Granddaughter wants a classical guitar

[Stray Feathers]

Your classical looks great - I have not tried one yet. You have talked about binding your fretboards (as in this thread) with wood. I want to put ebony bindings on an ebony fretboard I am preparing for a current build. How thick do you make your wood fretboard bindings? And do you try to end up with the binding being the finished edge of the fretboard, or do you sometimes have to sand/file/shave into it when finishing the neck shaping? (Other comments welcome too . . .) Thanks - Bruce W.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

hey Bruce

usually fretboard blanks are wider than needed. Classical boards are of course wider at the nut but basically the same around the 12th fret.
if it's wide enough I'll cut two strips off the board about .080 to .090 thick each. then I thickness them down to .065". Now I can cut the fretboard to the desired width/taper size etc. minus the combined thickness of the bindings. Cut the slots and glue the strips to either side. I usually end up with close but a bit over my desired width so I can shave down each side evenly to bring it into spec. the result is a board that doesn't look bound. I really like the look. I do it with Indian rosewood boards too. most of the time I prefer the simpler look versus a contrasting binding.

I hope this helps. I know you already know how to bind one. 😃