Fingerboard too narrow--oops

[Zen]

I built an acoustic recently using the kinkade plans from the book but unfortunately I took my eye off the ball at some stage and my fretboard ended up a lot narrower than it should have. You are probably laughing now ha ha. But thats what happened and I have only 2 options in my own opinion. Make the guitar a 4 string tenor instead ? Or, get some talented luthier to make me a bridge with the string spacing narrower so that I can use the existing neck and make a slimmer nut as well. I had already glued on the fretboard to the neck when I discovered my mistake. The neck meets the body at the 14th.
I would have to confirm these measurements but I have about 42mm at the 1St, 48mm at the 8th, 48mm at the 12th, 48mm at the 14th and about 50mm from there on to end
Firstly, do you think it would work at all? Secondly, have you ever come across this problem before ?
Its such a pity because the body sounds as if its going to be a lovely loud instrument and turned out really nice -apart from my inexperience and old age creeping in !!

Hoping someone may throw some light on the problem and if not it will soon be winter and we will need some firewood anyway.

Rusty.

[JVan]

Would you be able to add some bindings on the fret board to widen it? Or, is the neck already narrowed as well? Are you able to post any pics?

JV

[Zen]

Would you be able to add some bindings on the fret board to widen it? Or, is the neck already narrowed as well? Are you able to post any pics?

JV

Bindings --I wonder if that would work. The neck is close to being finished but might just be able to blend it in. What binding would you go for ? I've never actually did a bound fretboard before--to be honest I've never done many guitars either ha ha !! But I am getting better slowly but surely. However, this was one i never saw coming for some reason.

Thanks for the suggestion
Rusty

[johnnparchem]

If the fret board is ebony use ebony bindings. They would be easy to blend in. I not sure how well it would work with the fret board already glued down. What you would want would be to cut the fret board such that when you glue on two bindings it is the correct size. It will make fretting a little harder as you would need to trim the fret tang where the binding is.

Do you have any pictures?

[tippie53]

If you only narrowed the fretboard , you can as suggested add binding etc.. If you also narrowed the neck then you are in a hard place
Using the number you gave me you have the taper messed up but the nut width is ok. 48mm divided by 25.4 = 1.88 in so you need to just add some binding. Even if you can get this to 54 MM you will be ok.
Can you make another fretboard ?

[Zen]

If you only narrowed the fretboard , you can as suggested add binding etc.. If you also narrowed the neck then you are in a hard place
Using the number you gave me you have the taper messed up but the nut width is ok. 48mm divided by 25.4 = 1.88 in so you need to just add some binding. Even if you can get this to 54 MM you will be ok.
Can you make another fretboard ?

Hi John, I could make another fretboard but I had the neck shaved down to match the fretboard so that too is an issue now. I could add binding but the fretboard is probably going to end up slightly oversize to the neck so just wondering if I could taper it down to blend with the sides of the neck.
What if I made a bridge with narrower string spacing than usual ? Is it unusual to have narrower string spacing? I'm sure my daughter who plays pretty good would love me for it if I ended up giving her a nice slim necked guitar ha ha.

Decisions decisions !!
Thanks again john
Rusty

[johnnparchem]

The curve of the neck can continue into the fretboard, not a taper but a continuation of the curve of the neck. That can get you a little width.

I would be inclined to make a new neck and fret board. I think I ended up making two necks for several of my earlier projects. Looking at your numbers, I could get finished starting over before I could execute the finesse required to build up a fret board and neck to get it to all blend in.

[Zen]

The curve of the neck can continue into the fretboard, not a taper but a continuation of the curve of the neck. That can get you a little width.

I would be inclined to make a new neck and fret board. I think I ended up making two necks for several of my earlier projects. Looking at your numbers, I could get finished starting over before I could execute the finesse required to build up a fret board and neck to get it to all blend in.

Thanks John, I am inclined to agree with you. Its annoying as I had a nice shape and finish on the whole thing .
Let me ask you this one question, Would using a tighter string spacing work or have you seen guitars with really narrow spacing --perhaps for a smaller pair of hands ?
My daughter would love me even more if I gave this one to her lol. She's grown up but has smallish hands and is always complaining of stiffness in her hands after a long gig so if I thought a bridge with tighter spacing and a different nut spacing would work I would go for it. Would judst like to hear what you guys think on that ?
Thanks again to all for the advise.
Regards
Rusty

[johnnparchem]

I am not much of an expert but building for my daughter I found the nut size and the scale length the most important for her hands. Not being close to an expert I choose the smaller size of a normal range. Basically the smallest standard size nut and bridge hole spacing for a Martin.

To help with stiffness after playing, concentrate on a great setup especially on the nut side.

[ruby@magpage.com]

I bought new a 1966 Gibson B-25 (small parlor size) as my first guitar - didn't know much about such things. It had a 1-5/8" nut and I wondered for 2 years why I had so much trouble with it. Turns out I really like a 1-11/16" and do OK with a 1-3/4" nut.

I might suggest finding one the size yours is ending up and play it.

You can always do some binding, either the same color or a different color as has been suggested, and then glue some long strips onto the sides of the neck to widen them too. Might be easier than making a new neck.

Good luck

Ed