Official Luthiers Forum!

Not meaning the radius - but the length, do you sand your fingerboards:

a) Perfectly flat the entire length?

b) Flat from frets 1-14 and then a minor slope to fret 20 (or beyond)?

c) Something else (please describe)

Any information on the "why" of your answer would be helpful.

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

I shoot for B .... but A is certainly acceptable ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I do "B" with a .010" drop after the 14th (or 13th or 12th) fret. IME the .010" drop won't hurt anything and it's a little insurance against the....future. I level my fb's with the neck installed and a .010" feeler guage between the end of the fb and the top.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

hi that feeler guage method sounds good
what kind of set do you have ?
does it have extra wide (plates) ? cant think of a better word
or would you use the 0.10 on one side
and a 0.7 and 0.3 on the other side of the fb

My feeler guages are standard automotive feeler guages. They're ~2 1/2" long. I take the .010" out of the pack, by removing the thumbscrew and bolt holding them together and place in longwise under the end of the FB. I'm working on one right now, I'll try to find my camera.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I like that feeler gauge idea. I'd been doing it like Frank ford tilting the sanding device with layers of masking tape. If you have a stiff neck with carbon bar reinforcement it's also a good idea to level with some tension on the truss rod. Even a two way. You may have difficulty getting enough relief otherwise.
Woody, do you level without the gauge first and then go back and put it in and sand the drop off or do it all at the same time?
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

B

You can also mill more fallaway into the fret tops if the player is particularly heavy-handed.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

I put the guage in to start with, It's only 10 thousants so I figure it can be there the whole time. I build .004" relief in my FB's between the nut and 14th fret when I radius them. I tighten the truss rod to take that relief out when leveling. That way I always end up with some tension on the truss rod. Here's a picture of my simple feeler guage set up. I have to be careful not to damage the finish with the steel guage. I've got a small buffer I go over the top with using meguires when everything is done to remove any small marks.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

It's ideas like these - along with the photos - that makes OLF one great place to hang out. Thanks SO much.

Unfortunately - this isn't going to help me as I need to pull frets and do this to a neck that is already glued onto the guitar (well the fingerboard extension is glued to the top and I don't think I want to mess with it.

I WILL look at using this idea in the future though.

Thanks!

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P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul, if frets are in and the you don't have relief above the first frets, shoot for straight. under string tension the whole thing changes and you'll be just fine. I myself typically put just a touch of relief above the 14th. It tends to happen pretty naturally with my neck angle / dome / bridge height combination.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I put the fallaway in like Frank Ford and Dan Erlewine with the tape at the 9th fret and sand the fallaway in and then again tape over the fret after leveling the frets to establish the fallaway on the frets.
That way the board extension can be glued down and you can put the fallaway in for refrets too.
Any of you use a neck jig for your setups?
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... k_Jig.html

(feel free to laugh if this question/idea is as dumb as I think it may be)


If the fretboard is already glued on, and attached to the sound board as well, would it work at all to gently prop up that portion of the sound board just a touch? I'm thinking about one of the 'repair scissor jacks' you see for working on the inside of the sound box. Even a .5mm lift would be enough, i would think.



-Matthew

Why go through all that when all you have to do is put some tape on the 9th fret or so. Why do you think Ford and Elewine do that for. Because it's fast and works and they have done hundreds of fret jobs. What could be more simpler. Why reinvent the wheel here? That's what's so great about them sharing what they know as I'm sure they tried several things and this is it. It's just some fallaway.