• Optional
    8·
    16 hours ago

    Me: actually the fingerboard is a vestigial component of guitar building as the neck can perfectly accommodate frets directly, giving the neck a more integral link to the player’s hand and also reducing manufacturing costs.

    My SO: . . . no I just wanted more lemonade. . . . Okay thanks.

    • anon6789
      6·
      16 hours ago

      We all know the average guitar player can’t accept anything that isn’t the way it was done in the 1950s.

      I’d think a one piece neck would be more expensive, as the fretboard is usually a super dense rare tropical wood. You’d also always be stuck with a skunk stripe.

      What really surprises me is there aren’t more composite/carbon fiber/aluminum guitars to do away with truss rods and the downsides of wood vs the environment.

      • Optional
        4·
        15 hours ago

        The example I was thinking of, the original Peavey series were created that way (with no skunk stripe, even) using gun barrel making machines and gunstock lathes. (their truss rod adjustments are super cool too) Theoretically if you were to replace a typical fingerboard, you’d have to pry it from the neck and then re-fret it anyway. Plus I’ve never ever heard of anyone doing that ever for any reason. :D So just banging in some stainless-steel mofos into that neck while the body is curing saves time and money.

        I do have a “phenolic” fretboard on a different guitar that’s a fancy mix of resin and tree parts. Basically kind of like formica. Plays great, no worries, but the whole thing about particular fretboards giving a certain kind of tone is 99% horse hockey.

        • anon6789
          2·
          15 hours ago

          I tried looking up those Peavey necks, but all I saw was “bilaminate” necks where they split the maple down the center and routed out the truss rod cavity and glued it back together. I thought they’d at least match the grain back up or book match it like a body blank, but none of the ones I saw were like that. The ones where it was regular grain on one half and quartersawn on the other half looked kinda strange like it was made of leftover bits.

          In my quick research, it said Fender switched to rosewood boards cuz he didn’t like the roadworn look of the maple necks on TV (ironic with all the fake roadworns now) but I always thought that looked cool. I like the look of maple necks either looking nice or grimy.

          My guitar and bass are both rosewood fretboards, but I’m not a tonewood (for electrics) person. My first guitar was a plywood BC Rich import someone had stuck some Gibson humbucker in the bridge though and it sounded as good as anything else I’ve ever played.

          • Optional
            2·
            14 hours ago

            Yeah I guess that’s right, but they fit the overall look at least for the natural finish.

            Here’s a pic showing the frets-on-neck approach:

            Yeah maple fretboards for me. Because Jimi. Although he didn’t really care afaik, it just looked the coolest.

            • anon6789
              2·
              14 hours ago

              I do enjoy some natural finish maple. I think maple fretboards make the guitar stand out a bit more since it’s a brighter color. The worn in ones look like they’ve got stories too, which I like. Maple’s just got character that the other fretboards don’t seem to get.

              I don’t even know how it got on my feed, but I’ve been watching a ton of videos from the NirvanaGuitars YouTube channel about the history of all of Kurt’s guitars. Now those things have character! Even if they were only around for a couple weeks, they all seemed to live hard lives and are very distinct and personalized instruments even though they all would have been considered junky at the time. That’s much more exciting to me than some expensive off the shelf guitar.

                • anon6789
                  2·
                  11 hours ago

                  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve seen on that channel, and before I started watching him I would have said it wasn’t my thing. His guitar histories and recreations, and also his this album but with this other one’s tone or the alternate what-if Unplugged setlists are awesome.

            • Optional
              2·
              14 hours ago

              The neck-tilt adjustment was in the heel in the neck plate and made it super easy to get the action you wanted without futzing with saddles and the truss rod

              In later years they made the truss rod as easily accessible

              • anon6789
                2·
                14 hours ago

                Both of these features look cool!

                I like how both seem simpler than the common ways of dealing with these 2 adjustments.