Uncle Os Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Hey All... How's t'ings? Hope all is well for you all. I don't post much here but I'm a die hard lurker who's benefitted voluminously by all of the information the experienced folks are kind enough to share. Thanks you all! Backstory... An online friend in england won an Ebay auction but the seller wouldn't ship tot he U.K. I stepped up and told him to have it shipped to me and I'd send it to him. Well... When it arrived, I gave it a quick look, let'em know I got it and tucked it away until I could get to it a week or so later. At that time I actually read the neck... It wasn't pretty. It had a gnarly backbow, a hump in the fretboard and a twist to the left (eyeballin' it from the heel). Gakk. I'd never worked on a neck that was so jacked up. I checked the tolerances and told him I'd see what I could do with no guarantees. I planed the neck and removed the hump and got that sucker dead level. I radiused the neck and got most of the twist out. The problem was just how much much material I had to remove to get it out. I had to take it almost down to the sidemarkers. ::: cringe ::: I reslotted the board and gave a bucnh of extra width so there wouldn't be any tension added by the tangs and epoxied/compressed the frets back in. I noticed there were gaps between the board and the bottom of the frets near the bad spot that I wasn't able to radius. I pulled those three frets, put some others in their place that I specifically shaped for the bad area. I installed them and tried to level them but there just wasn't enough material. So... I pulled THOSE frets and threw a few 6100s in there with the proper radius and went to town with the file. I got everything going and loookin' good with the exception of the aforementioned gap between the baord and the underside of the fret. Soo... I conclusion... Can you guys recommend any techniques or materials I might be able to use to fill that gap and improve upon the appearance of those three frets? It's a rosewood neck. I apologize for the longwindedness. Any assistance and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Respectfully, Cory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian d Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Rosewood dust mixed with titebond? Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 These kinds of necks are why I use CF rods in everyone I build. If installed properly they keep the neck from twisting, etc. This neck was a good canidate for a neck jig job. You should have tried to heat the neck up first with a heat lamp, and try to straighten out the twist first. You might not have gotten it all out, but probably enough so that you wouldn't have removed near as much wood trying to get the fingerboard level. The less wood you remove the better!! Since you've already started sanding away at the neck, then that method pretty much goes out the window. Did you ever get it level? I noticed you said this... I planed the neck and removed the hump and got that sucker dead level. I radiused the neck and got most of the twist out. The problem was just how much much material I had to remove to get it out. I had to take it almost down to the sidemarkers. ::: cringe ::: In the first statement you said you got it dead level, then in the very next sentence you state that you almost got all the twist out... That doesn't add up.. lol If it's still got a twist in it, then it's not what you'd consider level by no means. If the fingerboard isn't level then your going to have a hard time leveling the frets without removing a lot of material. The better the job you do leveling the fingerboard, the easier it is to get the frets level later on. Soo... I conclusion... Can you guys recommend any techniques or materials I might be able to use to fill that gap and improve upon the appearance of those three frets? It's a rosewood neck. I'm not sure I quite understand, are you saying there is a visible gap between the fret and fingerboard? If so, then you probably didn't get the fret slots deep enough for the tang after you leveled it. I'd pull the frets and deepen the slot enough for the tang to sit in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Os Posted April 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 These kinds of necks are why I use CF rods in everyone I build. If installed properly they keep the neck from twisting, etc. This neck was a good canidate for a neck jig job. You should have tried to heat the neck up first with a heat lamp, and try to straighten out the twist first. You might not have gotten it all out, but probably enough so that you wouldn't have removed near as much wood trying to get the fingerboard level. The less wood you remove the better!! Since you've already started sanding away at the neck, then that method pretty much goes out the window. Did you ever get it level? I noticed you said this... I planed the neck and removed the hump and got that sucker dead level. I radiused the neck and got most of the twist out. The problem was just how much much material I had to remove to get it out. I