Rocket Posted July 8, 2003 Report Share Posted July 8, 2003 I was re-radiusing a neck from 7.25" to 10" and everything seemed cool before I put the frets in. After I had it fretted I checked the fingerboard with one of those Stew Mac notched straight edges and when I got the middle of the neck to read straight the high E side had a convex bow, and the low E side had a concave bow. I was confused as to how I should check for high frets so I just straightened the high E side.....anyway, I screwed the pooch, the frets are ruined now, I'm assuming the neck is twisted, right? So #1. Is it worth continuing to work on it? Or is it scrap? #2. if it is salvagable, after I rip the frets out, should I just keep planing until it's straight on all sides? Thing is, i could've swore i checked the high E & low E sides of the fretboard before fretting. The frets were the same size as before, and even though I deepened the slots I used a Stew Mac saw and Stew Mac frets so everything should've worked. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted July 8, 2003 Report Share Posted July 8, 2003 I t sounds like it could have happened when you were re-raduising the fretboard by not sanding parallel to the fingerboard. If you pull all the frets and fix the board you probably have to re-saw the fret slots. If it's not "twisted" too bad you could even correct it with a dressing of the frets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted July 9, 2003 Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 maybe something happened why you were pressing the frets in? how did you do it? are you sure the neck had level support while doing do? maybe one side of it got snagged on something in the shop and when you pressed on the neck to put a fret in you were warping the neck? another idea that just poped into my head, when i was radiusing a f'board the other day i noticed it was quite tricky to try and apply uniform pressure to the sanding block, like sometimes i would pick it up to tap off the dust that had built up and only one side would have alot and the other would be bare, sometimes it changed, i ended up using both hands in a "strangling someones neck" kind of position to get the best results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGM Guitars Posted July 9, 2003 Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 it just sounds like you sanded your radius's in inaccurately like Scott said, compound radius's are tough to do by hand. I would suggest just pulling the frets and resanding if it is bad enough that you can't just level it out in the frets. I actually purposely sanded my 911 fretboard with a sanded in front bow on the low E side and dead flat on the high E side to see if I could get a lower action without buzz overall on the neck, it actually worked quite well, I can get the action lower than I want it with no buzz, it wasn't much of a difference, maybe .010" of front bow from the first to 24th fret on the low E side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted July 9, 2003 Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 compound radius's are tough to do by hand.. is he doing one? i thought he was flattening out the entire board to 10 for a different over all feel. how are they done with machining tools? it's still baffling to try and figure out on my own... but i'm guessing it takes some special tools or custom and large bits for a tablemount router of some sort? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Posted July 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2003 No not compound, I was just making the whole thing 10". I did pull the frets out and was going to level the board futher but then noticed where the Floyd nut goes(it was out) the truss rod channel was VERY close to the top the fretboard. i didn't want to risk sanding it more and then cutting the fret slots through into the channel. That would've been bad. So I just put more frets in and it made it worse because I went with a slightly larger size...ah, I'm an idiot. Anyway, I've been doing some weird leveling, leaving it backbowed and only leveling the high E & B area, trying to take the hump down. It worked somewhat. The notes don't ring clearly between about the 4th fret to the 12th. (E & B strings) I might go with a heavier string gauge to pull it straighter, though I wish I didn't have to do that. It doesn't matter all that much, it's good experience and I figure I can either take it to a shop and have them put a new fingerboard on or just buy another neck as a last option. I just thought I'd try this since the neck was mine anyway, cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted July 12, 2003 Report Share Posted July 12, 2003 Pull the fretboard yourself it's easy, just use the tutorial on the site and take your time it only should take you about an hour or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGM Guitars Posted July 12, 2003 Report Share Posted July 12, 2003 you lost me on the truss rod channel dude, how is it close to the top of the fretboard? is it a Strat neck? Most fretboards don't have the channel routed into them at all, they are solid, the channel is fully in the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket Posted July 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2003 Yes a Stratocaster neck. A 1978. The hole where the truss rod nut sticks out is really close to the top of the fretboard AT LEAST at the nut end. I don't know if it curves back from there (toward the back of the neck. It might. I'm looking at a photo of a cross section of a Strat neck from Dan Erlewines old GP column and it does curve back from there.) I would've sanded through at the area the Floyd nut mounts against anyway. If I sanded enough to fix the problem. I was going to just take the fretboard off. It's maple w/ maple neck. It's a one piece though, there is no seperate fretboard. It would have to be sawed off. When I was going to buy the frets, the shop I went to had right there what looked to be a 1978 Strat, I mean it was exact to mine except the color. The repairperson looked it over and agreed it was a one piece. With a thin skunk stripe of darker wood on the back of the neck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGM Guitars Posted July 12, 2003 Report Share Posted July 12, 2003 ahhh yes, if it's a maple board maple neck, I believe almost all fenders even the mexi ones are one piece, if there is a skunk stripe that is a huge giveaway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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