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Really a couple of questions. I've done the fretting on the 4 guitars I've made before putting the fretboard on the neck. And, I've done the fret leveling once the board is glued on, but prior to putting the neck on the body.
First, am I spinning my wheels by doing this, and risking having to do it again once neck is on the body? I haven't really noticed anything odd on those yet, but obviously I'm not that experienced. Also, if I have relief set in, will I have some frets - like around fret 7 lower than the adjacent ones because of the relief?
Thanks,
Bob

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Bob
From the oldest town in Texas.

Yes, your middle of the neck frets will be lower than the nut/tongue frets if you have relief in the neck. Leveling should be done with the neck dead straight.

I level after the neck is glued on.

I also fret off the neck then level with neck on, board straight, and under tension.

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Pat

If you level when you have "normal" relief in your neck, you will grind out the relief, which will leave the middle frets taller than the frets at both ends of the neck. Level the frets with the neck as straight as you can get it, then you know what you have.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

If you are using a 1 way adjustable truss rod it is ok to put relief into the frets but at the final set up ,, it will allow you some forward adjustment , but there is no need to file the frets until it is on the guitar.
Look at it this way , the guitar body is one part , that is the tone generator ,the neck is what makes the guitar playable. I can't stress this enough , the neck is what will determine what you will get out of the box. Getting the fret board as true to the body as possible, breaking the edge of the fret slot so the frets can bottom out to the board . I also take it one step farther and true the fretboard on the guitar then fret. The better you prep the fret board , the better the fret plane the better you can make the guitar feel.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

That works.

I don't believe this is an issue for Trevor with his support of the fretboard extension but for those of us that do a glued extension or the Bourgeois-type double tenon attachment you need a little extension drop off unstrung to compensate for movement under tension and later as the guitar settles in.

You would not want to level the entire fretboard unstrung in those situations, just to the area where the drop off starts and then blend in the transition. I usually support the headstock, put 5 or 6 lbs of weight on each upper bout shoulder and get the neck as flat as I can with the truss rod and level. There is still usually a little drop off to blend in as I allow for further settling in down the line but this technique gives me a better idea what the fretboard will do under string tension when leveling.
The neck has to be attached to the body with the extension glued or bolted

The future may very well see me gravitating towards Trevor's design. It certainly seems to factor out much of the settling in variable at the south end of the board, much like an archtop neck.

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

Like Terence, I also use a double tenon neck. And I will bolt the neck on to level the board allowing for around .010" fall off for the fret board extension, remove the neck to press the frets in, bolt the neck back on to level the frets with the same fall off for extension. Then remove the neck to crown frets and apply finish. On final setup, around .005" relief works great on my guitars for most players.

Chuck

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Thanks everyone for their input. I have the neck/body joined and will use the truss rod to get a dead level board, and then check for any high frets. I believe I was level after it was glued to the neck. But I'm going to be absolutely sure now.
Much appreciated.
Bob

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Bob
From the oldest town in Texas.

You get the neck dead straight before leveling. If you try to level with relief in the neck, depending on the length of your block and the amount of relief you may have difficulty actually leveling frets (using too short of a block means your block constantly hits the higher portion of the neck, and you are getting nowhere, and if you have a really long block but too much relief, you'll nearly grind out the frets at the high points while the frets in the dip are nearly untouched. Had this trouble with a neck that lacks a truss rod... Just worry about getting the frets level with the neck dead straight, and everything should fall into place once the proper relief is dialed in.

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