Fret Leveling and Other Questions:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

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Been looking at the wooden beams made in a given radius for leveling. What type of abrasive paper do you guys prefer???

Also...the "safe slot" tool looks good. Thoughts???
 
I've never tried the radiussed wooden beams - only the metal ones. The wooden ones always seemed a little short for the job. Still, provided you can keep them in a good atmosphere so they don't warp, they should be OK. As for paper, I always start with fine - maybe 220. I do a couple of passes with that, tweaking the truss rod until I'm sure that I am touching frets all the way down. Then, if there is a lot of work to be done I will go right up to 80 grit. My aim is to remove metal with just the weight of the beam - no pressure. After that, as all the frets get touched, progress rapidly through a few grades to 220. I will try to change from sanding along the board to going across during this time. This should leave them in a decent condition to attack with fine abrasives to bring to a polish.
 
I've used the shorter, wooden blocks. They do okay. But, I think the longer, aluminum beams are more likely to get you a better result. I'm getting one of those for my next level job on one of my guitars.
 
DonP said:
I've never tried the radiussed wooden beams - only the metal ones. The wooden ones always seemed a little short for the job. Still, provided you can keep them in a good atmosphere so they don't warp, they should be OK. As for paper, I always start with fine - maybe 220. I do a couple of passes with that, tweaking the truss rod until I'm sure that I am touching frets all the way down. Then, if there is a lot of work to be done I will go right up to 80 grit. My aim is to remove metal with just the weight of the beam - no pressure. After that, as all the frets get touched, progress rapidly through a few grades to 220. I will try to change from sanding along the board to going across during this time. This should leave them in a decent condition to attack with fine abrasives to bring to a polish.
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Wow!!!!

"Fine" to me is #400!!!! I may look at aluminum beams...warpage is a good point when dealing with wood...
 
What if you don't want a consistent radius? I think every guitar I've made has a compound radius so those blocks, whether wood or metal, would be useless to me. And why does the radius need to be consistent along the length of the fingerboard? I think Dan Erlewine has covered the logic in his book on guitar repair. If you haven't read it then I suggest you do as it explains a lot of the thinking behind using compounds. :)
 
javamagic said:
What if you don't want a consistent radius? I think every guitar I've made has a compound radius so those blocks, whether wood or metal, would be useless to me. And why does the radius need to be consistent along the length of the fingerboard? I think Dan Erlewine has covered the logic in his book on guitar repair. If you haven't read it then I suggest you do as it explains a lot of the thinking behind using compounds. :)
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I have played compound radius necks. My Schecter is a 10"-16" radius and I prefer a 12" radius board. The standard Von Herndon necks I am making for my custom Strat-esque guitars are all 12" radius, early 'U' profile. I have had a few requests for 10"-16" compound radius necks on the custom USA models. When that happens, Musikraft builds them to order and they come already expertly leveled...
 
I guess we were all guilty, in a way. We all shot him, we all skinned him, and we all got a complimentary bumper sticker that said, “I helped skin Bob.”
 
This is about all I use to radius a fretboard...

11-Radiusingfingerboard_zps8dbdc7e1.jpg


A jackplane, square metal tube with abrasive paper glued to the sides and a sanding block to finish. Sometimes I use a radius gauge but often it's done by feel. I think people get too anal about gear these days and bogged down in irrelevant details.
 
RVA said:
Can you explain this further please?
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Sure. Any sanding operation, at any fineness of grit leaves grooves. You never want grooves going across a fret, because you can feel the roughness. So if at some early point you start sanding along the fret, you can get rid of any grooves going in the wrong direction.
 
DonP said:
Sure. Any sanding operation, at any fineness of grit leaves grooves. You never want grooves going across a fret, because you can feel the roughness. So if at some early point you start sanding along the fret, you can get rid of any grooves going in the wrong direction.
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So you are saying to file across with a crowning file in between passes with a beam that has progressively finer grits?
 
DonP said:
Sure. Any sanding operation, at any fineness of grit leaves grooves. You never want grooves going across a fret, because you can feel the roughness. So if at some early point you start sanding along the fret, you can get rid of any grooves going in the wrong direction.
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Should have added. The initial levelling operation demands that you sand along the fretboard - IE across the frets.
 
RVA said:
So you are saying to file across with a crowning file in between passes with a beam that has progressively finer grits?
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No, I'm saying that once you have touched every fret with passes along the board, you should switch to crosswise passes to remove any resulting grooves that cross the frets. Crowning just shapes the sides of the frets, and should never touch the top of the fret where the string hits.
 
DonP said:
No, I'm saying that once you have touched every fret with passes along the board, you should switch to crosswise passes to remove any resulting grooves that cross the frets. Crowning just shapes the sides of the frets, and should never touch the top of the fret where the string hits.
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Understood. I just can't envision what to use for cross passes. Certainly not a 18" radius beam.
 
javamagic said:
This is about all I use to radius a fretboard...

11-Radiusingfingerboard_zps8dbdc7e1.jpg


A jackplane, square metal tube with abrasive paper glued to the sides and a sanding block to finish. Sometimes I use a radius gauge but often it's done by feel. I think people get too anal about gear these days and bogged down in irrelevant details.
Click to expand...

I am very 'anal' about specifications and such, but I have a background as a machinist, so its par for the course...
 
DonP said:
Is fretboard radius really irrelevant to you? Honestly?
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I can swap from a Telecaster to a Gibson and not worry too much about the difference in radius. I'm happy with whatever feels comfortable. Same with action; I don't obsess over fractions of a millimetre. I grew up around guitars that were next to unplayable (many of which were "big" names leftover from the beat boom, i.e. not American) so I have no real issues with the playablity of modern production guitars. Their reliability and sound are different matters though.
 
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