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Updated: June 13, 2025
Our repairer, not finding in the fingerboard under his hands any particular merit, it being besides worn into ruts near the nut by performers of the early schools, who used but little more than the first position, moreover, coming away with ease, proceeds to the sawing process.
He calculates as to the best position for showing off the curl on each side of the neck when finished. Having decided which is to be the upper part or that covered by the fingerboard, this is planed to a good level and smoothed. A line drawn with a good pointed pencil or pointed knife, and sharply defined, is then drawn down the whole length exactly in the centre.
Another way, No. 3, is somewhat like No. 1, but would be used when the fingerboard is glued on before the setting. This should only be done by a fitter of some experience, as a little error in calculation is likely to lead to disaster.
Along the middle of the ebony a very shallow gouged channel may be made, about half-an-inch wide and just deep enough to prevent the glue from touching when the fingerboard is placed in position. The level across over this channel from side to side can be tested by a metal straight edge or truly trimmed scraper.
Sometimes, owing to the height of the ribs, the pattern cannot be applied so as to fit; in that case fresh lines must be drawn to measurement as with the central one on the fingerboard plane. The width of the lowest portion must be mainly guided by the size of the button, which, although there is an average of a rough kind, is sometimes small, at others very wide.
If by miscalculation they are found to project over the width of the fingerboard, they should be when the glue is quite dry cut through with a small bow saw close up, a gentle, careful filing will reduce them down level with the side of the fingerboard; the surface should run easily with that of the peg box, which is not always of the same width as the other, the arching can then be proceeded with, a chisel being first used, then a rather close grained file for further levelling and the finishing off with the finest glass-paper or emery cloth, having a drop or two of oil in it; this will give a smooth, dull polish agreeable to the eye.
A very small, round file should now be used carefully with the run of the fingerboard, or the strings when wound up will look as if pulled aside out of the straight line. The file must be placed exactly on the spot that has been pricked and worked backward and forward as indicated. The ruts must be examined frequently for ascertaining whether they are sufficiently deep.
When the ruts are finished, recourse must be had to the glasspaper file again to round the top surface of the nut with an inclination downwards toward the peg-box. This is an arrangement requiring care, as, when the nut is level with the fingerboard, there is danger of the strings jarring.
We may now proceed to the further progress of the sides of the fingerboard; this, of course, can only be done when all is settled about the nut, this part requiring to be a continuation, notwithstanding the rise upward of the line from end to end.
These two measurements will represent as nearly as possible the width of the neck along its course at the junction of the fingerboard. From the point representing the opening of the peg-box one of two lengths upwards must be decided upon; if the splicing is to be effected in the manner common in this country, a greater length will be required than for that of the French style.
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