RE: Digest Number 360

In TD 360, Message: 10, "Drew Skyfyre" wrote:

> A question for owners of Mark Rankin's interchangable fingerboards :
>
> How good (i.e. low) is the action that you get on your guitars ?
> Logic seems to tell me that such a system would mean a limit on how close
> to
> the frets the strings can be.
>
> - Drew
>
Drew,

I don't understand your logic. I have a Martin 00016 with these magnetic
interchangeable fingerboards. (By the way, I would attribute them to their
inventor Tom Stone rather than to their current distributor Mark Rankin.) I
have the action set fairly low, and it could easily be adjusted lower with
the truss rod. The frets appear to be of standard height and shape (though
they have no "tang" but rather are called "Derby hat" fret wire, with a wide
flat bottom), so I do not see any inherent limitation on setting the action.
As for removing the fingerboard, that is done by pushing to the side; it
slides out under the strings. So that would not seem to be much affected by
string height either, unless the strings are sitting right on the frets. Of
course, all the different fingerboards must have the frets of the same
height (though I have found that almost no filing is required).

David Canright http://www.mbay.net/~anne/david/