guitar_player

If they are crooked don't throw it away you could always steam off the fingerboard and get a preslotted and radiused one and then do any inlays and frettyig.

I just finished pressing in some stainless steel frets with it it works great took like 5 minutes to do the whole fingerboard.

Erikbojerik also still has his fretboard extravaganza going on in the public section of the forum. His prices are very reasonable, from what I have seen.

thanks, I just sent him a pm, I was just going to go with lmi until I saw the picture of the figured cocobolo.

I have done 3 guitars with the hot rod truss rods that are adjustable at the heal but I have seen some places where they rout the slot right to the end of the heal. I usually just rout it until the adjustment nut and than drill a hole for it. Would it be better just to rout through? I would think the truss rod would fall out though...

LMII....Did you read the site?

You order the board flat,then you pay for slotting or radiusing to YOUR customization...if you don't want a radius,specify no radius.

They also have a phone # in which you can call and talk to a real person about what you want...

Damn,man...do you want me to call them for you too?

sorry I just found the page I couldn't find it before

I know about both of those sites but they have either fingerboards with no slots or radius or with both and I need one that's only slotted.

Where can I get a gibson scale unradiused but preslotted fingerboard? I mainly want ebony but have been looking at some other more extoic woods too. Are there any websites that would sell me one like this? I want to inlay it and it seems it would be much easier to do it before it's radiused, but I don't have the equipment to slot it.

I just use spring clamps and I used to shape them before I glued on the fingerboard. Make sure you have the ones with the padded instead of plastic ends they work perfect.

Make sure the neck template is in the right place not just that the truss rod is in the center, the adjustment nut now sticks a 1/2" out of the heal. Only about an hour worth of work ruined but so is the wood, I always seem to mess up a neck on every guitar I make.

Yeah...I was looking at that page after I posted. The email i received had a different price than the webpage did. The email made it look closer to 100 bucks off.

Yeah I just looked at my email again it said it was $435 regularly. Either way not too bad of a deal grizzly tools are great.

I just got this in an email.

bandsaw sale

Seems like a good price... I just thought I would throw it up here for any one who may be looking for a saw.

It's only a $15 price drop but they are good bandsaws we have a couple at school and they're really nice.

If you have access to a jointer you can do it perfectly.

I'm currently contemplating build another guitar, because I'd like something a bit lighter, smaller (an iceman has a big honkin' body), different, and something a bit more playable- which is where this thread comes into play.

95% of my problems with the iceman arise from the fretboard and nut. I bought to wood and radiused it myself. I cut the slots and used CA put the frets in. Sounds dandy until you realize that I didn't do it too terribly well. Being a poor high school student, I decided to make my own radius block, use a cheap saw for the fret slots, which is oversize, and the list goes on and on.

Now that I've started to get a bit better at guitar (did I mention that I'm teaching myself/getting tips from friends who take lessons with Neil Zaza) I've tried to set the guitar up better. This made me realize how bad the fret job was. When the action was uber high, I had no problems with fret buzz. I've lowered it to something more normal, and I got a bit of fret buzz. I probably have 1/16" between a few frets- nowhere near what it needs to be to have this guitar play good. I've leveled them a bit, but I really don't have the equipment, or the money for the equipment, to crown them, and even when most of them are level, there are still a few that are way too low. Also, as I've gotten better, my pitch abilites are getting a lot better. I can now tune it really well with just an a. No more tuner for me! The problem is now I've noticed the intonation is off- not just like adjusting the saddle kind of problem, but like some frets are sharp and some are flat. I'd have no problem pulling this board off and using a preslotted and radiused board... if it wasn't for the fact I used titebond III to attach it (another noob mistake). I'd also like to have it a little wider towards the high end- its just a hair too narrow at the high e.

So that leads my to my questions:

1) Any way to get this board off? I've seen the tutorial, but I'm not sure how well it'd work with titebond III. (Remind me to buy hide glue before I start the next guitar) I'd like to be able to get the neck thinner (another noob mistake) and put a new board on, but I can't for the life of me remember how deep the slot I cut is, and I don't wanna learn the hard way.

