How do i find the fingerboard size, when i dont have the fingerboard?

[MadSkillzMan]

hi guys

 

a friend gave me a Hohner Professional he picked up from the flea market for 5$ as payment for sweet talkin his woman and..long story..

 

Anyways. He gave it to me thinking its just some junker probably cant be fixed.

 

Some jackass tore off the original fingerboard, and put on another..thats too big at the top, and too small at the bottom

 

Its missing the bridge/nut also

 

Now, the bridge and nut, no biggie. Ive finally mastered making those.

 

But this thing looks pretty darn old, and is REALLY straight. If you thump it with your thumb, (trick i learned from the hippie luthier) it sounds...daamn good hehe. All the bracing is intact, i cant see why anyone would screw with the fingerboard.

 

Bottom line is, how can i find the size of the fingerboard i need? Id like to get a blank from warmouth or ebay, and learn to do my own frets...hell i might do my own inlays if im feeling productive enough.

 

Thanks in advance guys.

[smokiee]

emmmm.. lets see

 

get the serial number or model, call Hohner and request a complete specs for the measurements and whatnot...

 

or just go to a respective luthier to redo the fingerboard or he might give you some tips etc to do it on your own...

 

a good and competent luthier can fix almost any problems a guitar might have with the exception.............. your wife thinks that the house aint big enough for her and all those beautiful guitars...

 

thas why i'm not married (yet)

[Hudman]

Pull off the over-sized fretboard and measure the top of the neck (mounting service). Measure the width at the nut, in the middle and at the end (where the neck connects to the body). That will give you a good idea.

[MadSkillzMan]

Ok thanks

 

I was just curious, as on ebay fingerboards will say 25.5" Scale length and such..though thatd be an electric guitar

 

Smokiee...not married yet either...feel bad for the guy who sold me my practice drumkit. Guy owns 47 guitars, and a {censored}load of tube amps. Wife would love to kill him

[Freeman Keller]

Most common scale lenghts are 25.4 (Martin "long") scale and 24.9 ("short "). Most common widths at nut are 1-11/16 (many Martins, most dreads) and 1-3/4 (many Taylors and Larrivees, some OM/000's). Most common radius is 16 inch altho you'll also see 20, compound and others. Remember that the scale length is twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret plus the compensation for intonation. If you know how to replace the bridge (not the saddle) you know how critical that is - obviously it will take special clamps, cauls, reaming tool, etc.

 

If you fret the board before gluing it onto the neck it will take a pronounce back bow (the frets force the slots apart when you hammer them in) - it may not be totally flat when you glue it down (build some really good cauls, including the inside of the body for the neck extension). Work with the truss rod and possibly leveling the frets with a file and then recrown them. Dress the ends of the frets, cut a new nut, do whatever it is you are going to do with the bridge, make a new saddle. It is also possible to fret it after gluing in on the neck, but you need to support the extension from the inside. Oh, and of course, you need to add the markers - both top and sides, and the inlays.

 

Another thought is to plane the fretboard to the width of the neck at the nut, refret it, and live with the fact that it is "too small at the bottom"

 

 

Last humble suggestion - buy the stuff you need from StewMac including Erlewine's books.

 

Sounds like maybe the guitar was worth what your friend paid for it.

[MadSkillzMan]

Freeman, thanks for your advice.

 

As for the value of it, 5$=priceless to me, as its a learning experience. If i screw it up, oh well. Ill just remember not to do whatever i just did next time. If it plays, well i got some hella bragging rights then. I just wish this was an electric, since you have a harder time screwing up the tone.

 

When i say bridge, i mean the bone at the bottom. The peice that sits in (saddle?) is fine. Ive cut better bridges for cheapo guitars. I made a bone one for a 12string i got on ebay. Cheap Korean import, thing rivals my SG in playability.

 

Yea, bout time i learn my terminology.

 

Thanks for the advice.

[Freeman Keller]

yeah, the "bridge" is the wooden thingie that the plastic or bone saddle sets in. Screwing around with the saddle is no biggie - the bridge is. If you go to the StewMac website and find their kits you can download the pdf of the plans for their dread kit (for free). Print it out and it will show how to fret the fretboard, glue it onto the neck, align the neck, level frets, etc. It will be slightly different for you because your neck is on the git, but the principles are the same.