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Guys I'm close to finishing my second instrument now, 1 guitar, 1 Uke, and I've used bolt-on necks, after fretting on both the tongue on bolting to the body there is always this fall away I assume its created when the frets are hammered in and the upper end of the fingerboard expands. What are the ways to avoid this and get a good fret job?

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Hi John,

Exact same thing happened to me. What I suspected (as I was doing it ) was the fret slots were to tight and I was having to hammer in to hard. Sure enough, next guitar widened the slots slightly, Elmers glue and frets went it very smoothly with NO board warping at all.
Frets do NOT need to be installed so flippin tight! They got tangs and some Elmers (some even use epoxy). They are not going anywhere!
Give it a try.

Dave

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God, Family, Carreer

If you are installing the frets off the next, then you can help set them by supporting the fretboard at the ends and use a clamp in the middle to pull it down into a gentle U. This forces most of the fret barbs into the wood. It's not a perfect solution, but it goes a long way to avoiding the bowing caused by having too narrow kerfs.

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Aoibeann