It's a matter of personal preference. My preference is to break the fretting process into two parts. The first part is to saw (cut) the slots for the frets, then finish the neck using a stain and polyurethane (or something similar) and then do the second part of fretting after the second coat of polyurethane has dried well. The second part includes a "cleaning" of the fret slots by passing the saw through then to clear any accumulation of polyurethane and then actually pounding the fret wire in with a rubber mallet (or similar means). Hope this helps.
I generally only stain the neck/head assembly. However, there can be reasons you may want to stain and/or apply polyurethane (or something similar) to the box. For instance, to preserve paper trim on the box. But you should try to minimize the number of coats as it can deaden the resonance of the box. You don't need to finish the inside of the box. Doing so only adds to the deadening tendency that can occur when you finish a box.
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Also, for my "quick" builds, I skip the "stain and poly" steps.
-Rand.
Hi Paul,
It's a matter of personal preference. My preference is to break the fretting process into two parts. The first part is to saw (cut) the slots for the frets, then finish the neck using a stain and polyurethane (or something similar) and then do the second part of fretting after the second coat of polyurethane has dried well. The second part includes a "cleaning" of the fret slots by passing the saw through then to clear any accumulation of polyurethane and then actually pounding the fret wire in with a rubber mallet (or similar means). Hope this helps.
I generally only stain the neck/head assembly. However, there can be reasons you may want to stain and/or apply polyurethane (or something similar) to the box. For instance, to preserve paper trim on the box. But you should try to minimize the number of coats as it can deaden the resonance of the box. You don't need to finish the inside of the box. Doing so only adds to the deadening tendency that can occur when you finish a box.
-Rand.