Tips on Fitting GaiaTone Fingerboards to Necks

Congratulations on selecting GaiaTone for your next fingerboard project. Whether you are fitting a fingerboard to your next new violin or replacing a board on an older instrument, you’ll love the look and feel of GaiaTone as an alternative material to the increasingly rare ebony wood.

GaiaTone, a material made from 100% post-consumer paper bound with a bio, non-petroleum, resin shares many of the important characteristics of the finest ebony. It is strong, and hard, offering excellent protection to the neck while retaining excellent acoustical properties. It is naturally black and has the feel of ebony. The strength and hardness of the material will reduce long-term maintenance — regular dressings and resurfacing requirements will be much reduced.

Following are some tips to ease the installation process.

With the use of inexpensive and readily available tools, a GaiaTone fingerboard can be fit to any neck in just a matter of minutes. Once fitted and glued in place, these boards are almost carefree, requiring a minimum of reshaping or dressings over the life of the board.

GaiaTone is a hard material and while it can be worked with the same tools you use to shape ebony, we recommend a few technique modifications.

GaiaTone fingerboards are available in various widths to accommodate most instruments but these can be resized as needed. Try to purchase the board closest to the width you require.

If the width needs further reductions, we recommend using rough files or rasps. If you are comfortable with power tools, Dremel tools and sanders are also very effective and easy to use… Check the videos to watch them in action!

The top surface can be sanded, scraped, and planed much like ebony. As the boards are pre-scooped, most adjustments would be very slight or unnecessary so sandpaper and scrapers should suffice. Planes can be used but as GaiaTone is very hard, we suggest you use a plane with a steep bevel angle to preserve the sharpness or, better, use the custom steel mounting plate with tungsten-carbide inserts available off this website.

Custom GaiaTone sanding blocks that are fitted specifically for the top curve are also available for less than $10 dollars and are reusable. You can order these off this website.

The board is shipped flat on the bottom, but if you need to re-flatten a board, use a standard planer or a planer-joiner.

The ends of the board can also be smoothed or adjusted with files and sandpaper.

If you want to shorten the board, a coping saw, bandsaw or disk sander works fine. Do not use a fine, high-end, woodworking saw.

A note on glue. GaiaTone is effectively glued in place using traditional hide glues used with standard ebony. No alternative glue is required, although we do suggest warming the fingerboard surface with a hairdryer prior to applying the glue.

You’ll save time and money. You'll also be saving a precious resource, ebony, while enhancing your customer’s experience.

GAIATONE FINGERBOARDS TUTORIAL VIDEOS

GAIATONE FINGERBOARD SPECIFICATIONS

VIOLIN
FINGERBOARD NUT WIDTH BRIDGE END WIDTH LENGTH H2 (HEIGHT AT END) EDGE HEIGHT SCOOP (C2) WEIGHT
Violin Narrow 23 mm 42 mm 270 mm 5.5 mm 0.5 mm 76 g
Violin Regular 23.5 mm 42 270 mm 5.5 mm 0.5 mm 78 g
Violin Wide 24 mm 42 mm 270 mm 5.5 mm 0.5 mm
Violin X Wide 24.5 mm 42 mm 270 mm 6 mm 0.5 mm 84 g
VIOLA
FINGERBOARD NUT WIDTH BRIDGE END WIDTH LENGTH H2 (HEIGHT AT END) EDGE HEIGHT SCOOP (C2) WEIGHT
Viola 15" 24.5 mm 43.5 mm 285 mm 6 mm 0.5 mm 94 g
Viola 15½" 24.5 mm 44.5 mm 295 mm 6 mm 0.5 mm 98 g
Viola 16" 25 mm 45 mm 305 mm 6 mm 0.5 mm 100 g
CELLO
FINGERBOARD NUT WIDTH BRIDGE END WIDTH LENGTH H2 (HEIGHT AT END) EDGE HEIGHT SCOOP (C2) WEIGHT
45.5 Radius 42.5 mm 64 mm 485 mm 11.5 mm 9 mm 384 g Reg 390 g Stiff
62 Radius 42.5 mm 64 mm 485 mm 11 mm 9 mm 374 g Reg 380 g Stiff
Romberg 42 mm 64 mm 485 mm 12.5 mm 9 mm 414 g
BASS
FINGERBOARD NUT WIDTH BRIDGE END WIDTH LENGTH H2 (HEIGHT AT END) EDGE HEIGHT SCOOP (C2) WEIGHT
Bass 42 mm 94 mm 878 mm 20.5 mm 13 mm 1400 g