How To Fix Fret Tangs?

[PoorMan]

Cheap Mighty Mite neck...thought I filed the tangs down flat. After not touching the neck for several months I find the tangs are hanging out the side of the neck (they could draw blood). What's the best way to address the issue?

I don't think the tangs grew back or anything, I just probably didn't do as good a job filing them down as I thought.

[SawDust_Junkie]

Brian posted a tutorial on the mainpage on how to build a fret bevelling tool. I have used this method and it works like a charm. Far be it from me to question Brian, but I felt like I would have rather used a 25 degree angle or so instead of the 35 degrees Brian's plans call for. Good Luck !

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/beveltool.htm

[doug]

What you have is wood shrinkage. The tangs stick out because the fingerboard has shrunk at its width. A bevel file is handy should you want to hit the bevel again, however you could use a flat file along the length of the neck to take the tangs off. If there remains an unsatisfactory flat area at the end of the frets (the bevel part) you can either make the bevel tool, or use a sandpaper on an 11" block of wood. Get 320 grit emory paper and glue it on with contact cement. Be very careful and make the bevel again. It's likely there is very little fret ends to remove so this method should be pretty easy. Plus you'll be able to put that nice roll back along the edge of the fingerboard.

There may be burrs at the end of the frets, so run up and down the edges with 0000 steel wool (kinda crude, but it takes sharp edges off and leaves a decent sheen) unless you have fret dressing tools. If you have those, then you know what to do.

Take your time.

-Doug

[soapbarstrat]

That's one job where I much prefer to "go with the flow" of the curve of the fret-board edge, rather than have the file held rigid at a specific angle.

[marksound]

Don't know why exactly, but a couple of my MM necks have shrunk too. I used a small file and cleaned up each end individually.

[Mattia]

...yet another reason to get the StewMac fret tang nipper, and nip a TINY amount off the tangs of even unbound fingerboards.

That, or maybe we should all start baking our fingerboards to pre-shrink 'em, like Taylor, Collings and several others do with acoustic guitar tops...

[PoorMan]

I filed them down (again). Will sealing the neck prevent this from happeneing again? I tung oiled the neck last night.

[Mattia]

I filed them down (again). Will sealing the neck prevent this from happeneing again? I tung oiled the neck last night.

No. Finish does diddly to stop moisture travelling in and/or out of the wood (well, does a bit, but it certainly doesn't actually seal it off or anything...). Hopefully, it's shrunk down as small as it's ever going to get and won't do this to you again.

[PoorMan]

Bummer! Well...I guess I can pull out my trusty file again if needed.

[Guitarfrenzy]

Bummer! Well...I guess I can pull out my trusty file again if needed.

You have two ways to solve the problem.

1. Get out the file and go to work..

2. Refret the guitar and use a fret tang nipper tool to remove a small portion of tang from both sides of the fretwire. Like Mattia was mentioning in a previous post.

A close-up picture so you can see what we are talking about better.

[soapbarstrat]

3. Leave the fret-ends alone, but wear some heavy-duty kevlar gloves when playing the guitar.

[Guitarfrenzy]

3. Leave the fret-ends alone, but wear some heavy-duty kevlar gloves when playing the guitar.

lol.. How could I have forgot that option?