Making Your Own Fretboard: Part Three

I have a custom carved headstock on my fretboard, and the backside of the fretboard is sanded into a round shape. You'll find that for making a smooth, naturally glossy finished product, fine-grade sandpaper and very fine-grade steel wool are your best friends. (Photo by Mark Feuerborn.)

In today's entry, we'll try to kill three birds with one stone. This is an optional post, as your need to follow these steps is entirely dependent on the design you are aiming for with your guitar.

If it interests you for the design for your guitar, we'll carve the headstock into a custom shape. There really aren't any guidelines for this step other than to use a good knife to carve your shape, and routinely stop carving to sand the shape up closer and closer to the desired result. For the Feuerborn Guitars signature headstock, I aim for a shape similar to a knife blade, where one side curves inward to meet the other curve in a point. Rough sandpaper is great to use to shape the wood, but to get a very smooth finish on the shape, end by using fine-grade sandpaper. Be careful when shaping the headstock so that you don't carve off all of the space between the tip and the tuning peg holes.

After the headstock has been carved and sanded down into your desired shape, we'll carve and sand the fretboard itself. You are welcome to keep the fretboard's edges if you prefer, but carving up and sanding the back will allow for smoother movement and better comfort when playing the instrument. Be sure to check both sides of the fretboard as you go to ensure you don't sand the back of the fretboard into a lopsided shape. You also only have to sand the part of the fretboard that sticks out from the cigar box guitar, as the fretboard's edges in the area beside that are necessary to attach it to the cigar box. However, it's a good idea to slightly sand the edges of both the top-side of the fretboard and the back end where the strings will be inserted, so they aren't as pointy.

Once the fretboard is shaped up, we'll move on to painting the entire fretboard and headstock, which is also optional. Generally I prefer to paint my fretboards to a color that matches the cigar box, however with some cigar boxes the natural color of the poplar wood fits well. I generally use spray paint, the Rustoleum brand specifically, for a solid color. However, you are more than welcome to crack out a brush and put mutliple colors and designs on your fretboard. With either spray paint or brush paint, put some newspapers under the fretboard, start with one side, and then let it dry. After the paint on one side dries, turn the fretboard over and repeat the same process for the other side. If using spray paint, you'll want to apply two coats on both sides.

Once your paint has been applied to both sides, let it dry for a night. Before we begin the next step, take a moment to check your paint to make sure it is oil-based. If it is water-based, do not do the next step, you are finished. If it is oil-based, we will take very fine-grade steel wool and polish the paint with it. Polishing the paint with the steel wool works just like sanding, but be slightly gentler when you press.

Afterwards, you should be left with a high quality fretboard. The only steps left in preparing it are attaching the tuning pegs and nut, and painting on frets if you would like, which we will explore in a later post.