I'm going to try my hand at adding frets to the neck of the build I'm working on. The neck is poplar and I have it all shaped and fitted into the cigar box I'm using. I've marked where the frets should go and now I'm wondering if I should put the finish on the neck first and then cut the slots for the frets or cut them first and then put the finish on. Anyone have any advise or tips?
Thanks
Replies
As Rand says put on a fingerboard the you don't have to worry about messing up a good neck.As for finish I don't bother it is going to wear with use and look a mess.This fingerboard is just sanded and then polished with nylon net fabric
Hi Jeremy Ryal:
Early on I used to fret the neck directly w/o using a fretboard. But after screwing up a few fret jobs I decided going to the trouble of using a fretboard was worth the trouble after all. If you screw up the fret job, you can just toss the fretboard and start again with a fresh blank fretboard, without loosing all the work and materials that went into building the rest of the head/neck assembly. Using a fretboard is good insurance for not screwing up the rest of your instrument should you make a mistake (or mistakes) when fretting. But, the more fret work you do, the easier it becomes, and hopefully you error rate will also go down.
-Rand,
Thanks for the input everyone. I've decided to go without frets on this build. Rand, I like your thought on fretboards vs. frets on the neck. I've spent enough time and effort getting this neck ready, I'd hate to have to rebuild it 'cause I messed it up. Fortunately, I've got plenty of other ideas, boxes, tins, etc. accumulating so I think I'll be able to work out something with frets in the near future. :) So, this one will be a fret-less, short scale, high strung, four-string with a single coil, pre-wired magpup from cb gitty. Heh, heh, what a great hobby....-Jeremy
Not sure what wood you're using, but I'm surprised that you would finish the fretboard. Most guitars/ukes/banjos/etc. have unfinished fingerboards. They're just oiled. (The exceptions that come to my mind are Fender's maple necks.)
On my builds, I have set the frets first, then masked off the front of the neck and lacquered the back only, then oiled the fingerboard. This is what is recommended in the guitar building books I have, and also in the "Advanced CBG Construction" series here.
From what I've seen, the very hard tropical woods like Rosewood are oiled but (relatively) softer woods like maple are lacquered. Americans tend to think of maple and oak as very hard but they're middleweights at best compared to tropical woods, heh.
Thanks for the help everyone. I'll post pics when I get it done.
Well, I just finished my first so I'm not speaking from a lot of experience, but... I had my neck completely done, shaped, fret slots cut, etc. then I finished only the top (finger board) part of it before assembly. I put frets in and then assembled the guitar. Once it was assembled, I went back and put finish on the rest of the neck. Worked good for me. I think you'd have a hard time getting the finish right after the frets are installed, especially if its a high gloss finish.
Well, the finish I was thinking about using is a spray-on, Minwax water-based Polycrylic. I would think that as long as I don't use too-heavy of a coat it shouldn't require too much cleaning out of the slots. I might look for a different finish. I hadn't made up my mind yet.
On the guitars I've built I fret first and put the finish on last. I use minwax wipe on poly and 0000 steel wool between coats to clean off the frets and smooth out between the frets
What is the finish, oil, lacquer, shellac, varnish? If you put the finish on first, the worst thing that can happen is scratching it. If you put the finish on after cutting then you may have to clean out the fret slots depending on what kind of finish you use.