Fretboard slots

[daveq]

Does anyone know what the recommended minimum amount of wood beneath a fret slot is? I have an excellent ebony fretboard that is pre-slotted and radiused to 12". I'd like to flatten it to about 14". I believe I will have to deepen the fret slots after doing this and I'd rather keep it at 12" if it's going to end up ruining the board. It's a very high quality fretboard so I don't want to trash it over this. I don't remember the thickness off hand although most from that supplier are 1/4" at the center line.

[www]

From what I could find out in my Stew Mac catalog it looks like there is approximately .074" or 1.905 mm of tang on the frets. Depending on fret size, it can vary a couple of thousandths.

Based on those measurements flatening you radius should work OK. The difference of 12 to 14" radii is very small.

[daveq]

Thanks for looking into that - I'll see if I can use that info to figure it out.

I'll try to explain better since the above was not so clear:

After sanding it down to 14", I'll lose some height on the fretboard. That means I'll have to cut the slots that much deeper. When I do this, the wood beneath the slot will become thinner than normal. I don't want that area to be so thin that the fretboard will want to separate when pressing the frets in (even though it will be glued to the neck) or other bad things that may result from having the fretboard be too thin.

I'm probably still not eplaining it well. Maybe some pics later.

[www]

I understand what you are trying to do. But, this has come up before and it was agreed that it can be done. To change from 12 to a 14" radius is small. Yes it will flatten the board some, but If you have a 1/4 inch board and the fret tang is approx. 1/13" you should have plenty of room. When you sand to 14" radius you will just be sanding the crown in the middle to the down to the edges of the fret board. In other words the edge of the fretboard doesn't change much.

[krazyderek]

well, the oustide isn't going to change at all, so it's only the slots in the middle part of the board that will really have to be deepened, and since they aren't even as deep as the outside part of the slot i'd say you have enough room to go to a flatter radius without even worrying about it, just don't over sand and take off any more then you have too.... (am i the only one that understands that) like there shouldn't be any issue at all..

[Setch]

You can get away with very little. I remember a thread on the MIMF where a steelstring builder discussed using thin board which where *nearly* completely cut through by the slots, and Fender did a similar thing for a while with their thin laminated rosewood boards on curved neckblanks. Provided that you compensate for the thin board with a slightly thicker neck I think you can go pretty much as thin as you fancy.

[Lex Luthier]

Make them just deep enough for the fret tangs.