The demise of the cocktail stick

When you glue the fretboard on to any instrument, the alignment has got to be spot on, as any error is magnified along the length of the instrument. I’ve always used some kind of pin that goes into both the neck and fretboard as a method of ensuring that fretboard doesn’t move around whilst being glued.

For many years, cocktail sticks were my favourite choice of pin; they used to be a consistent diameter and made from beech- ideal! However, these days they are of a much poorer quality, inconsistent size and made from bamboo which tends to split. OK I guess for cheese and pineapple chunks but not for precision work!

So now, I make up pins from silver steel rod, which I must say is far superior!

Here’s Patrick's fretboard waiting to be glued on.

A simple plywood caul spreads the pressure.

And here we have the fretboard in perfect alignment!