2) If I buy a preslotted board and a $5 brass caul to press the frets in with no adhesive, how much leveling/crowning will I be left with, and how would I be able to go about this without having to spend a lot of money on files and the what not? I have a dremel, so I can use that, but I'm not sure how good it'd be for this purpose.

3) The nut- once again, don't wanna spend a lot of money on tools here. I'd like to be able to get it low enough, but not too low. What is the best way of adjusting this?

4) Binding- I love the look and feel of a bound neck. The problem is that when I put the frets in I would have an occasional spot where the binding would break. I trimmed the tang of the fret down (probably a bit too much) so how can I avoid this? Any tutorials for this?

5) Trimming the frets- once I have the frets in, I cut them with a dremel last time. I think this wasn't the best because it probably pulled them a little and weakened the CA with the heat. I have tools to cut them close, but what is a good (inexpensive) file I can use to get them flush, and then to cut the bevel on the side?

6) Fret markers- if I get a pre radiused board, and I install fretmarkers, how should I go about leveling them without messing up the radius? Do I really need to have a radius block for that, or can I get away with a block of wood with sandpaper on it?

Anything else a beginner should know about fretting and the related tasks? I'd like to know, so I can do this right. I can't think of anything else to ask, but I'm sure there is a lot more I should know.

edit- what tool would be best for thinning the neck? I have a cheapo block plane and jack plane, but they don't work too well- they need to be sharpened. Would that be better than sandpaper, or a belt sander?

To answer a few questions to level them get some double sided tape and a really flat piece of wood and tape some sandpaper on there. For crowning get a $12 stewmac file and make your own handle (not hard if you have access to a router and an 1/8" bit there are other ways though) there's really no other good way to do it. I use end snips to cut off fretwire it lifts them up a bit so you have to tap them down a little. In the tools thread I have a post on how to make a $4.45 fret press that could be useful for you. You should use a sanding caul after the makers I tried the other way and messed up my fingerboard. If you do a good job fretting barely any of the tops of the frets will be leveled off. I use a random orbital sander for shaping necks a rasp is helpful too if you don't have access to the sander. Also it might be easier not to use CA to put the frets in I only use it if a fret keeps popping up. Steaming the neck off should do the trick pretty good but your glues waterproof so maybe not. If you have access to a planer you could carefully bandsaw the fingerboard off close to the neck leaving just a little bit after removing frets and than digging the truss rod out and attaching a piece of wood to the bottom and run it through the planer assuming it's bolt on.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Side-Posit...ack-5-pk-/H6225

I ended up buying some from stewmac because I needed to buy some more stuff for other projects but thanks that's a really good deal. I'm going to be ordering from grizzly sonn and I'll stock up.

i find that spokeshaves take a lot more skill for this job than a simple rasp, mainly because the grain obviously varies a lot with the shape so you need to be very aware of grain direction whilst carving

I would probably use rasps or one of these http://www.amazon.com/Makita-GV5000-5-Inch...r/dp/B00004YOKT you would have to be pretty careful and use a finer grit I'd probably stick to rasps just to be safe.

The Book of Mormon has a pretty decent guitar set-up chapter, although it's written as if you're supposed to be working on several guitars at the same time.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it, I'm assuming it's a joke, but not being knowledgeable of said book, I fail to see the relevance/punchline.

guitar_player - thanks for the reply, does it go into a lot of detail on curing setup buzz issues? I was concerned that the book might be too general in that area as it caters for a lot of different types of issues as well as setups...

Thanks,

It doesn't go into great detail about it as far as I have read. It gives a lot of measurements and stuff like that and has a lot of info on fretwork which is an usual cause of buzzing.

I've got the StewMac piece that goes in your drill press ...

The difference between this and the one you made is that the StewMac piece pivots.

I personally find this to be a big advantage.

That was just the last fret on a fingerboard I got for a strat I'm building I tested it on it's getting cut off anyways. This does pivot I didn't specify it. It's pretty sturdy and the brass piece will never fall out most likely (I had to use a hammer a to get it in). THatnks to who mentioned supporting the table I never thought about is so I'll do that too.

