What's binding?

[bostjan]

images removed for convenience, see post #39 in this thread

it probably makes more sense to describe binding over the frets, as they're commonly referred to, as binding that caps the fret ends. Instead of the fret extending past the board to the edge of the binding, the frets stops at the edge of the wood, and the binding material is elevated and rounded in the shape of the fret, adding a small extension to the fret.

Lots of Les Pauls have them.

Those guitars are really something! Do you know the guy who owns them?

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

Those guitars are really something! Do you know the guy who owns them?

yep.

this foo: Matt Crooks

 

[noodles]

Instead of the fret extending past the board to the edge of the binding, the frets stops at the edge of the wood, and the binding material is elevated and rounded in the shape of the fret, adding a small extension to the fret.

They're called nibs.

I deem them false, since you can't do the Satch pull the string around the guitar neck trick.

 

[darren]

David Myka uses wood binding on his fretboards to conceal the fret tangs. His frets overlap the binding and you get a clean edge on the fretboard. With contrasting woods, it looks more like real binding, but when he uses the same wood as the fretboard, it has a more stealthy appearance, and really finishes off the look of the neck.

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

somebody should come up with steel binding, or whatever the binding material is, and fuse the fret to the binding, so it becomes one piece. that would be beyond cool.

i'm sure a one-piece binding / fret set would be nearly impossible to construct and set into wood without snapping a fret/binding joint... but that would be cool tool.

has anybody ever come up with a milled or cast a one-piece metal veneer or fingerboard (with the frets)? Then, setting frets wouldn't be an issue, binding would be unecessary, and you'd never feel a fret tang ever again - and you could do the string over the fret end trick.

 

[darren]

There was a UK company called Bond Guitars that built a guitar in the early '80s that had a 'fretboard' made of aluminum where the 'frets' were ridges. From the side, the fretboard had a "sawtooth" appearance. Great idea, but what do you do when it wears out?

 

[eaeolian]

has anybody ever come up with a milled or cast a one-piece metal veneer or fingerboard (with the frets)? Then, setting frets wouldn't be an issue, binding would be unecessary, and you'd never feel a fret tang ever again - and you could do the string over the fret end trick.

I'm sure someone has, and that guitarists summarily rejected it. (Guitarists tend to be very conservative.) However, I'd think it would make the guitar insanely bright...

Those guitars are really something! Do you know the guy who owns them?

Yes, we both used to see them twice a week or more. Well, whichever one didn't have any broken strings, anyway.

 

[Mastodon]

Fusing frets to the binding would make fret replacment really difficult.