Making Your Own Fretboard: Part One

Your fretboard should look like this after sizing up and making proper cuts. (Photo by Mark Feuerborn.)

This is where we begin to get crafty in the cigar box guitar process. The fretboard on a guitar is the long, thin board that has several lines on it, called frets. This part of the guitar is essential to be able to play it. Important to remember, do not attempt to paint or draw lines on the fretboard yet; This is a step that must be saved for further down the line.

Head down to your local hardware store, be it Lowe's or Home Depot, and grab a 6 foot 3/4" by 1 & 1/2" plank of poplar wood for about seven dollars (price rises and falls a little with the demand for wood). If you go to the back of the store, there should be a large saw. Ask the attendants to cut your plank into two three foot pieces, and they should gladly do it for free. You now have two fretboards in case you want to make another cigar box guitar!

Having access to a bandsaw makes this next step much easier. If you don't have one, you can get a miniature one for about one hundred dollars. I recommend the Rockwell Bladerunner model.

Your fretboard needs to have an indented cut-out in order to fit snugly with the lid of the cigar box guitar. (Ignore the holes I've drilled in my cigar box, I was experimenting.) (Photo courtesy of Mark Feuerborn.)

It is very important to exercise precision on this next step. Take your cigar box, open the lid, and line the fretboard up under it to have about two inches on the short end that will jut out one side. Take a pencil and mark the points where the lid covers the board. Next, look at your cigar box's lid and measure how thick the lid is. You need the cut you are about to make in your fretboard to be the same depth.

Using the bandsaw, start at one mark on the board and begin cutting at an angle to slowly reach the desired depth as you progress. After reaching the other mark, turn the board around and cut out any remainder from the curved cut that was just made until you reach the mark you originally started at.

Next, take the long end of your fretboard, measure out four inches from the end, and make a mark. Make a second mark after measuring a depth of 1/4 within the four inch area that was just marked out. Using the bandsaw, cut out the marked four inches at the specified depth. This cut should be much easier to make, due to not having to make a cut in the middle of the board of equal depth. You should be able to just move the end of the board into the bandsaw at the specified depth.

After making these cuts on the bandsaw, your fretboard is finished to a point where measurements and cuts can be made on your cigar box. In my next post, however, we'll take a visit to the internet to order some more supplies, so they can ship out and arrive while we work on our cigar boxes.

Be proud, you just finished one of the hardest parts!