Non-standard temperament conundrum

[Rob Taylor]

I’m building a six string "classical" guitar with a variable temperament neck.  No frets will be continuous.

 

How do I cut the frets?

[Mike Kolb]

Not that I have any answers, but the question intrigues me.  So, will each fret be shorter than the width of the fretboard? Or maybe staggered frets between the 'standard' fret positions? Is this on a flat or a conical fretboard? I'm not really clear on the goal... any pictures or diagrams available?

[Rob Taylor]

Yes.  Some frets will be adjacent to one another, others will have a fret inserted between two or three frets, others will be stand-alone.  The issue is cutting true, straight, accurate, and very neat frets.  The fret board is a modified classical guitar, flat, ready to be re-fretted.

[brian mastro]

I found this article on this topic, Fanned Frets article

[Rob Taylor]

Thanks for the tip.  I have built several fanned fret guitars and use a similar (of course) home made solution.  This time, I'm up to a very different assignment.  Most frets are not adjacent to each other over the same interval.

[Murray MacLeod]

So which key will this guitar be designed to play in ?

[Rob Taylor]

"C"

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Most of the brand doing this use casted frets and a CNC machine to cut the slots accordingly. If I had to do it with my small shop tools, I would come with two ways :

- make full width slots for each bit of frets which will be set in. Prepare fret bits, cuting a little bit of the foot at each end. Plan everything good, then fill each unwanted part of the slots and set the frts in.

- maybe mor clever, considering you are using a flat fretboard: cut a new fretboard in slices, cutting between the strings, so you've got sort of a single fretboard per string. Then fret each of the fretboards, with an easy access to each fret after an easy slotting. Than glue all these fingerboards slices side by side (hide glue so you can clean easily). Maybe you could back it up with a veener sheet. Then go for a nice fretdres and recrown.

Hope this will help.

[Rob Taylor]

Merci Pierre-Antoine.  Idea 2 is the most attractive, but I really don't want to make a replacement neck on an experimental guitar project.  I like you web site.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Thanks for the kind words... It's a shame I don't have time to translate a bit of it in english.

I would'nt make a new neck, rather plane the fretboard or unglue it.

[Doug T]

What is the temperament you are going for?  There are some companies that offer necks, and I'm sure could make a fingerboard.  One is true tempered and another system is Lucy Tuning which allows for straight frets http://www.lucytune.com/guitars_and_frets/frets_1931.html

[Rob Taylor]

Thanks Doug.  Good ideas.  The temperament is of our own design, but I'll let you know when we've finished the project.

[Howard Klepper]

Cut with any of a variety of saws or nippers, file the ends clean and to length?  You must be asking about something else.