Do you think it's preferable to glue the fretboard to the neck before or after adding the frets? I see that there are fully fretted boards available for sale so these are glued afterward but many videos I watch show people fretting with the board on the neck. As this is my first fretted attempt I'm thinking gluing afterwards allows me to start over if I screw up.
My saw may be a bit on the narrow side I measured it at.018 but a fret I put in a piece of pine seemed ok I will have to try a piece of oak. I don't know where I would find a saw with .023 around here.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts
Replies
Hi, that is a good price Brian, far cheaper than Stewmac. Why would you not have one? I have a depth gauge on the side of my handsaw, but only use it for custom scales now. I have a circular saw set up for more common scale fingerboards.
taff
Hey Frank, if you're using frets from stewmac or cb gitty, then this is perfect?
https://www.cbgitty.com/sale-10-cool-things/high-quality-fret-slott...
Hi Frank, fretting can be tricky and mishaps can occur if the correct tools and methods are not used.
Using soft pine to test the grip of a fret will not give an accurate indication of how the fret will fit in harder woods. With a soft fretboard, the fret will crush its way into a narrow stot and the wood fibers will not hold the fret well for long. If the slot is too narrow, in a harder wood, two things can happen. 1- resistance will prevent the fret crown from seating perfectly, so you end up with a lot of leveling to do, then recrowning, and then repolishing. The extra effort from the hammer can also damage fret crowns. And 2 as the tang of the fret is forced into a narrow slot the fingerboard and /or neck can create a back bow, more work one can do without.
The narrow flat CBG fretboard is one of the easiest I found to master. If I have a fret that is slightly too wide for the slot I remove the barbs from the tang. It should only take a few light taps to seat the fret properly.
I have done many hundreds of fret jobs, and I started the way you are, with the wrong saw, in fact, I still have a collection of "wrong saws" I tested from those early years.
I have a reminder sign in my shop. DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. Remember, the correct tool was created for a reason.
Oh, and if fretting the fingerboard off the neck make sure it is sitting on a very hard surface, and use a dead blow hammer.
Cheers Taff
Yes make your fretboard first, it is a major pain to try to pull a fretboard off if you don't have the right tools. The frets should be as tight to the surface as you can get them? Some use glue, some don't, it doesn't hurt anything, but with softer woods you'll need to? Also, verify that your fret template measurements are correct before you start laying out the fretboard, once you cut there's no going back? Post in the pics when you're done, let us know how it came out?