Fretting On The Neck Or Off?

[Ptt-Guitars]

Hey I'm making my first guitar (acoustic steel) under the guidance of John Liddy (awesome mandolins) and Tim Wright (sweet guitars). Ive come to the point where I'm fretting the neck. What I want to know is, is it better to glue the fretboard on and then fret it, or fret it prior to gluing the fretboard onto the neck...

[Supernova9]

Hey I'm making my first guitar (acoustic steel) under the guidance of John Liddy (awesome mandolins) and Tim Wright (sweet guitars). Ive come to the point where I'm fretting the neck. What I want to know is, is it better to glue the fretboard on and then fret it, or fret it prior to gluing the fretboard onto the neck...

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I've heard from people who do both - personally I fret with the board on the neck. Personal preference I think runs well here - but if doing it off the neck, you need to ensure it's double-side taped securely and flatly to a true/level surface, to avoid any back bow etc.

[fryovanni]

On the neck. A slotted fretboard becomes very flexable when it has all that material removed. When you install the fret it fills those slots and the tangs actually are wedged in (this pushes out a bit). If you slot it off the neck you will have to force the fretboard back to flat and just hope that happens evenly. I don't know anyone personally that adds frets off the neck, but who knows (I am sure someone does it that way). Just my 2 cents

Peace,Rich

[n8rofwyo]

Yeah, what fryovanni said.

Nate Robinson

[Ledzendrix1128]

i think slotting the frets off the neck... glueing it... and then fretting the board is the way id go... then you dont have to worry about getting the board flat....so i guess thats what they said too... lol

[Southpa]

I prefer to install the fretboard before fretting as well. However, I install frets BEFORE shaping the back of the neck. Its nice to work with a solid square foundation.

[Mattia]

I slot, glue, carve the neck, fret. Mostly this is because I don't want the risk/annoyance of frets in the way while I finish off the neck carve (I don't leave the fingerboard edge at 90 degrees, but fair it into the rest of the neck).

I know of several people who fret off the neck, though, and it's a perfectly viable alternative. Try it, see what you like better.

[Pr3Va1L]

godin guitars frets before they install the FB.

i saw it on TV

[Ptt-Guitars]

Cheers guys sounds like its best to fret it on the neck.

I also had a look at Robert Benedetto's and Cumpianos methods and that seems to be the way to go, thanks...

[Setch]

I fret off the neck, nice and easy, no worries about marking the back of the neck, or dinging the body/neck whilst bevelling the ends etc.

Like Matia said, whatever works for you.

[Ptt-Guitars]

Hey I finished the fretting today. But a rather funny and ironic series of events occured.

After gluing the fretboard to the neck I had a trial go at fretting the neck, I put it under the press which I had borrowed and found it was too big. Whoever designed the press (Stew mac) made it so that it could only be used on the fretbard blanks, not combined with the neck.

I then proceeded to modify the press so that it would fit and ended up spending a good whack of time messing about setting it up, so after all of that it may have been easier to fret it off the neck.

Anywho the jobs done now and Im quite satisfied with the outcome, thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[Mattia]

          After gluing the fretboard to the neck I had a trial go at fretting the neck, I put it under the press which I had borrowed and found it was too big. Whoever designed the press (Stew mac) made it so that it could only be used on the fretbard blanks, not combined with the neck.

          I then proceeded to modify the press so that it would fit and ended up spending a good whack of time messing about setting it up, so after all of that it may have been easier to fret it off the neck.

          Anywho the jobs done now and Im quite satisfied with the outcome, thanks everyone for your suggestions.

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Eh? This makes absolutely no sense. It's self-centering, and if your arbor/drill press will reach, the stewmac fret press works just lovely, whether the fingerboard is on or off the neck. Yes, you need to figure out how to support your neck while fretting, but that's a problem you need to solve, not a design flaw on StewMac's part.

[Ptt-Guitars]

          After gluing the fretboard to the neck I had a trial go at fretting the neck, I put it under the press which I had borrowed and found it was too big. Whoever designed the press (Stew mac) made it so that it could only be used on the fretbard blanks, not combined with the neck.

          I then proceeded to modify the press so that it would fit and ended up spending a good whack of time messing about setting it up, so after all of that it may have been easier to fret it off the neck.

          Anywho the jobs done now and Im quite satisfied with the outcome, thanks everyone for your suggestions.

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Eh? This makes absolutely no sense. It's self-centering, and if your arbor/drill press will reach, the stewmac fret press works just lovely, whether the fingerboard is on or off the neck. Yes, you need to figure out how to support your neck while fretting, but that's a problem you need to solve, not a design flaw on StewMac's part.

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All right calm down....

What I'm saying is, when the press is fully open, the neck combined with the fretboard doesn't fit under the press, no matter how i try to manuvre it, the press is cast out of solid metal so theres no way to gain a bigger gap no matter what i do, anyway the jobs done now so if you are a sponser or worker or stew-mac chill out, im only saying it doesnt work for what i needed, im not condeming the business.

[Mattia]

All right calm down....

What I'm saying is, when the press is fully open, the neck combined with the fretboard doesn't fit under the press, no matter how i try to manuvre it, the press is cast out of solid metal so theres no way to gain a bigger gap no matter what i do, anyway the jobs done now so if you are a sponser or worker or stew-mac chill out, im only saying it doesnt work for what i needed, im not condeming the business.

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I'm still trying to figure out which press you're using, and how you've managed to make a neck too big for it to be useful. This is a standard guitar neck, right? Are you using the Jaws press, or just the arbor and/or drill press mountable unit?

And for the record, I don't work for 'em or anything.

[frank falbo]

It seems impossible that the neck wouldn't fit in the press, unless it's not a Stew Mac arbor press, or something's wrong. And since this is your first neck, you can trust the rest of us who've used the actual Stew Mac press system in the past.

[thegarehanman]

I use the stewmac caul on a harbor freight press(looks almost identical to stewmacs, but cost only $20US). The only part of the neck I can't press frets onto is at the heel(realise I'm refering to set necks and neckthroughs).

[Ptt-Guitars]

Allright so I made a mistake, it's actually a brass Stew-mac caul in a Astor 51 press, however there's no way anything other than the plain fingerboard can be placed under it without limiting modification....I dunno Iv'e sussed it out now...

(I tried to load a photo but I dunno how)