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Fretboard help please!!


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I had started refinishing this guitar a few years ago and just decided to pull it out to finish it, it's a ibanez sz that I have rounded the edges of the body over, reshaped the headstock and pulled the fretboard off planning to make a new one. 

Yesterday I ran to woodcraft and picked up a piece of bocote, used the old fretboard as a template and routed out the shape. I think that I got ahead of myself from watching videos on YouTube about making a fret slot cutting jig everyone cut there slots before cutting the shape of the fretboard out. Did I screw up? And if so is it possible to slot it with what I have already done?

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You made it a l;little trickier, but you can still cut the slots okay. You need to mark a centerline and cut your slots 90 degrees to that. The simplest thing to do would be to affix the bocote to a board that still has parallel edges. Make sure your centerline is equidistant to the reference edge of the board you fix it to and then go ahead and take it to your miter box.......assuming that was how you were planning to cut them. 

How were you planning on cutting them?

SR

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Ok that really doesn't sound to hard at all. 

I was planning on making a miter box like this one here,

 

does this seem like a good idea to you? I didn't know that there was any other way than using a miter box, if there is I wouldn't mind herring about them. 

Thanks scott, I really appreciate it!

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Cut a piece of 3mm MDF or sheet metal a little wider than your fretboard with a nice straight edge on the longest side. Draw a centre line up the middle parallel to the longest edge. Draw a centre line up the middle of your fretboard. Attach the fretboard to the sheet using double sided tape taking care to line up the centrelines you've drawn on both. The sheet then becomes the register for a right angle for the fret slots.

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40 minutes ago, 2.5itim said:

does this seem like a good idea to you?

Sure, that's a nice little DIY version of StewMacs fret slotting miter box. I like these templates: http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Tools_for_Fretting/Dual_Fret_Scale_Templates.html.  

You can use that and a pin instead of an upside down fretboard and use it to center your current bocote blank on. As far as other methods, there are radial arm saw and chop saw set-ups. They also use and indexing system like the video or the template. And there are CNCs.

If you are going to build a miter box like that one you are on the right track.

SR

 

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Ok now that I think about this with a centerline on a straight non angled board this makes a lot of sense and seems pretty easy!! I think that I will go ahead and buy a pre slotted board and do it the way that he did in the video, but I think the hard part is going to be finding one that isn't already radiused, I'll have to take a look on line and see what I can come up with.

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It seems a shame not to use the bocote - it looks great. Having just cut my first ever slots (and on a pre-tapered board at that), it's really not that difficult.

As @Prostheta says, get a board (MDF?) with a straight edge, draw a line parallel to the edge and just over half the width of your fretboard heel end away, then use double-sided tape to stick your fretboard down with the centre line aligned on the pencil line. You can them use a set square against the edge of your backboard to get your fret slots perpendicular

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Ok, I see how he did it now! 

I started my miter box jig last night but the bottom tweaked on my a little bit when glueing so if it turns out that it won't work I will resort to how Norris did it if I don't try to make a new box. 

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I do to! It looks much simpler than what I'm trying to do with keeping everything square! It is pretty square for the most part but I think If this doesn't work I'll probably make another one and glue the side pieces to the top of the bottom piece instead of glueing them to the sides of the bottom piece like i did, I think that will fix all of my problems! 

I searched for a while looking for a ibanez sz fretboard and couldn't find one, so I ended up buying a 24 fret prs 25" scale non radiused board, stewMac didn't have any 22 fret 25" scale boards so I hope that all I'll need to do is cut off the last two frets. I don't have a 24 fret 25" scale guitar to measure against. 

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I wouldn't cut off the last two frets of your index board, you may want a 24 fret guitar someday. Just start a cut for the 23rd fret on your board, then take it out and go ahead and cut it through at that point. Just be sure to match up the nut location exactly to your guide board and your scale will be fine. You don't need to worry about matching it up to a particular brand for comparison. A 25" scale is a 25" scale is a 25" scale. The fret spacing will be the same no matter who makes it.

SR

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Perfect, you guess are awesome!! 

I knew that brand wouldn't matter when it came to fret spacing I just wasn't sure about the 22 vs 24 length part of it, i guess that a 24 fret board is exactly the same as a 22 just longer to accommodate the extra 2 frets then they move the neck pickup closer to the bridge to accomadate this?I will leave the extra 2 frets on the index board! You made a valid point. 

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1 hour ago, 2.5itim said:

i guess that a 24 fret board is exactly the same as a 22 just longer to accommodate the extra 2 frets then they move the neck pickup closer to the bridge to accommodate this?

Exactly.

Once you get everything set up, I'd recommend using a bit of scrap to test your set-up. Cut yourself a few slots, cut some fret wire to length, and actually fret your test slots. That way you learn what it feels like, and get an idea of a good slot depth is and so on. I boogered up some practice wood pretty good on my first try and was glad I had the sense to practice that time.......I don't always.:unsure: I learned how a slot cut just a hair too shallow will make you want to beat a fret senseless because it refuses to seat. It will bend over sideways though.

SR

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That is a great idea on test pieces, I will for sure! 

How do you know how deep the slot needs to be? Just measure the tang on the fret wire and cut it s tad deeper than that? 

Also since I should probably bend the fret wire before installing, should the slot cut be radiused also since the tang of the fret wire will be?

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Ok this is gonna take lots of practicing I think lol. Thank y'all for your help! 

My radius block and fret wire should be here today and my saw and index board should be here in 2 days. So fingers crossed that I can do this lol

its funny anything that has to do with metal (welding, mill, lathe, manuals, fabrication) I can do without even thinking twice about it but with wood I tend to psyche myself out. 

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1 hour ago, 2.5itim said:

That is a great idea on test pieces, I will for sure! 

How do you know how deep the slot needs to be? Just measure the tang on the fret wire and cut it s tad deeper than that? 

Also since I should probably bend the fret wire before installing, should the slot cut be radiused also since the tang of the fret wire will be?

You can start out with that. Typically you cut the slots, glue it up, taper it and the neck, and radius it.....or at least I do. Some change the order a bit. Either way you are going to radius it before installing the frets and in doing so you will lose some depth in the slot at the edges and those will need to be touched up to the proper depth. Many fret saws have a depth stop attachment, a piece of plastic bolted into angled slots. You can set the proper depth and let it follow the radius of your fretboard as you touch up the slots, which will leave you with radiused slots. They don't have to be radiused to work though.

SR

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1 hour ago, ScottR said:

You can start out with that. Typically you cut the slots, glue it up, taper it and the neck, and radius it.....or at least I do. Some change the order a bit. Either way you are going to radius it before installing the frets and in doing so you will lose some depth in the slot at the edges and those will need to be touched up to the proper depth. Many fret saws have a depth stop attachment, a piece of plastic bolted into angled slots. You can set the proper depth and let it follow the radius of your fretboard as you touch up the slots, which will leave you with radiused slots. They don't have to be radiused to work though.

SR

Ok now that makes a lot more sense to me now!! I did buy the stop attachment for the saw so this doesn't sound nearly as hard to me now. 

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The jig I used was very basic, but did the job quite well. Yes there are improvements could be made e.g. I had to try to keep the blade vertical by eye, which is not easy by the time you get to the 20th fret or so. One of my slots isn't quite vertical, but hopefully close enough to get away with.

Anyway to come back to the earlier point, the same principles apply in even more basic form by drawing a line parallel to a straight edge and taping your board down aligned on the centre line

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