Acousticraft Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 All the previous axes I have made had unbound Rosewood fingerboards as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle involved. I am fast coming to the stage on My ES335 when I be ready to fret the neck. What I have done previously is to cut the fret wire with about 1/4" longer than slot, pre-bend them in radius block I have and tap them in unglued with a nylon faced hammer. I have had no problems getting frets to seat. I made a copy of the Stew Mac neck rocker support and glued on some thick cork gasket material to the vee shaped face. It is very solid and gives a firm support for fretting or a good angle for general work or re-stringing etc and suits any guitar without damage to the neck. I am assuming I will need to nip off the tang flush under the crown with a bit of clearance between binding faces to allow for shrinkage of neck. Angle filing the ends without damaging the bindings, what is the best solution for this? I looked at my friends PRS and the fret ends are about 1/32" inside binding edge. Incidentally my binding is maple as I made the finger board to narrow so glued a 1/8" strip down either side. Looks awesome actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 When doing the fret ends (filing), just pretend the binding isnt there. There is no difference between bound and unbound when filing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't have any hands-on experience). Slot fingerboard ~> Bind fingerboard ~> Nip fret ends flush ~> Press / hammer frets in ~> Bevel frets For beveling, are you familiar with this tool? I think if you take your time you'll be able to get a precise job beveling with that tool, regardless of binding material. You can also use a single file and to it to your liking much more slowly. This will take a great deal of time, though. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...ling_Files.html I personally haven't fretted a fingerboard yet, but I'll be giving three tries at it in the next week as I finally have all the supplies to do it, so I can give a better response then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Slot - taper - bind - trim fret tang (StewMac fret tang nipper) - install frets - nip flush - bevel as if binding wasn't there. Also, maple binding is going to want a little finish, even just painted on shellac (small artist's brush will do) is a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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