Sylvan Wells
Fretboard Tapering Jig
An Elegant (but simple) Fingerboard Taper Jig
Sylvan Wells
Over
the years, I have seen many solutions for precisely cutting the taper of the
fingerboard for guitars and other instruments. Most of the solutions involved
making either an exact template of
the fingerboard shape and using a pattern bit in a router to copy it, or making
a table saw sled which allowed the user to line up his/her pencil lines on his
fingerboard and cut it with the table saw.
Neither
of those solutions appealed to me since both either required making a template
(more work) or actually drawing pencil lines on the taper you want (not as
accurate as I would like).
Many
years ago, I saw a jig which was designed originally to cut tapered legs for a
table but seemed to be ideal for instrument use. I have been using this system
for ten years or more and it works great! Its primary advantages are: (1)
very simple and easy to make (15 minutes or less),
(2) no measuring and laying out the shape of the fingerboard, (3) no
pattern making, and (4) absolute accuracy, meaning the taper is always
perpendicular and centered to your fret cuts. In this short article I will
attempt to show you the jig, how to make it, and how to use it.
The
first step you must do is decide on what taper you want. The taper is the
difference in the width of the fretboard at the nut and the width of the
fretboard at its widest point (the other end). For instance, on my instruments I use a 9/16 taper. All
that really means is I want a nut 1 11/16 and the board to be 2 1/4 at
its widest point. That just happens to give me 2 1/8 at the 14th
fret using a 25.4 scale. Doing the math indicates that the taper for that
specification is 9/16:. You can make the taper whatever suits you, you just
need to know what it is in order to make the jig.
The
jig itself is just a piece of wood about 5 long (not critical) with two
notches cut into it; one end has a 9/16 notch (the taper) and the other has a
9/32 notch. Notice the second notch is exactly half of the taper. You can
just simply just notch a piece of plywood with the two notches or, to be really
accurate you can cut 3 pieces and glue them together to make the jig. The three
pieces I used were 916 x 5 1/4, 9/32 x 5 1/4, and the center
piece was 1 1/8 x 4 3/4. Just glue them together as in the photos. The
total width of the jig must be less than the total width of the fingerboard (in
our case 2 1/4). The finished jig has notches in opposite ends that are
1/2 deep although, as you will see in a minute, that too, is not critical.
This
is a table saw jig. One of the beauties of the jig is, that in use, it leaves an
edge which is ready for gluing. No touchup or sanding required. Lets begin.
Your fingerboard should already be squared and fretted and cut to the correct
length.
Set
your table saw fence to the total width of the fingerboard. Cut the fingerboard
to this width (in our example that width is 2 1/4)(this is why the jig must
be less total width than the fingerboard). Lay your jig on the table saw against
the fence and set your fretboard with the fret cuts UP and the nut end in the
smallest notch which is up against the fence as in the photos. Run it through
the table saw.
Flip
the fretboard over so the fret slots are on the BOTTOM. Flip the jig around so
the largest notch is closest to you and against the fence. Put the flipped
fingerboard nut end in the large notch and run through the table saw.
Congratulations! You have created a perfect fingerboard which is perpendicular
to your fret slots and ready to use! It will be exactly 2 1/4 wide at the
widest point, and 1 11/16 at the nut..
One
of the real advantages to this method is that you can cut the fingerboard to the
correct taper for binding if your binding covers the entire side of the
fingerboard. Letss assume your binding is .090 thick. You have two sides
of the board so the total thickness of the binding is .180. Subtract that
number from the 2 1/4 (2.250) we started with leaving you a total width
(allowing for binding) of 2.070. This time set the fence to 2.070 and repeat
the procedure. You will wind up with a perfectly tapered fretboard. Once you
glue on the edge binding it will be exactly the same as above (1 11/16 at the
nut and 2 1/4 at the far end). No measuring and no touching up!
This
jig allows you to have complete control over all the measurements without having
to make any pencil lines and the accompanying errors that creates. Just remember
that your nut width is defined by the total width of the fingerboard less the
taper your jig allows. This gives you great flexibility in designing and
executing your fretboards with a minimum of fuss.