Parameters (finger board)

Fingerboard profile looking from nut to bridge. Scheme and essential parameters

Typically, the fingerboard is a long [plank] with a rectangular profile. On a guitar, mandolin, ukulele, or similar plucked instrument, the fingerboard appears flat and wide, but may be slightly curved to form a cylindrical or conical surface of relatively large radius compared to the fingerboard width. The radius quoted in the specification of a string instrument is the radius of cuvature of the fingerboard at the head nut.
Many bowed string instruments use a visibly curved fingerboard, nut and bridge in order to gain bowclearance on each individual string.
The length, width, thickness and density of a fingerboard can affect the timbre of an instrument.
Most fingerboards can be fully described by the following parameters:

• w₁ — width at nut (close to headstock);
• w₂ — width at half of scale length (if fretted, usually the 12th fret);
• h₁ — profile height (thickness) at nut;
• h₂ — profile height (thickness) at half of scale length;
• r — radius (may be non-constant);