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Permalink Reply by Keith Rearick on January 5, 2020 at 8:52am

Or you could just buy the already made papers that Gitty sell, to mark out where the frets go, then you transfer then to the fret board and then cut and install.

https://www.cbgitty.com/fretting-tools-templates/

This is what I ended up doing a few weeks ago, while they were on sale. Tou get 4 sized scales in each set. The only one I don't have now, is for ukuleles, and mandos.

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Permalink Reply by JP Lace Master on January 5, 2020 at 9:52am

They look good, not sure I can afford them, I want as many scales to work with as possible and I'm in the UK, not the US, and I haven't found anything like these here.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on January 5, 2020 at 10:15am

If you are in the UK take a look at my fretting template and mitre boxes. Template.   Mitre Box

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on January 5, 2020 at 9:49am

All you need to set out frets is a good steel rule, a marking knife or very sharp pencil and a good eye. It's much easier to work in millimetres than in fractions of an inch, but either way, a good rule and a sharp eye are pretty much all that is needed. StewMac has a good online fret calculator.  Always use a "running dimension" from the nut to the fret for each position, NEVER measure fret to fret, as any errors will simply accumulate.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 5, 2020 at 11:00am

Hi JP, for successful fretting there are a number of things that help get a good job first time.

Technique - is important... practice, practice, practice.

The correct tools - or as close as you can get.....give better/best results.

Procedure - Follow the correct procedure [its all on utube, but watch a few, there's lots of experts out there.

Good fingerboard material, a flat neck and a firm surface to work on. 

Now all this is going to cost money. All the tools I needed I made for my self, from photographs, and over the years I bought the real thing if I needed it. Even the scale lengths I transferred from other guitars. 

Don't take short cuts, it is time consuming, a job worth doing is worth doing well. DO IT RIGHT FIRST TIME, is the motto I have hanging in my workshop.

Good luck Taff

 

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Jordan on January 6, 2020 at 12:03am

I use tools found around the house to fret with., a flat FB blank is essential..,I use a old strat fretboard as a template.,,.I usually use the 1st fret slot to mark the zero fret, resulting in a 24"scale.,you can always subtract a fret for different scale lengths.,.,I mark all the fret positions with a little mark, then add lines with my .square.,I cut the fret slots with my stew-mac saw.,then install the frets with a tack hammer and a little block of wood.,then I bevel the fret edges, and glue the board to the neck blank.,.,next I level the frets with a fine mill file, and polish them with some fine sandpaper.,.,tons of good info out there.,,just like Taffy said.,.,I learned from trial and error, but now we have youtube to show us the way.,.,.

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Permalink Reply by T-Gripped on January 7, 2020 at 2:56am

This has helped me:

http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/

it is a free online fret template that allows you to choose any scale length, any number of frets, any number of strings, etc. You can print the pdf file and reuse. I have made templates for Ukes all the way up to full scale basses.

Be sure to print 'actual' size. [Don't ask me how I know this.]

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on January 7, 2020 at 3:09am

i second this as it is a very versitile tool.  there is only one problem with it. you need to have flash enabled in your browser or the save buttons will not show up so you cant save the PDF file.

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Permalink Reply by JP Lace Master on January 7, 2020 at 11:32am

I like it and I have flash on my laptop, so not a problem

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on January 7, 2020 at 9:57pm

good, chrome on my win 10 desktop keeps complaining that flash is not supported... windows that is.  i started up my mac mini earlier today and it asked me to update flash! lol 

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