Making Your Own Fretboard: Part Two

The holes at the top of the fretboard will be where the tuning pegs are inserted. (Photo by Mark Feuerborn.)

It's time to take a look at the fretboard again, and make some additions to it. For the first part of the building process, we will be using a drill with a 1/4" drill bit to start, and for the second part any drill bit smaller than 1/32" can be used. Keep in mind that these instructions were based off of a fretboard built with the NEEWER tuning pegs shown in a previous post on supplies, and that different tuning pegs may need bigger or smaller drill bits.

First, place the fretboard against a hard surface, preferably one low to the ground so we can place some pressure on the side opposite where we are drilling. The most important thing to remember when drilling the tuning peg holes is the large square bottoms on the tuning pegs. If the holes are made too close together, the square bottoms on the tuning pegs will intersect with each other, and could cause some serious problems with one's build, potentially even requiring the creation of a new fretboard altogether.

Next, take a pencil and mark where on the fretboard the tuning peg holes will be drilled. For a three string cigar box guitar, two of the tuning pegs will protrude outward from the same side, while one peg protrudes from the opposite side. Make sure the tuning peg holes are not too close to the sides of the fretboard. The two tuning pegs facing out on the same side should be spaced two inches apart. The two should also not be drilled parallel, as this will cause the guitar strings to intersect. For the odd tuning peg hole out, the only precaution is to make sure the hole is drilled in a spot where its bottom does not intersect with the other tuning peg bottoms. If needing better accuracy when drilling, it also helps to start drilling with a smaller drill bit to make "pilot holes" and progressively drill the same holes with bigger bits.

With the tuning peg holes complete, we can move on to create the string holes on the bottom of the fretboard.

The string holes are best spaced 1/2" apart, and parallel on the end of the fretboard. (Photo by Mark Feuerborn.)

Any drill bit smaller than 1/32" will suffice for this part. Simply mark out three holes for which to lace guitar strings through. The holes should be 1/2" apart from each other, and preferably parallel.

Good job on drilling those holes. This is a relatively easy step in the building process, but one that takes precision. Getting sloppy with drilling can result with a small drill bit snapped in half, or an unusable fretboard.