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Hi! I'm building my first scratch build, and have gotten to the point where I glue the fretboard to the neck. I have a pre slotted 12" radius board from SM, and have glued it up, but the board shifted a little. It is centered at the nut, but it shifted about 1/16" to one side at the heel. How much of a problem do you think this 1/16" misalignment will cause, if any, as far as the action goes on the completed guitar? Or will it cause intonation issues as well?
I have a radiused sanding block, and can re radius the board, but I'm not sure whether doing so would cause the fret slots to end up too shallow for the wire's tang. I am not set up to slot or even deepen the slots in the fretboard at this time. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Yup, done that too.

Have you ever tried heating something up to soften the glue so you can seperate the parts? Now's a good time too learn. Search the archives here or over at Frank Ford's site, FretsdotCom. When you get it cleaned up and ready to re glue, use 1/16" drill bits in a couple of fret slots to lock it in place. Just break the drill bit part off and used the shank for an alignment pin. When you drill into the neck, be careful. It really sucks when you drill thru the neck.

Steve

Hmm .. I just changed the way I glue on FBs because even with pins thru fret slots, I had a couple move .. I removed (old iron to heat up) and reglued them. I now use binding scraps glued on the neck blank (mine all start out oversize when I glue on) to hold the FB in its centred position. A bit of gel CA to hold them along side the FB in 2 or 3 spots per side. They get planed/scraped/sanded off after when neck shaping anyway.

Is your neck already at its final width at the body joint ??? Is it a one piece blank, or are there veneer lines in the centre ??? the truss rod being off centre 1/32 or so wont make much difference in its ability to function.

If the neck is a one piece, and there are no centre lines, you can simply carry on ... 1/16 there wont kill you. You will still fret, and level frets, and place the bridge as required, determined by the FB placement. The neck heel will need some work to remove wood on the one side in order to get the neck centred again.

If there are lines in the neck, it will likely look funny if you dont remove it and reglue. Scrape all the old glue off both pieces, Fb and neck blank, and set it straight

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

Thanks, Steve. Yeah, I've removed a fretboard before. Was hoping I wouldn't have to do that here, since my neck is laminated and I'm worried the fretboard joint isn't the only one I'll loosen.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

heat it slow on a lower heat, and check often to see if one end can be lifted easily with a spatula/putty knife then keep the knife moving until the board peels off .. I havent had any of my neck lams open at all (not that 3 makes me an expert - see other thread!!) .. you should be fine.

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

Thanks, Tony. My neck is laminated, but all the same type wood, and the laminations will not be visible when completed, so I'm good there(it's an electric, and the neck and body will be finished in a solid color, so visually equivelent to a one piece). But my neck was already at the final width at the body joint. I glued the fretboard on over sized. I will remember your alignment trick in the future. I used staples with the tops cut off to align the board, but it got off somewhere along the line. I guess I will trim the board to the neck on the sides and finish her up. I can't take any wood off the side of the neck or it'll be too narrow. I'll center my bridge according to the position of the fretboard and hope the frets won't look slightly crooked. Live and learn.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I dont think 1/16 will kill you there then at all Mike .. you can always dry fit it and see what it all looks like, measure out where the bridge and such will be - the angle of the frets wil be miniscule ...

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

As far as holding things in place while gluing, has anyone tried the trick where you sprinkle a few grains of salt or fine sand on the piece after you spread the glue? I always wanted to try that.

As far as pins go, I use the 1/16" drill bits because they seem to stay in place much better than smaller pins or staples. Just be carefull to get them in the center of the fret slot.

Thanks, guys. Greatly appreciated!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.