[WilbornGuitars]

A lot of preliminary work is going into the WarHorse. This is going to be a multi scale instrument. I've never built a multi scale guitar before. I figure its just like all the other things I didn't know how to do before, and now do. So, I called up my Frientor. I just made this word up, and its a combination of Friend and Mentor. (That's a portmanteau if you want to get fancy) My frientor is Bruce Sexauer, because not only is he an exceptional person to be friends with, but he also happens to have an answer for any question I've ever had about building guitars, and has been willing, lucky me, to share his knowledge. So Bruce "just happened" to have a template for a multi scale fretboard that he duplicated from a CNC'd master template he had made years ago in aluminum. AND it works for the scales I am going to imploy- 24.9 on the treble, 25.4 on the bass. Lucky me! My frientor sent me said template.

My next task was to devise a sled for my table saw to firmly hold the template and fingerboard blank as the slots are cut. Here's a confession: I like to design and build jigs just as much as I like to build guitars. In my eyes it's really a part of the same process. By understanding the mechanics involved in making a part for a guitar, you come to understand the whole process from a deeper level than if you had just purchased a jig and used it, or worse yet, purchased an already fabricated part. So I glared at this template and thunk real hard until I came up with a design I thought would work, and then I spent a day building it. The result is made of lovely green phenolic laminated Finn-ply and parts I machined from phenolic resin (Bakelite). I think its pretty sweet looking, and it works like a charm! The last photo is the Gaboon ebony fingerboard itself, with its very precisely placed fret slots. The big white part is Bruce's template.