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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 13, 2013 at 7:33am

Yep, toothpicks, finishing nails, copper coat hanger wire...you can also use the flat-style bobby pins. Just cut 'em to fit, and Super Glue 'em on at the correct fret positions for your neck scale. The anonymous pick built the only fretted SwampWitch for me that way, they work great, and last lots longer than toothpicks. I was just laying down a blues riff a few minutes ago on mine, until my wife told me to turn my tube amp down ( jeez, it's tough to get the tubes to break up below 1, Honey!). You can do one of these.

But real frets are better ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Larry Chapman on January 13, 2013 at 7:40am

The first two builds I used online fret calculators and that worked fine except that the depth and width of my fret cuts weren't consistent or correct. I then bought one of the Harbor Freight flush saws and ordered a pre-cut fret board from C.B. Gitty to use as a guide for future builds. I've since built two more CBGs using the Gitty as a guide and it is working out fine. While you're at Harbor Freight be sure to get you a set of good needle files for dressing the frets. Buy some fret wire from Gitty and they'll send you a free DVD that explains the entire process of fretting a neck. 

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on January 13, 2013 at 8:19pm

Uh gitts...

I musta bought 7 buttloads of frets off you fella....
WHERE'S MY GODDAMN DVD?? :D

Original poster..
Before these guys send you all over town for some magic saw..
Do you have access to a scroll saw?

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Permalink Reply by Calis on January 13, 2013 at 9:26pm

No scroll saw access. I'll just be making do with whatever hand tools I have.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Chapman on January 14, 2013 at 10:48am

Look on his Gitty's website in the fret wire section. Certain packages state they come with a DVD. 

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Permalink Reply by wormil on January 16, 2013 at 6:10pm

Look at my pics and you'll find an alternate type of fret using copper wire. There is also a pic of a DIY miter box using the Harbor Freight saw for cutting fret slots.

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screen...

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on January 18, 2013 at 10:43am

That 10 dollar saw from harbor freight works great, I'm done quite a few necks with it and it is still really sharp.

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Permalink Reply by Calis on January 20, 2013 at 8:30pm

Okay folks, thanks for all of the encouragement to build my own neck. Here is a link to what I managed to pull off. It is currently truly unplayable. My nut is much too high, maybe even the bridge, so I have to remedy that. Sadly, I may not have time to play with it until next weekend. I saw a build where a person used small eye bolts to hold tension down behind the nut, I will have to use that in order to shorten the nut.

I plan to troubleshoot this one and then move on to the next couple. My next one will be fretted normally I think...I'll just have to learn how to play it. I'm going to hunt down someone that will give me a little bit of band saw time though, if I can do that, I'll make a few dozen necks....just in case.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on January 20, 2013 at 11:25pm

That's a great first effort, bravo. Two words for ya, try em out... Zero fret...

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on January 21, 2013 at 10:35am

Looks like ya did a nice job! One thing that might help is if you still have the piece you sliced off the head, you can glue it on the back of the head and that will make the tuner posts lower in relation to the fretboard, then as you lower the nut you may not have to use anything to hold the strings down.

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Permalink Reply by Calis on January 21, 2013 at 4:20pm

I'm afraid that would be pretty ugly hehe. I used a coping saw to slice that bit off the head and I had to sand the heck out of it make it presentable to myself LOL.. That slice of wood came off in 2 pieces come to think of it though.

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Permalink Reply by Daddy D on January 25, 2013 at 8:36pm

You can also get a piece of 1/4 by 1 1/2 to glue on to the back of the headstock to lower your tuners. Looks like you did a great job. Lower that nut and have some fun with it.

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