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I am laying out the fretboards for my current 2 steel string projects and was wondering what you guys do for fretboard taper?
There are a couple of fretboard calculators out there but they assume a constant distance from the string to the edge of the fretboard.
I believe this ends up with a fretboard way too narrow at 12.
Interesting that this was not discussed (that I can find) in the Gore\Gilet books... might have been worth a paragraph in the Design book....

I find a good starting point is to replicate the string spacing at the saddle at the 12th fret.
So if the saddle is 2.25", this is how wide my fretboard is at 12.
I believe this is fairly common Martin practice, and gives a bit more real estate for bends and finger-style tricks as you move up the fretboard.
I use a 1 13/16" nut and measure 3/32" in to the edge of the strings ( as I use a steep fret-end angle)

Interesting that I have never had someone comment on their preference for fretboard taper - it is all about nut/saddle width, action, and neck shape.

Thoughts?

Rob

I've normally done 10 mm taper nut to 12th fret, usually 3 mm in for the outer strings at the nut, 4.5 mm at the 12th. with about a 20 degree angle at end of frets (compound radius, 12/16 inch)
But last couple have been 2.5 mm on the low E at he nut, to make it easier to fret clearly with the thumb.
( work in metric, but am bilingual
I'm also interested to see what other use.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

A lot of people seem to use 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 on the fretboard taper but there seems to be lots of variation depending on what the guitar is being used for. I recently played a guitar that was a Nylon Jazz with a 1 13/16" nut and a 2 1/16" at the saddle. The neck was 2 11/32" at the joint leaving more on the edges for bending and pull offs. Liked the feel of the neck but the string spacing was cramped. If I am making a guitar for myself it would be 1 13/16" at the nut and from 2 1/4"- 2 5/16" at the saddle with 2 5/16" at the joint. A lot of it also has to do with how flat the neck shape is.

Think what I'm trying to say is that neck shape and string spacing are all over the place and a real personal thing.

I find it helpful to draw things out on cad, including spacing of the strings at the nut and saddle.

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MK5acoustics.com

Design Page 5-4 (Para 11) for SS and Page 5-6 (Para 10) for classicals discusses fretboard layout. Design Appendix 5 gives typical numbers for a range of guitars.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Thanks for pointing out the paragraph on fretboard layout Trevor - somehow I missed that when perusing the subject.
I did see the appendix 5 though, which verified my approach - in that 58mm is a typical 12-fret width for a medium bodied SS, very close to the 2.25" saddle spacing I use.
Whether the distance from the edge to the string varies then is dependent on the spacing at the nut.
On mine, the spacing is a little closer to the edge at the nut, a little wider at the 12th fret - the thought being there are not a lot of bends happening in the first few frets, so why not have a little more real estate.
I should mention my guitar designs lean towards fingerstyle...

No worries, Robbie.

There are many permutations on this and no set rules. Many players seem to have a preference for more space on the treble side than the bass side and more space at the 12th than the nut. Coming from the other side, most players can get used to a variety of layouts. So I guess the only rule (as ever) is avoid extremes (neither too much nor too little).

One thing I find really annoying are beveled fret ends where the bevel extends almost to beneath the string. 20 degrees off perpendicular to the fretboard is about right (Design, Fig 3.1-3).

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Agreed - my file jig bevel is set at 18 degrees - no sense wasting that fretboard real estate...
And yes, there does not seem to be a set standard - which is fine.
My alarm bells went off when I used Fretfind2D and it spit out 55mm at the 12th fret and realized that I have always built with a bit more clearance.
If anything, I have thought about it a bit more now... another variable on the path to the next guitar which will be better than the last one...

I made an excel spreadsheet that allows me to input nut width, string spacing at the bridge, scale length and how far inset I want the outer strings to be. It calculates the fretboard width at each fret position. This helps when roughing a neck blank that joins the body at the 14th fret, 16th fret, or whatever. It also calculates the angle of each string which can be useful for certain things. It keeps the strings a uniform distance from the edge for the entire length of the neck. I suppose I could add a feature that allows the user to input a larger inset on the bridge end in case they want the neck slightly wider at the body joint.


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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Not everyone uses the same taper for the same dimensions. Taylor uses 1 3/4 x 2 1/4, but the 2 1/4 is at the body, not at the 12th. This makes for a slimmer neck in the upper registers. Martin on the other hand uses the 12th fret, and hence their wider taper.

Aaron, I have a similar excel sheet, but it specifically did not have this feature - in that it calculated the same inset all the way.
This made for a fretboard that was too narrow at the 12th fret - the target being 57mm, with a little more clearance on the treble side - around 4.5mm
I also want to reduce the inset at the nut a bit - I have been using 3.2mm (.125") to the edge of the string for both 1 and 6.
I feel this wastes a bit of real estate in lower registers for the fingerstyle guitars I build, so am reducing this to 3mm on the treble side, 2.8mm bass.
This should get me close to what I am looking to achieve on my current projects.

Interestingly enough .. I have a Martin FB bought as part of a seconds kit by one of my students .. the FB is 1 11/16 a the nut, but even at the 14th fret its not 2 1/4 .. its a touch less than 2 3/16ths at 14 ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Tony, that's because it's a 1 11/16 x 2 1/8" neck. Here's the math, assuming 25. 34" scale :

(2.125/2 - 1.84375/2) = 0.140625

Tan = .140625/12.67 [12th Fret] = 0.01109905288082

0.01109905288082 x 14.052 [14th Fret] = 0.15596389108128

(0.15596389108128 + 1.84375/2) = 2.17272099447526

Almost 2 3/16"

OK David that makes sense then ... personally, I don't care much for convention when making necks .. I will use the same saddle spacing with different nut widths .. usually I make the end of my fingerboard 2.4 inches or so, with a 57/58mm string spread - sorry for mixing metric/imperial, but that's how I roll !!! - and then use whatever nut width I feel like for a particular guitar ... I don't measure what the 12th fret width is, I just make sure its wide enough at the fingerboard end, the rest takes care of itself.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"