New Georgeboards fingerboard, also hello again

[Scott Houston]

Hi everybody. I used to be on the old "No Peddlers" SGF board frequently in the early aughts (I had b0b delete my account somewhere around 2006/7). I'm playing a more steel these days and my interest has brought me back here a lot lately. It's amazing seeing so many forum members from waaay back then who are still posting and dropping wisdom. Part of me hoped to see the fascinating posts from the likes of Ray Montee or Jody Carver still popping up, but the current cast of characters seems pretty good too.

Anyway... my Georgeboard turns 20 this year and I gave it a new fingerboard to mark the occasion and it seems share-worthy. It's a replica of a familiar 40s/50s National design drawn in Inkscape and printed in two sections on a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 (fret 1-10 on one side and the rest on the other). Under the plex it looks pretty sharp. Lucky for me the frets are all where they are supposed to be.

signal-2025-08-27-125439.jpeg

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[Brad Bechtel]

That looks really nice, Scott. Thanks for sharing and welcome back!

[Will Houston]

From one Houston to another, that looks good on the GB and the GB looks nicely worn, is that natural wear or did it come that way. Welcome back.

[Scott Houston]

Thanks guys. Will (hey, I'm related to a few of those!), it was a "Stealth B" model that was painted with a black sparkle finish, and George sold it discounted as a blem as there were a couple very minor cosmetic issues. The paint wasn't fully cured when I got it so the finish was prone to wear, but the result is all-natural relic from a lot of practice and gigs. I'm not precious with it (the vintage steels stay at home) and luckily I see it as well-loved. Which it is.


Edited to add the picture from the original sale with one of the "blems" highlighted. It's still there.

SBlem.jpg

[Bill Sinclair]

Hey Scott,

The National totem pole fretboard is my absolute favorite and yours looks awesome! I have plans to use the same fretboard on a triple-neck console project that I need to get back to. Is that a 22.5" scale? Would you consider sharing your printscape file (I'm not familiar with that program) or selling me 3 or 4 printed sets of the fretboard? I'm partial to the white background with the color-coded markers but either style would look good against the flamed maple necks on this thing. Also, what thickness plexi is that? Did you use the score and break method of sizing it or have it laser cut or what? Welcome back!

[Scott Houston]

Hi Bill, agreed--it's such a great design! I'll pm you the file and some info after the holiday.

Can't help with the plex--I had George send me a blank at the time, as I had a custom look in mind from the start.

[Michael Kiese]

Brass nut and Brass Saddle. Me likey.

[George Piburn]

Hello from GeorgeBoards

I just saw this post and thought since some folks want to do the Totem Pole FB's I would share having a few clear plexi Overlay's.

At this moment , I have a S8 22.5 - 2 S6 22.5 - 3 S6 23 and a S6 24.5 (25) if any of these can help anyone, Great.

I guess it is no longer part of this forum to up load photos any more -

So far as the Brass Roller Pins for nuts and bridges, I developed those starting in 1994 and are GeorgeBoards most "Hawaiian" sounding.

[Scott Houston]

Here's the art for anyone who might find it useful.

Disclaimer: I am not a trained draftsman. I tackled this project by eye, with a little help from the rule of 18. I am happy with the result as-is. If others can improve it and share their work, that would be great. I'm also not a remote tech support person--if you need any help with editing the file, please find a neighbor/friend/relative who can assist in-person. Someone with a ruler and a little know-how can make it any scale, dark on light, or even black and white as some Nationals were.

About the files: 1) The original .svg file is what you want, but the SGF board does not support sharing this file type. Anybody who wants it can PM me their email address and I'll bounce it over to you. I used and recommend Inkscape (a free and open source vector editor available for Linux, Mac and Windows, downloadable at https://inkscape.org) and I can only promise you it will open as intended in that program. You may be able to edit it in other vector art applications such as Adobe Illustrator, but I don't know because I don't use that. 2) A PDF, attached to this post. This will do the trick if you have a Georgeboard and don't need to do any editing (although maybe some of you out there are savvy enough to fiddle with the PDF). If you print this PDF to 8.5 x 11 paper and make sure not to re-scale or add margins, it will print to the correct size.

This art is sized for an eight string 22.5" scale Georgeboard (George, that is awesome that you have a few plex pieces left for sale!). You will see very faint cut lines in the art for trimming to the width of the board. There is also a grey section which marks a cut-out for the Georgeboard nut assembly. Take care to overlap/position the two pieces correctly at the 10th fret (easiest to do by checking your 12th fret harmonic). Note that the markers here don't extend the full length of the plex, I ran out of space at the 29th fret I put some custom art in that spot which I blurred out in the photos above but you can either leave that space empty or get creative.

Hope this helps somebody with their own DIY. Have fun!

GBtotemfretboard.pdf

[George Piburn]

I took Scott's graphic, and did as he suggested, made some Totem Pole Fretboards.
Here are some teaser photos below.
The files are at the printers and will be peel and stick fretboards in a week or so.
Once they come back I will open a new thread talking in greater detail.

It took some of our expertise and high falutin graphics programs to clean the offered files and straighten everything .
The files Scott offers are really good for anyone with graphics knowledge to use.

Here are the photos of the peel and stick FretBoards with Totem Pole markers -trim to fit. 8 String size.

[Scott Houston]

Belatedly--those look slick George! Nicely done.