Then I reach the fretwork, and get so frustrated that I verge on just walking away from the project for a while.
It seems that no matter how carefully I cut the slots, clip the wire and press them in, the fret heights vary wildly. Then I end up spending more time than I'd like grinding the crowns with files, and even after using my re-crowning file, they never look as good as when they were first pushed into the board.
Am I doing something wrong in the process, or does anyone else get wound up by the intricacies of fretwork?
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Replies
Good catch Don.
-WY
Don Thompson said:
The natural dip Don is referring to... is the slight bowing of the neck due to string tension
over time. This will form a " natural dip" between the nut and the 12th fret and
sometimes even beyond that.
The truss rod counteracts that dip by equalizing the tension of the strings on that area
of the neck. If you over tighten the torque rod, the neck will gradually flex to form a
"hump" which will< make some frets higher than others, cause a buzzing when these are fretted.
Having a FB perfectly flat is desirable, but not always achievable, so a very slight dip
(when sighted down the FB from the 1st fret is desirable..but not too much.
It's always a bit of a comprimize...height of bridge (height of string action with respect to
the frets) versus FB and fret trueness.
Don
Wes Yates said:
Scotty C. said:
carverman said:
Scotty C. said:
An excellent tutorial with pictures and recommendations for ways of construction of a mitre box etc.
I wish I had known about this DVD a couple of years ago, when I installed frets on a pre-slotted
fretboard from S-M. I managed to make it work, but with more levelling than would have been
necessary. I've ordered a fret saw with a depth adjustment from S-M.
The other technique that I've adopted is to use the full length of the fret wire to hold it
"true" in the groove, so when my (homemade caul/drill press method) presses in the fret,
it is easier to hold onto, and keep thefingers out of the way of the caul.
I don't know if this is the right way, but it works for me.
After pressing in the fret, I nip off the long end with a pair of side cutters.
It also helps to preform the fret a bit on a radius FB before putting it in the fret slot.
I use an old piece of left over FB for this with a wider groove.
BadTimmy said:
It's a slab of granite from Home Depot, usually used as a splash guard in fancy-schmancy bathrooms. I went over to the painting department and bought some decent spray adhesive and laid over sandpaper. The slab is pretty flat, and best of all, the weight is roughly 8 pounds, which is just enough to where i can slide it back and forth without much added downward pressure.a hacksaw, and then used a half round file to make the bottom contour into a 12" FB radius.
I also used a dremel disk to make a groove about the thickness of the crown of the fret
for better alignment on the fret itself. Sorry about the out of focus pic, but my camera
even in macro has a hard time to focus that close. That pic just shows the 12" radius curvature.
The first pic shows the homemade fret caul in the middle.
The frets are installed on the fret board before it is glued on as the flat bottom surface
of the FB is stable to clamp on a 10 inch hobby drill press table.
You can buy commercially made cauls from S-M, but these are rather expensive for one-offs.
The other tools, besides diagnol cutters, assortment of files is the 12" radius (8") sanding
block from S-M. I suppose I could have made one myself out of hardwood, but since I had
an order for fret wire etc; I got it from them. The trick with the block is to use light pressure
and 220 grit (or even finer), keep it straight and take light strokes and check fret height frequent. Every has their own method and there seems to be almost as many methods
as making cheese.
fret tools.jpg
homemade fret caul.jpg
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