What is it with Martin fretboards?

[Tavy]

OK, so I only have a sample of 2, but they've both had exactly the same issue: the fretboard falls away so much after the body join that the last few frets are unplayable.

Here's the issue on a Martin archtop:



But I now have a bowlback with exactly the same issue - and here's the thing - while there may be some body distortion making things worse - this appears to me to be a deliberate design decision?

The issues not so bad that it can't be fixed, but the board sure does take a lot of levelling!

So I'm curious, am I unlucky or does anyone else see this issue on old Martin mandolins?

[brunello97]

Hmmm. Interesting, John. Would love to know myself. I'd check but both my Martins are in Ann Arbor and I'm in Texas. I hadn't noticed anything with the bowl, and don't honestly play up there with the A. The action on my A is really really low and the neck dead on so chances are that if it were the case, it's something I might have visually overlooked as well. A little embarrassed for not knowing my instrument better.

Hopefully someone will weigh in with some more examples one way or the other.

Mick

[Wes Brandt]

If your talking about flat top instruments, including guitars, the neck is always set back a little to allow for a certain height of bridge so you almost always see fingerboards dropping of at the body ..unless the maker actually angles the top back the right amount just above the sound hole.

So on a guitar the nut end of the neck might be 3/16" or more, lower than the plane of the top.

If a neck has been reset, it gets even worse as the top collapses slightly, often at the sound hole and the neck has to be set back even further from the plane of that area to make up for it.

The same ideas would apply to a reset arch top instrument…

...and some makers do it on purpose with new builds to avoid buzzing with high humidity that could raise the end of the fingerboard …and then theres the the inevitable folding up of the instrument over time when the FB will begin to raise up at the end… one sign of the need for a reset.

[sunburst]

I think the OP is just bragging, or he is trying to make us believe he can actually play the last few frets!

As for the fingerboard in the picture, those look like bar frets, and all you would need to do would be; pull them out and put them back in level with the other frets. That assumes all the other frets are in good shape. The ones in the picture look a little low, so a re-fret might be in order anyway (the frets can be re-used after planing the 'board), and that would certainly fix the situation.

As for whether Martin did that as a design feature, I haven't worked on more than a few martin mandolins, so I don't have a sample size much bigger. My guess is, they assumed nobody was using those frets anyway, and too low was better than too high, so...

[Tavy]

I think the OP is just bragging, or he is trying to make us believe he can actually play the last few frets!

LOL, well I can't, but the customer wanted to...

As for the fingerboard in the picture, those look like bar frets, and all you would need to do would be; pull them out and put them back in level with the other frets. That assumes all the other frets are in good shape. The ones in the picture look a little low, so a re-fret might be in order anyway (the frets can be re-used after planing the 'board), and that would certainly fix the situation.

Yes that's what I do.

As for whether Martin did that as a design feature, I haven't worked on more than a few martin mandolins, so I don't have a sample size much bigger. My guess is, they assumed nobody was using those frets anyway, and too low was better than too high, so...

Quite possible, though as the drop off starts around frets 10-12 you don't have to get crazy high to start to feel the effect. There are "only" 20 frets anyway on these, so it's not like we're talking about the "Florida" here.

[allenhopkins]

Not the case with 1919 Style A, playable up to Fret #20. Bar frets,

[brunello97]

Not the case with 1919 Style A, playable up to Fret #20. Bar frets,

The Martin As have a level of design sublimeness that suggests buddha-dom.

I've played any number of Martin archtops, but have never owned one or obviously done any repairs on them. They seemed to be very specific and intentional about their design detailing.....

Bro' Eugene is my go-to guy viz Martin bowls so I hope he's got this discussion somewhere on his radar.

Mick