My first build - 27" scale 7 string - Walnut, Maple, Ziricote

[AscendingMatt]

that fingerboard is absolutely sweet!

 

[Levi79]

Thanks dudes!

 

[Levi79]

I had a couple of oopsies to fix.

Fretting

 

[Sirppi]

That neck+fb is GORGEOUS! Keep it up!

 

[Stompmeister]

Aweosme work man. That fretboard looks phenominal. Have you taken a fret leveler to it yet?

 

[Levi79]

Not yet. That is tonights job.

 

[sytraxiplague]

Wow that fretboard wood is lookin' gorgeous..

 

[Levi79]

Frets leveled.

I found this tool to be absolutely essential to fret dressing.

Frets crowned, bevelled and rounded.

I think I'm pretty much done the neck now.

All that's left to do on the neck is make the headstock match the body (this will come later), oil it, install the truss rod cover, the nut, the tuners and bolt it to the body.

 

[Levi79]

So I suck. And the nice people like Mr. Decible guitars, Mr. Elysian guitars and a couple other knowledgeable people over at MG.org were nice enough to tell em how much I suck

I'm going to have to reseat most of these frets.
Earliest reseating in all history? Possibly so.

Learning from mistakes seems to be every step for me

 

[asilayamazing]

So I suck. And the nice people like Mr. Decible guitars, Mr. Elysian guitars and a couple other knowledgeable people over at MG.org were nice enough to tell em how much I suck

I'm going to have to reseat most of these frets.
Earliest reseating in all history? Possibly so.

Learning from mistakes seems to be every step for me

?

 

[mwcarl]

Looks like he didn't cut the fret slots deep enough. Also the fret edges were sticking out. I sympathize, fretting is still one the skills I'm worst at. Better now, but still not perfect. My first three builds required some tweaking/redoing of the frets, so don't be discouraged.

 

[Necromagnon]

Fretting is awefull part... A small tip, greatly used by a lot of manufacturers and luthiers: add a binding to the fingerboard. And if you want something near invisible, just cut the side of the board to the desired shape, slot the fingerboard, and then glue back what's left after sawing. It will be almost invisible, you can slot very deep and nothing will be noticeable.

 

[mwcarl]

Adding a binding isn't really helpful in this regard. I like the look of binding, and not being able to see the fret tang from the side of the fretboard, but slotting deeper than necessary isn't the solution. By cutting the fret slots deeper, you're making the neck slightly more susceptible to bowing, which means you'll need more truss rod compensation to maintain good neck relief. Try to make the fret slots only just slightly deeper than necessary for the fretwire you're using. This is even more difficult with binding if you're applying the binding before radiusing the fretboard, since the regular fret saw won't work for deepening the slots once the fretboard is bound. There are special purpose fret saws for those cases.

At any rate, always check the depths of all fret slots across the entire width of the fretboard before fretting.

 

[Exit Existence]

Some really nice progress!

 

[Levi79]

Yeah you guys are right. They told me my slots weren't deep enough. I thought it wasn't that bad and I was just going to leave it and possibly refret later, but everyone told me I should do it now and it would save me a big headache. So that's what I'm gonna do.

It's funny you say that about binding though. I kept thinking the whole time I was fretting that it would look awesome with some binding. We'll see. I already installed the side dots and everything.

 

[scherzo1928]

?

I think he means that the fret slots are not deep enough, and so there is a gap between the frets and the board. That or they are just not hammered all the way in.

Get a fret slot depth gauge, they are pretty cheap, and really work beautifully!

edit: didn't realize there was a new page full of comments about what I just said, so I just got 100x ninja'd

 

[Wretched]

Perhaps aim to saw the slots deeper than you think you need to. I've seen that on a few builds and even factory jobs on here lately and deeper doesn't seem to be an issue, which as you've seen, too shallow is an issue. But I'm no expert, that's for sure.

 

[Necromagnon]

Adding a binding isn't really helpful in this regard. I like the look of binding, and not being able to see the fret tang from the side of the fretboard, but slotting deeper than necessary isn't the solution. By cutting the fret slots deeper, you're making the neck slightly more susceptible to bowing, which means you'll need more truss rod compensation to maintain good neck relief. Try to make the fret slots only just slightly deeper than necessary for the fretwire you're using. This is even more difficult with binding if you're applying the binding before radiusing the fretboard, since the regular fret saw won't work for deepening the slots once the fretboard is bound. There are special purpose fret saws for those cases.

?
I don't get it. When frets are placed, what will the depth of fret slot change? Really? Fret will take appart all the weakness brought by fret slots. That's why a lot of people unbow Martin's neck (that has no truss rod) with larger frets. You can have a deeper fret slot, it won't change anything. And for exemple, my 8 string and 5 str bass have fret slots slightly deeper than necessary, and I can assure you that neck won't move. And i've made flat bottom for fret slots, not rounded to follow radius, and it works fine.
But, obviously, you won't make fret slots deep enough to cut completely the fretboard.

At any rate, always check the depths of all fret slots across the entire width of the fretboard before fretting.

Totally agree. And further this idea, alawys check what you're gonna do when you're planning a important part, like gluing, cutting, etc. Always check if it fits, how you're gonna clamp it, the step to follow, etc. I know what I'm talking about, I shit a lot of wood without doing it...

 

[mwcarl]

?
I don't get it. When frets are placed, what will the depth of fret slot change? Really? Fret will take appart all the weakness brought by fret slots. That's why a lot of people unbow Martin's neck (that has no truss rod) with larger frets. You can have a deeper fret slot, it won't change anything. And for exemple, my 8 string and 5 str bass have fret slots slightly deeper than necessary, and I can assure you that neck won't move. And i've made flat bottom for fret slots, not rounded to follow radius, and it works fine.
But, obviously, you won't make fret slots deep enough to cut completely the fretboard.

I don't consider this completely true. Of course you can change the relief of the neck with frets of different tang width, but wood still compresses to some degree, so deeper than necessary fret slots still result in a slight change in neck relief. The difference might not be huge, but since there's no practical reason to saw the slots deeper than the fretwire requires, it makes sense to keep it as close as possible. Sawing the slots with the radius of the fretboard is difficult though so I think that most would just saw them straight. I'm going to try with my builds this year to cut the slots with the radius and as close as possible to the fretwire tang depth.

 

[Necromagnon]

Yes, of course you'd better try to get as close as fret tang impose, but what I say is that there's no influence on it (or not noticeable) if you just saw a little deeper. If we consider that on a side, there's a fret that is about 10 to 20 times stiffer than the wood, and on the other side of the fret board, there's the neck, that is also 10 to 20 times stiffer than fretboard, I don't think there'll be an influence at all.
I may be completely wrong, but in terms of mechanics, I just can't imagine an influence of 1 or 2 mm deeper slots (because slots deeper than 2 mm to fret tang would could the fretboard out).