had to take it almost down to the sidemarkers. ::: cringe ::: In the first statement you said you got it dead level, then in the very next sentence you state that you almost got all the twist out... That doesn't add up.. lol If it's still got a twist in it, then it's not what you'd consider level by no means. If the fingerboard isn't level then your going to have a hard time leveling the frets without removing a lot of material. The better the job you do leveling the fingerboard, the easier it is to get the frets level later on. Soo... I conclusion... Can you guys recommend any techniques or materials I might be able to use to fill that gap and improve upon the appearance of those three frets? It's a rosewood neck. I'm not sure I quite understand, are you saying there is a visible gap between the fret and fingerboard? If so, then you probably didn't get the fret slots deep enough for the tang after you leveled it. I'd pull the frets and deepen the slot enough for the tang to sit in. Thanks for the response, guys! OK... Item by item... Neck Jig... I have a pseudo neck jig that I built. However, It's not as nice as the Stew Mac version. I had the neck in the jig, heated with two heat lamps and tried to adjust some of the twist out of it for wayyyy too long. There was a slight change. Accent on slight. While I was trying to do this, I read somewhere something that, based on this one job, I believe has some merit. It read something like this... "Once a piece of wood starts going where it wants to go... It ain't goin' nowhere but where it wants to go." Soo... I gave up on the neck jig/heat method. Next... Leveling and Radius... My first objective was to remove the hump. When I stated 'dead level' I was actually reading the center of the neck. The twist was still present on either side of center. to the right at the heel end and to the left and the nut end. But the hump was gone. I had to take the neck from a 16" radius to a 12" radius using that center reading as a guide. Like I said... I've never done anything this involved in the past with regard to trying to salvage a jacked up neck. I don't have the big sander that I'd've needed to make the job quick and easy either, so I had to take is one step at a time. Get rid of the hump for a straight line down the center then remove material from either side of that line to create a symetrical shape on either side of that plane. Gap... Yes. There's a gap between the underside of the fret and the and fretboard. And the fret slots are plenty deep. Ummm... How to explain??... Umm... Ok. It's almost as though the neck has a 'dent' in it between the nut and the fourth fret. If I seat the fret properly, I've gotta take way too much material off of the other frets in order to keep the fret crowns perfectly leveled. So... I raised the frets a hair and epoxied them. So, although I was unable to get the aformentioned 'dent' out of the fretboard, I was able to get the fret tops clean and true as long as there was a tiny gap there. What I'm looking for is some type of minimal 'fill' that won't look like absolute crud. Maybe something that will give it that 'eased shoulder' kinda look?! I don't know. ::: shrug ::: Respectfully... Cor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Os Posted April 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Rosewood dust mixed with titebond? Brian. Hey there Brian.. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see about giving a test run on a piece of scrap. Thanks, Brudda. Respectfully, Cor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwigeo Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Rosewood dust mixed with titebond? Brian. For filling work on a dark wood I generally use 5 minute epoxy mixed with wood dust. You can also try burn in laquer sticks available from Stewmac and LMI. Cheers Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoser Rob Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 www.frets.com has a good howto on filling fingerboard divots. It's the definitive lutherie web resource. Bookmark it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Os Posted April 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2006 Rosewood dust mixed with titebond? Brian. For filling work on a dark wood I generally use 5 minute epoxy mixed with wood dust. You can also try burn in laquer sticks available from Stewmac and LMI. Cheers Martin Hey Kiwi! Thanks man. I have some laquer sticks. Didn't occur to me to use them for anything other than filling fret slots. Thanks, man. I'll try the wood dust/epoxy too. Thanks again... Cor www.frets.com has a good howto on filling fingerboard divots. It's the definitive lutherie web resource. Bookmark it. Hoser! Dude! Thanks for the link, man! Great resource. I checked out the divot filling. I don't know how well that'll work due to the fact that my particular problem area rests on the edge of the fretboard, per se. I'd have to put some sort of 'form', if you will, on the side of the neck. Well... Hell... I just might have to do that. Damn. Respectfully... Cor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.