The Success Kit from KMG does not include instructions, or materials for binding the fretboard. However, I happen to really like the look of a bound fretboard, so when I ordered the kit, I spoke to Ken and he included plenty of extra maple strips so I could bind my fret board. The strips are the same maple that the guitar body is bound with so everything will have a nice continuity. Binding the fretboard (FB from here on out) is not terribly difficult.
The set up you see here is as follows:
The black board is T shaped. The white board is pushed into the FB and binding which is in turn pushed into the T of the black board holding everything nice and snug while the glue dries.
Gluing the binding on.
The set up you see here is as follows:
The black board is T shaped. The white board is pushed into the FB and binding which is in turn pushed into the T of the black board holding everything nice and snug while the glue dries.
Gluing the binding on. This was the easy part.
Well...not terribly difficult ifyou know what you are doing and you have tools and experience with said tools. I have no experience, no workshop, and really had no clue how to cut off the minute amount of material from each side of the FB in order to accommodate the strips of maple I was adding. You see, the FB should have a certain width when its finished. If I add approximately 1/8th of an inch to each side with the binding, the FB will be too wide. Thus, I have to shave off about the same 1/8th of an inch from each side and then install the binding. This is a simple task for a person who knows what they are doing, but for me, not so much. I fashioned a routing set up with a fence and a base for the router to ride on and thought I was
A second look at the gluing set up.
A second look at the gluing set up. good to go. My fence slipped, which meant I took off a little extra material on one spot. Oops. Not good. I panicked and e-mailed Ken. He made me panic more since he had not seen my mistake and my description of the boo-boo was bad. After a day at work, I came home to take a fresh look at the FB. I decided to measure it against my other guitars to see how it stacked up. Turned out, I had not taken off as much as I 
Giancarlo checked out my set
up. He approved and
told the glue it was
OK to dry.
Giancarlo checked out my setup. He approved and
told the glue it was
OK to dry.
originally thought. In fact, I still had a bit to go in order to get the binding strips on. I decided to sand the rest of the material off instead of using the router. It ended up coming out pretty good!
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Hi Tony
ReplyDeleteMy name is Jason Tribiano, I work with your Mom at 72, but I don't think that disqualifies from category e in your descriptions above! I'm quite impressed with your guitar, it's obviously beautiful, and it sounds really nice despite my crappy laptop speakers. I've been playing for 30 years and have a couple of nice Gibsons ('52 ES125 and a '78 ES335), but no real acoustic guitar(sold my '78 Takamine to get the ES125). I see you've offered it at $1500(nice price considering the work you've put in). Although I'm not quite in position to buy one now, I'd like to be considered to buy one of your creations in the next year or so. Nice hobby you've got there, keep up the great work. my email is jtribiano@yahoo.com
peace tony