Blogs

I thought I'd document my method for cutting fret slots. Disclaimer: This is how I do it. BE SAFE. Follow your tools' directions. I'm not responsible for your accidents or bad decisions. In fact, DON'T DO THIS. 

Are we good now?

SoI started with a shopmade miter box and a Harbor Freight pull saw, as shown above. I actually like that other saw better as the back is reinforced. Anyhow, what you can't really see in that miter box is that there's the spine of a utility knife blade sticking up there. It's the same thickness as the saw kerf and registers the kerfs cut into the templates, above. Two of the templates I laid out with 12" digital calipers; one I made using an actual Martin fretboard and the method below, using the fretboard as the template and the template material as the workpiece. I hope that makes sense. 

To make a fretboard I'd affix the fretboard blank to the BACK of the appropriate template, then slide the template down onto the knife blade, then make my cut with the saw. No depth stop, meaning some trial and error and tweaking to get the depths somewhere in the neighborhood of right.

Not ideal. So recently I ordered a Stewmac tablesaw blade ground to the right thickness for fretwire. It was expensive, but using the templates I made and a dedicated table saw sled, I can cut a fretboard relatively quickly. 

That's the bottom of the sled. I used a couple of those Microjig runners I had. They're great, but you don't need them. That saw blade's only 6" in diameter, as you can see, and it burns readily. 

There's the sled, shown from the far side of the table saw. As you can see, I went with the utility knife again to register the template. It works a lot like a box joint jig, but you need to pay attention to your zero fret location. I used the end of the template when I made mine, but you'd be better off making it a slot and either using a zero fret (I've never done this) or cutting it off at that point. You'll figure it out. 

In this configuration I glue the template on its side to the back of the fretboard blank. The knife is raised up in the registration slot so that the fretboard material sits under it. 

Here's the view from the user's perspective. The template is taped to the walnut fretboard. To cut, you line the kerf in the template up with the utility knife blade (it's in the little slot to the left in the greenish poplar piece; the slot next to it is where the blade actually cuts. So you just work your way from one end of the template to the other, and it goes very quickly. Just remember that the slot depth equals the height of the blade sticking up past the bed of the sled (I used 1/4" tempered hardboard). Also remember that the blade is going to come out the back of your sled ... BE CAREFUL. All the slots are uniform, you only have to measure once, and you're moving on in minutes.

I hope this helps somebody. I didn't invent any of this; at most I adapted it from the video on the Stewmac site since I wanted to use my own templates and not pay for theirs, which are surely more accurate than my handmade ones. 

This is something I waited way too long to try. I never really had a big problem with frets buzzing, but having all of your frets perfectly level and polished is a wonderful thing.

There are numerous ways to approach this task, and please bear in mind that this way works perfectly with an instrument with a flat fretboard, whereas the technique would be a little different with a radiused neck.

I ordered myself a fret crowning file from eBay. This one was around £25, and came complete with several grades of sandpaper from 800 to 2500 grit, a spring steel fretboard protector (to use while sanding) and a gummy rubber to clean the file. The file itself is concave and fits neatly over an individual fret, it is a diamond file and will give a good and smooth result quickly. They are custom made by a guy in the UK. Link here

To begin with, clamp the guitar down to you bench/table. I used some soft materials to prevent any scratches to the finish. I also masked off the pickups, so I didn't get any metallic dust in there.

Use a felt tip pen to draw a line straight across the tops of all of the frets. I used one of my daughter's Crayolas as they are easy to wipe off in case I slipped. This will be your reference point, as it will highlight any lower frets as you level them.

Levelling - this is the step that would differ if your fretboard had a radius (of course you can buy fret levelling files for this purpose, and I have heard of sticking sandpaper in your radius sanding block and using that). I ran the finer surface of my sharpening stone back and forth across the fretboard a few times, being careful to apply equal pressure. I carried on until all of the pen marks had gone.

Notice the flat tops on the frets. The two on the left side of the photo have had the pen line redrawn on them. Now it is time to recrown them.

With the crowning file, a few passes across the top of the fret will bring back the original rounded top. You want to keep going until your pen mark is just a very thin line across the middle of the fret. One you're happy with it, time to polish them up.

There are two ways to go about polishing the frets after crowning: Do them individually, using the spring steel fretboard protector and progressing through the grits (800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500) on each fret. This took ages! The second time I did this job I simply masked off the entire fretboard (leaving the frets exposed of course) and sanded the whole lot at the same time lengthways. This was much quicker, and I was happier with the result.

Once you're happy with the level of polish on the frets, all that's left to do is to gently brush away any metal filings and dust from the fretboard, and get the strings on. 

And there we have it. Despite having no real issues before, the overall feel of the guitar is greatly improved. Of course, if you are experiencing buzz from uneven frets, this fairly simple process will make a huge difference.

-RK

I've been meaning to have a go at this for a while. I have seen it done a couple of times before. As always, I don't consider this to be entirely my own work or research, but rather a collaborative effort with others in the community. Let me share with you how I did it:

The benefits of this technique are:

• Improved ergonomics, indeed, the Novak guitars which famously used fanned frets were 8 string guitars. The fanned frets make the wider neck more comfortable to play.
• A different scale length for each string means that you have more control over individual string tension.
• Last but not least, it looks cool. I'm not ashamed to admit that this is the main reason I wanted to try this!

