While waiting for the new sides to arrive, I have moved on to the fingerboard and neck. And it turns out that I really need to at least get the binding completed so that I know exactly what the width will be at the fourteenth fret.  This is where the neck joins the guitar.  And with a cutaway body style, the point where the cutaway joins the body at the heel block needs to be exactly 1/2 the width of the fingerboard where it meets the body.  Otherwise there will be a step down from the cutaway to the fingerboard –  which you see quite often, or worse, the cutaway will actually go underneath the fingerboard – not something you want at all!

I am using curly maple wood binding on this guitar.  Not only do I love the way it looks, it has to be easier to work with than the plastic binding that is often used on guitars.  I used plastic binding on the Les Paul build and always felt that wrapping beautiful wood in plastic was bordering on criminal.  That and you use some pretty nasty glue that partially melts the binding or plastic binding material mixed with acetone to form a goo to attach the binding to the neck or body of the guitar.  This time it is all wood with good old Titebond II.

But before going any further I needed to make a radius block that I will need later for leveling the fingerboard and frets.  I could buy one, but it is easy enough to make one if you already have a pre-shaped fingerboard.  Simply stick the fingerboard to a level surface (I’m using my table saw deck) using double-sided tape, attach a strip of self-adhesive sandpaper to the curved top of the fingerboard, and apply some elbow grease to your block of wood (Alder in my case).  The bottom of the block will take on the curve of the top of the fingerboard.  I ran my saw fence up alongside to act as a guide.

Now to bind the fingerboard.  I really like doing this sort of detail work.  If you plan it out it goes pretty quickly and you get a nice result.  So next, I cut fingerboard to the correct length.  Mine will stop just short of the sound hole.  I added a little curve on the end near the sound hole and creatively clamp the binding in place.  Trim it flush with the side of the fingerboard, and then add the side binding.  I clamped the side binding in place by creating a tapered slot out of two pieces of scrap wood where I could wedge the fingerboard and bindings in between.  After trimming the side binding to length, I used my new radius block to sand the tops of the binding flush with the fingerboard.

On to the neck…..