Fingerboard Questions

[G.I. Ace]

can i buy a fretted fingerboard online somewhere? with or without inlays...? i think im not up to buying a preslotted and radiused fingerboard and put the frets in my self... :/

[frank falbo]

You can buy them, but it's a mistake. It's the wrong way to do it. The frets should be installed after the board is laminated to the neck.

[Daniel Sorbera]

You can buy them, but it's a mistake. It's the wrong way to do it. The frets should be installed after the board is laminated to the neck.

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Dude what the heck are you talking about?

You can buy a preslotted board, attach it too the neck, and than install the new frets. Hes wasn't saying too install the frets and than glue the fingerboard on...

[Guitarfrenzy]

I've seen people do it both ways with good results though. I personally like to glue the fingerboard to the neck, sand it perfectly level, then install the frets, same as you and Frank. I do agree that Frank just misunderstood the original post.

[Setch]

Frank understood the post perfectly ie: the original poster asked where he could buy a *fretted* fingerboard. Not a neck, not a slotted board, but a fretted fingerboard.

How you could interpret that post any other way is unfathomable to me.

I do, however, disagree with Frank. I've fretted my last 4 fretboards off the neck, and they've turned out very nicely. Whatever works is the right way - different strokes and all...

[unclej]

i'm not taking sides in the interpretation of the original post but i'm curious about something. if you fret a fingerboard off of the neck doesn't it end up with a backbow from the tangs being slightly larger than the fret slot and if so do you have any problem getting it to clamp flat to the neck?

[doug]

if you fret a fingerboard off of the neck doesn't it end up with a backbow from the tangs being slightly larger than the fret slot and if so do you have any problem getting it to clamp flat to the neck?

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This is something I've wondered about myself. I can't even imagine fretting it first. It must work though becasue some do it that way. My question is how does one properly glue it to the neck? I'm not concerned about the backbow of the fingerboard really, but I'm more curious about how it gets attached nice and flat.

Let me clarify, if the fingerboard gets clamped to the neck using the frets as pressure points, then the board would end up wavy. So, Setch, how do you get it flat while gluing?

-Doug

[Setch]

I fret the board with it attached to a nice flat piece 1.75" of counter top. This forces the board to compress around the fret tangs, rather than bend away from them and introduce back bow. There is still some back bow when the board is removed from the backing board, but you can push the board perfectly flat using your pinky, so clamping it flat is no problem.

I glue the fretboard down using a straight metal beam, usually a carpenters level, with a stiff leather belt as a pad to protect the frets. This forces the fretboard and neck to set in a nice straight line, and they usually require very little leveling after carving the back of the neck.

[krizalid]

If i'm not mistaken, that's how Myka and Perry did their fingerboards, fretted first, then attache it with the rest of the neck.

[Mickguard]

Hey now, if it's possible to buy a prefretted board, then I might actually start to want to think about maybe considering the idea of building my own neck!

What about radiusing and things like that? Is that done after that fingerboard has been attached?

Edit: in a large-scale operation like Gibson or Fender, wouldn't it make sense to have a separate line for fretted fingerboards?

Edited May 27, 2005 by idch

[rhoads56]

If i'm not mistaken, that's how Myka and Perry did their fingerboards, fretted first, then attache it with the rest of the neck.

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You'd be very wrong...

Gibson fret their fretboard prior to installation on the neck. But they do a LOT of things "backwards"

[Setch]

If i'm not mistaken, that's how Myka and Perry did their fingerboards, fretted first, then attache it with the rest of the neck.

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That's a double no. Both fret after glueing the fretboard on, and carving the neck.

[doug]

I do mine after gluing, and carving the neck too. I just like to have the fingerboard nice and level before putting frets in. I also pre-stress the necks a bit too, so I would have to build a new clamping jig.

So if you're using the frets as pressure points, you still get a nice conistent glue joint? In all honesty, I caomprehend the advantage to doing the fretting ahead of time. Everyone has their own technique in the end I guess. So thanks for the explanation.

-Doug

[LGM Guitars]

The problem with buying a pre-fretted neck, outside of the slots not staying as tightly compressed on the tangs until it's glued are many.

1. You are now stuck with the size of the fretboard, this is fine IF your neck is the same. Yes, you can sand it down, but it's awfully hard to make it look nice when you have to take fret ends down with the wood.

2. I don't care how well your frets are pressed and how level they are, they will need levelling after you glue the board, because when the board backbows the slots open up a bit, if your frets aren't radiused to the board PERFECTLY, this can cause either ends, or centers to raise.

3. Quite often when you glue on a piece of wood such as a fretboard, the glue will cause the wood to swell, then shrink back, usually it will shrink back a little further than when the fret ends were dressed, so now you have to redress them anyway.

4. If the frets are not radius'd exactly it can literally cup the fretboard, there is a lot of force in a radius'd fret. You get 24 in there, and yup, the board can cup. then it's harder to glue it onto the neck.

There are companies who fret first, Seagull is one, they also have a vacuum press to glue their boards on, and every single neck and board is CNC cut so the width's etc are identical, they also have fret edges that stick over on their guitars in the store.

The hardest part to get correct in fretting is dressing the ends and levelling the frets. If you fret before you glue up, you're going to have to do this step anyway, so I wouldn't let pressing the frets deter you.

The ONLY time I might consider fretting first, is on a board like Gibson or some Fenders where the fret ends have to be cut to 90 degrees because the binding follows the edge of the board up around the frets. But then, I think that binding system is stupid anyway.

[frank falbo]

Um, yeah I didn't misinterpret anything. For those of you fretting before install, if it works for you, that's fine. Although I feel the same as Jeremy. You leave yourself open to a lot more problems than doing it after you glue the board. I wasn't saying no one should EVER fret before glueing the board, although that would be my candid advice.

But this isn't even about that, because if you're fretting first, at least it's you doing the fretting, and you're controlling the process. A pre-fretted board has been fretted for how long? Who knows? When was it fretted, how was it fretted? Was it even level before fretting? It's indeterminable. If that board was fretted and then shipped to you, there's almost no way the frets will all be seated properly by the time it gets to you. Setch goes from the countertop to the neck. But if I asked him to fret me a board, and then ship it over to me, no matter how good he was, there'd be issues when it got here, like the ones Jeremy described, unless maybe if he shipped it here still attatched to the countertop material.

And I wouldn't base anything I do on what a big factory does, especially Gibson. They make rollercoasters. If any big factory does it that way, remember they have all the precision clamping machinery to go with it.