Hello,
Forgive me if this has been covered before. I am making a bass neck. The neck will have a maple fingerboard and I just received the frets material from Stewmac.
The question is this: I will make the fret slots (.024") and shape, sand the radius of the fretboard first. Then what is the proper sequence between installing the frets and finishing the maple fretboard with some clear satin nitrocellulose lacquer, etc.
If I put the finishing lacker first, then I have to re-saw the slots and when I insert the frets, they may not fit tight on the fingerboard because of the thickness of the lacker. If I put on the frets first, then the lacker will cover them and I will have to spend a great deal of time cleaning the fret to remove the the thin layer of lacker.
I have read many articles but didn't yet see how it's really done.
Thanks in advance for your help,
ncc