I read once that Buddy Guy used to tour in an old bus and his Strat would ride the roof. Once, they had to stop suddenly and he saw how the guitar flew off the roof, out of its case and slid some feet in front of the bus. Of course, he ran out and expected to find pieces attached by a few strings at best. It survived perfectly and used it that same night...

Yeah I've seen that a few times and just read it again today in another book that had an interview with him. He said that when he picked it up one string was out of tune so he tuned the string and there was nothing wrong.

I was going to buy one of stew mac's fret press systems without the arbor press and use it in my drill press but they were out of stock so I decided I'd just buy the insert and see what I can make. I got the insert today and within 15 minutes I had a fret press. I found an old 1 inch spade bit that someone had broken the tip on and grounded the rest of it off. Then I found a block of maple and routed a 1/8" groove as deep as possible in one side and an 1/8" groove just deep enough to fit the insert (made for an 1/8" groove) I did this on the router table with a fence. then I took it too the bandsaw and cut the deep groove a little deeper. Now I could fit the spade bit in the deep groove, there is a hole in every spade bit close to the bottom that came in really handy I drilled a hole in the right place through the maple and put the spade bit and a piece of paper because it was a little loose in it and found a nail that went in and bent it on the other side. I ended up getting a fret press that works perfect for $50 less. It's not the best looking thing but it works great and that's all that matters right?

http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/g...er/IMG_2703.jpg

http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/g...er/IMG_2702.jpg

http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/g...er/IMG_2701.jpg

I agree with this bit:

the template follower is almost impossible to put the 2 inch adapter on it and even then you need a thick template probably at least 3/4" to use it.

Other than that, I completely disagree. I found them VERY easy to use. They're not a real timesaver in comparison to a router - they take a LOT longer. BUT... they eliminate the tearout around the curves and do not burn the wood. They Do require some jiggery to use a template, but it's well worth the effort.

Apparently, they didn't work too well for Guitar Player. You'll find that with every tool. I'm not going to discount his opinions or experiences, but I do respectfully disagree.

Sorry I did go a little overboard with the post. I can see why people would like them I just think there's easier(cheaper) options. If I wasn't using them with a template I'd have no problem with them. I'm not really worried about time I just found my router made a nicer surface that would need less sanding and I found it easier. I am returning the rotary shaper set and the company is very understanding though

What about fender style straight necks? I'm (probably) going to make a flat neck with quartersawn maple

Straight necks like fenders are probably some of the strongest necks around, they pretty much never break (atleast that I know of).

Use rougher sandpaper? Make a router jig (why wouldn't that work?) If you have a stationary belt sander you could make a jig like grizzly has too?

A good clamped glue joint will also be stronger than the wood itself so you should take that into consideration.

After seeing a few posts on here about how great they are and how the wood comes out smooth with no chance of tear out I decided I would buy the rotary shaper gift set and while I was at it I bought the rasp set thinking it would help with necks a contours. I received them today the template follower is almost impossible to put the 2 inch adapter on it and even then you need a thick template probably at least 3/4" to use it. Then I compared it to my router table (nothing special a table I had with my router screwed onto the bottom). It worked much better the wood came out smoother and it's much easier to use also it's faster and probably cheaper too (no need for replacement blades all the time a router bit lasts a long time). Just a heads up to anyone who is thinking about purchasing these for template following they'd probably be great for freehand work. The rasp set on the other hand are great and I love them they cut really fast and smooth and being able to use them on the pull stroke is great too.

I've recently finished my explorer build, but I'm not quite happy with a few issues (the three high strings seem to rattle/buzz more than I like) and my action is higher than it ought to be (to avoid buzzing/choke). I was looking at the Dan Erlwine books: The Repair Guide, and the 'how to make an electric guitar play great' - what would be best? They both seem to cover setups, but i'm not sure which one would be the most suitable..

TIA

I have the repair guide and just started reading the whole thing and it's great