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These days I always do neck carves in a couple of sessions as there is always something to smooth out
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Starting to think about the fretwork now. A couple of questions if I may.
1. I have a few options on tools. I have a 6" fret levelling file, a 1" x 3" x 18" (I think) aluminium section that I could use as a sanding beam or I could use the 18" radius beam that I did the fretboard with. Any advice on the best approach to try for a beginner?
2. Should I glue the frets in or just hammer them in? (also, is it worth radiusing a piece of wood and practicing putting in a couple of frets, or is it fairly straight forward with little to go wrong?)
3. Deepening fret slots. Should I cut them flat to a set depth, or try to match the radius of the board?
With an unbound neck I would hammer in the frets dry then wick some super glue in the ends to fill the cavity under the slot and the ends of the slot.
Decided to go with the file for the levelling, then used a sanding beam for fallaway. Tried a couple of ways to crown the frets, but I didn't really like the type that does both sides at the same time. Didn't feel as controlled and couldn't see what I was doing. Ended up using a triangular fret crowning file and found that much better.
Certainly a learning curve. Probably ended up taking a little more off than I would have with more experience but they were tall frets anyway and all seems level and smooth so fingers crossed for when it's all strung up! I also think I may have overdone the bevel slightly in places - hopefully not enough to cause a problem.
you’ll probably find yourself making lots of tweaks like that anyway once its strung up and you can play it for a while and see how it feels - I certainly did on my first few builds. Its great to be able
to make these adjustments and finesse the playability - you learn an awful lot about what makes a guitar play well.
The top pic of the full neck is before I did the levelling and fret end dressing. Only the last picture is after the whole process. I wasn't 100% on the best order so I did:
- Frets in
- Beveled the ends, then realised I needed to flatten the little bits of tang that were proud that the bevel wouldn't touch, so did that and ran over the bevel again.
- Leveled the tops
- Crowned
- Dressed the ends.
I wasn't a fan of the concave crowning file I tried.
https://youtube.com/shorts/-W7rmLAXClo?si=9699MoaYuEpkWJTS
@SteveRobinson has some great posts and videos on his site and I notice he uses Rustins grain filler, then sanding sealer, then primer, colour and finally clear. He does say that some woods don't need filling.
The Stewmac video series below, the chaps use epoxy to pore fill, then vinyl sealer (presumably similar to sanding sealer) and then colour and clear.
Opinions? I am using poplar/tulipwood for the body so I am not sure what is required in terms of filler?
Thanks as always
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For future reference - any view on rustins/epoxy/something else? I would never have thought to use epoxy - I'd have assumed it would create a plasticky coating that wouldn't be good for paint but they get a fantastic result in that series.