited May 6, 2009 by billm90

[jaycee]

Can you post some pics of the whole guitar?

[billm90]

Can you post some pics of the whole guitar?

I am affraid to.

There will be riots and a huge uproar about why I would even bother.

tell you what, once I get it to an acceptable appearence, I will post pics. But you should be ready for something a bit "different"