Hello! I'm about to start my second guitar. I want this one to be a bolt on neck. I bought a precut (Gibson scale) fretboard from Stewart McD. I'm seeing in the bolt on course he has a "sacrificial" first fret that he shaves down and insets the nut. in the fretboard I have, it doesn't have any of that extra space. Do I need to look for a different fretboard, or can I make this work? Surely I cannot just use the first fret space as the "extra" and start the guitar on 2 right?
Attached is the board I currently have
ThankS!
You couldn't use it in that way for a Strat style bolt on but you could do a Gibson style bolt on. If you did want a Strat style neck then you could put the nut right at the end of your fredboard and leave a little bit of wood behind the nut on your headstock.
Hope that makes some sort of sense.
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🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
@russ got it…. So if I was to make a fretboard for a strat style guitar, would I just cut my slots and then just leave extra material at the top of the first fret?
like for example, just start cutting my fret slots an inch or two from the edge?
Are you using a fret template and a fret slotting jig to make your fretboard? If you are then the template will have a notch marking the slot for the nut and then all the frets. Place the blank onto the template leaving 10-15mm beyond the nut slot. If you are doing it by hand using the fret calculator then measure the 10-15mm from the end of your blank then cut a slot for the nut (this will mark the position of the front edge of your nut facing the body) then measure all your frets from there. Once you have established that front edge of the nut you can carve out the slot to fit your nut.
🙂🎸🎶🙏
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
@russ I am! so you're saying this "double notch" is for the embedded nut?
If so, that's incredibly convenient!