Working With Compound Radius

[strangegrey]

Hey folks,

So I ordered a fretboard from Stewmac....I must've punched in the wrong number, because they sent me one of their compound radius boards...So I either need to return it or work with the board I've got..

I've never worked with a compound radius board, so I'm a little aprehensive to keep this one...but I wonder if you guys could talk me through how one would sand this board??

I assume I would have to progressively sand the board with different radius blocks...but is there a particular way I should do this? How do I know what part of the board to sand with what particular radius block?

Thanks for any insight...

-Frank

[GuitarGuy]

no radius blocks.... it'll ruin the curve.

Just fret as normal if sanding is needed do it lightly by hand or use a straight block down the length of the fretboard.

[ryanb]

Put your sandpaper on a long straight bar and sand in strokes that follow the path of the strings instead of parallel to the centerline of the neck. You are making a cone instead of a cylinder. If you don't have a flat bar (such as the Stew-Mac ones), you can use a carpenter's level or something like that, as long as the edge is flat and straight. Same technique goes for levelling the frets.

[vaxination]

the fretboard should be the right thickness when you get it. if not, sand the backside. if you just want to sand the top to a finer finish then use sand paper on a sponge block and make a few (very few) straight, long strokes. you should be okay.