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Permalink Reply by Jason W. on June 22, 2011 at 3:35pm

Do it, imo. It's better to be a little too deep than a little too shallow. I know from experience that if you try to put a fret in a slot that's not deep enough, you'll only end up with a battered up fret that will pop out easy.

 

You can always come back later and put a little glue in the holes and sand them over to make them look pretty if you want.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Tomlinson on June 22, 2011 at 6:13pm

Thanks Jason....that was my thinking too. Did my first fretboard (insitu) on a newer build I did a couple of months ago. The medium fret wire tang length is .055", I set my depth at .056". Everything seemed to go perfect! Just have to dress them tomorrow.

Jason W. said:

Do it, imo. It's better to be a little too deep than a little too shallow. I know from experience that if you try to put a fret in a slot that's not deep enough, you'll only end up with a battered up fret that will pop out easy.

 

You can always come back later and put a little glue in the holes and sand them over to make them look pretty if you want.

 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Bliss on June 22, 2011 at 7:00pm

My thinking is that the fretwire kind of "bounces back" slightly on install so you need a little extra room to allow it. (Best description I could come up with!)

Another consideration, and something I have had good luck with and it seems particularly useful in harder woods - Radius the slot slightly (I use a little triangular file for this) to allow for the slight radius in the wire where the tang meets the underside of the top of the fret wire. The frets lie flatter and require less "dressing" when I do this.

 

Hope that helps!

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on June 22, 2011 at 11:34pm

Hi Mark. The other reason that I have heard for doing this is that if you need to remove frets you are less likely to tear at the wood as the fret comes out. I've not had to remove frets, but I have done what you describe using ebony for the fretboard. So far so good.

Mark Bliss said:

Another consideration, and something I have had good luck with and it seems particularly useful in harder woods - Radius the slot slightly (I use a little triangular file for this) to allow for the slight radius in the wire where the tang meets the underside of the top of the fret wire. The frets lie flatter and require less "dressing" when I do this.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Tomlinson on June 23, 2011 at 3:18am

Thanks for all the info guys! Nothing like experience to help make the job easier.

 

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on June 23, 2011 at 6:19am

Tracy,

 

Check out my fretting video, it may help answer some questions for you.

 

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/how-to-fret-a-neck

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Tomlinson on June 23, 2011 at 5:09pm

Thanks Dan....I'll check it out!

Dan Sleep said:

Tracy,

 

Check out my fretting video, it may help answer some questions for you.

 

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/how-to-fret-a-neck

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fred Johnson on June 25, 2011 at 4:35am

Agree with the the advice you've been given, deeper cuts and use the three square file to chamfer the top edges of each slot

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