Making a fanned fretboard is certainly more involved, but not too difficult. The easiest way to explain how is that you want to measure the fret locations for a different scale length on either side of the fretboard. I measured the frets for a 630mm scale on the bass side and 600mm on the treble side.

The other consideration at this point is where you want the two scales to meet, i.e. which fret will be at a right angle to the neck. I chose the 12th, but it is possible to chose the nut (zero), or any other fret if you wish. I marked out the frets on the bass side first, then positioned the ruler at the 12th fret and measured backward from there from the treble side.

When cutting the frets, I marked them as usual with a pencil, then scored with a knife. When cutting the slots with my fret slotting saw I used wooden blocks clamped in place to get them as accurate as possible.

(Another very important consideration at this point is that if you are intending to taper your neck, mark the taper first, then the fret locations along where the final limits of the fretboard will be after tapering. It will not work the other way round! I had to make the fretboard twice, but fortunately I realised before I glued it) :-)

Is this making sense so far? This leaves us with a nut and bridge which will be on quite an extreme slant. This was tricky!

Both cutting the nut to shape and filing the slots was a real pain. Took a couple of attempts.

So that's about it really. This is the finished guitar:

So, is it nice to play? Absolutely. I feels really natural, and not at all weird. Is it worth the effort for a 3 string? Sure, why not! Would I try it again? Yeah, probably, although there's nothing wrong with good old fashioned straight frets. This was the most fun I have had making a CBG in ages. I think its the fear factor - I spent the whole time thinking 'this might not work' :-)

Give it a go if you fancy a challenge!

Richey

Dear team

After many failed attemps at fretting I am planning to try again and after some help.

1) What is the best fret wire to use?

2) What's the best scale length to use?

3) What is any string height compensation required against scale length?

4) Could I be using incorrect strings and will that make a huge difference?

What is the trick to making these work and play well?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mr Bug

(This is clever on an old banjo I have for just an interesting photo, note brass tube to typical 6 string tuners one not used, I kept my kids tooth to make a banjo nut from shhhh dont tell the tooth fairy)

  Here's my first CB building blog. It's just a short one to get the hang of it. It's about making an accurate fret scale template for about 3$US as opposed to buying one for 40+$US. It has sub-millimeter accuracy with just a little care taken in its making. First, you need a 3$ 'Swanson' yardstick from Lowes i.e. (http://ity.im/07nkn). Of course it can be another quality brand from somewhere else as long as it has mm marked its full length. After completion of the template, it can be cut back to wahtever length you really want, the one in this blog and these pix is for a 30" Bass Scale. I like the 'Swanson' brand, I've bought 6 of them so far and have found Zero visual difference between any of them. Accurate enough I think. My frets and intonation come out near perfect so far after 23 builds.

On to the actual 'making':

Here you see I have the stick clamped against a board on my build bench.

I support behind the 'stick on each cut and 'guide the saw straight with a small block of hardwood.

I am using an Xacto saw blade.

The 'stick is aluminum and does not hurt the blade much.

I've used this blade for 20 years or more for wood, aluminum and brass.

After cutting the notches to about 1/8" or so (doesn't matter as long as you can see them) I highlight the marks in red Sharpie. I check and double check against my fret table (I use mm for frets) before each cut. I try to get as close to .5mm or .3mm or .7mm as possible when cutting between the full mm marks. I have created a plastic 'slide-guide' that is cut out the thickness of the 'stick on one side to help with parallax error since the 'stick is pretty thick.

Here you can see how the plastic slide-guide rests on the 'stick and on the fretboard itself.

The red marks are easy to find and the little slot acts as a natural stop for the slide.

But I find this to be the easiest method. Flip the 'stick over!! The 'stick is plain on the back! Straight and smooth!

I find my next slot with the Xacto #11 knife,

Slide the guide up to the knife, then

draw the blade out of the slot on the 'stick and along the guide for a great, thin, easy to find fret position mark.

After all the frets are marked, I put the Xacto blade in the knife mark and slide a small 4" square up to the blade and mark a line all the way across the fret board for the fretsaw to follow. The saw follows the knife blade mark very well.

Just an overall shot of the simple to make and best of all CHEAP $3 fret scale with sub mm accuracy!!

Best of all, since they are only 3$, you can make a different one for every scale, 25 inch for guitar, 13-15-17-20 inch for ukes and 30-34 inch for bass and still  have less than 25$US all told! Way less than one scale template from a luthier supply store and way better than a printed paper template. I can mark a 20 fret 30 inch bass neck in about 30 seconds now with real good accuracy and total repeatability. And since there is a spare edge the 'stick could be used for a second scale but I like a separate 'stick for each scale to keep from confusing myself (pretty easy) and since they're only 3$US how can you go wrong!

Hope this can help some of you builders out there, especially the newer ones who haven't figured out all these handy tools and jigs that help us build better!

All comments welcome and anyone with a suggestion to improve this type template or this blog, please jump right in and share with us all.

Thanks for looking my blog over.

DrByte.

Once i sanded my fretboards how i like them I pressed and trimmed the frets

The pictures tell the story. I used to hammer the frets in  but that was a pain in the ass so I made this press. and Also made a few blocks and shims so I can press all the frets up to the high end.notice how I turned my kitchen table into my workshop. this makes my wife so happy.....not.        

dig the blurry pics