Banjo Construction #2: Four fingerboards

Here are four banjo fingerboards in various states of completion. All four use a 24.75” scale length.

The top one is some form of rosewood. It will be a very simple fretless fingerboard used on a tackhead banjo. That banjo will use violin pegs, so the bump on the side of that banjo is where the 5th string peg will come up through the neck and fingerboard.

The second from the top is also some form of rosewood. It will be a partially fretted fingerboard, with a brass overlay below the 7th fret. I bound it with a laminate of black and white plastic binding. There’s a little repair just down from the 7th fret, but that will be covered up by the brass overlay.

The second from the bottom is bocote. It’s flush flush-fretted, with ebony veneer inlaid into the fret slots. You can’t really tell from this photo, but it’s bound with ebony-walnut-ebony veneers.

The bottom one is the same as the previous, but will be fretted normally.

Each of the fingerboards has about 1/4” extra still at the nut end, which will be cut off shortly. (That’s not a zero fret slot down there, though it could be; that’s where I’ll cut the excess off.)

The bottom three will all have frailing scoops, hence the unfretted portion at the tops of the fingerboard. The topmost fingerboard, while still using a 24.75” scale, is a couple inches shorter—there will be a significant frailing scoop incorporated into the neck itself.

-- Rob "Scrape" French, Missouri