Here's our very best fingerboard blank for your instrument. 32 inches long, and cut from your choice of black walnut, northern cherry, or African mahogany. These dulcimer fingerboards are the very best available and are the perfect opportunity for a custom layout. We quartersaw the wood for stability, then cut the fret slots and nut/bridge slots on our CNC router. Yes, we use a computer-driven router for cutting fret slots. Why? Unparalleled accuracy. Our router is accurate to .0007 of an inch, which is far more accurate than even the best craftsman. This gives our mountain dulcimer fretboards flawless intonation, and makes every chord on your instrument sound "right". We use a tiny, tiny router bit (.5 millimeters in diameter) to cut the fret slots, then use a press (not a hammer!) to insert the American-made fret wire. The nut and bridge slots are cut by the router, too, which gives them the correct spacing relative to the frets.
All in all, these aren't inexpensive fret boards, but they're worth every penny. If you buy a Folkcraft or FolkRoots dulcimer, this is the fretboard that's installed in the instrument.
There are five different options for scale length. In general, the longer the VSL, the better the tone quality, but the harder it is to reach some of the chords. A person with large hands would be comfortable with a 28 or 29 inch scale length, but someone with more delicate/petite hands might be more comfortable with a 25 or 26 in scale length.
All of these fretboards come with a 6 1/2 and a 13 1/2 fret as standard, and you can choose to add the 1 1/2 and 8 1/2 frets (recommended) or even go with a full chromatic fret pattern.
If you need to watch your pennies, we do offer fretboards that are cut on our gang saw (a long spindle with many, many blades, that can cut a fretboard quickly and accurately). Our gang saw has a single scale length (27"), and has the 6 1/2 fret as the only "extra". This is a great fretboard, too, but to get the extra frets (1 1/2, 8 1/2, 13 1/2, or chromatic) you'll want to choose our CNC router-cut fretboards.
