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Bent Fretboard
| Ideally a fretboard should be perfectly straight along the
strings, but on modern instruments the fretboards are usually bent both lengthwise
(relief) and across (cylindrical or compound). This makes the instruments easier to play -
but intonation will suffer. Intonation is deteriorated by both relief and cylindrical
profile.
Think about it. A tensioned string is perfectly straight. If the fretboard is perfectly straight, the string height will increase constantly along the fretboard. The effect of a bridge compensation will also increase constantly as the distances between the frets constantly decrease. The higher the string action, the more effect of the compensation. This means that if one note is compensated correctly, all the other notes along the fretboard will be perfectly compensated! If the fretboard is bent, the string height will not increase constantly. The linear connection between string height and distance between the frets is lost. Only two notes on the string can be in tune - the open string and the note you intonate. |
