thallenbeck.com  ::  Projects  ::  Electric Cello #4
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Fingerboard and neck
Fingerboard clamped to body after gluing. The fingerboard is made of graphite. I got it from Moses Grapite in Eugene OR. I haven't decided if I like graphite or not. At least I think it's graphite - maybe it's carbon fiber. Maybe they're the same thing. Whatever it is, it carves well and behaves much like ebony, but when sanded, it leaves gray gunk all over everything that's tough to remove, especially from wood. I don't know if graphite is toxic or not, so when I carve or sand it, I wear a respirator, goggles, and gloves.

I prefer Titebond for wood glue, and fortuitously, Moses recommends it for gluing their graphite (carbon fiber?) products. I like Titebond II for fingerboards, because it has a shorter set time than the original flavor.

I drilled the tuner holes in the headstock with a 1/2-inch bit and reamed them out a little to acommodate Gotoh bass tuning machines. The holes are on a diagonal so that the strings can reach the tuning posts from the nut (which will sit at the top end of the fingerboard) without bumping in to anything inbetween.

I should have clamped every two inches or so but that's all the clamps I have.
"Bass" side after filing and sanding the neck flush with the fingerboard.
"Treble" side before filing and sanding. I deliberately cut the neck a little too wide so that it would trim up flush with the fingerboard.
"Treble" side after filing and sanding.
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