Fretboard Thickness Question

[Darryl Young]

My fretboard is 0.019" thicker on the treble end than it is on the bass end. I've started sanding on the back to level it......and it's a slow process. I assume I need to get this level, correct? Once I have it level I'll start working on cleaning out the fret slots and putting a slight taper on the edge of the fret slots with a triangle file. Hope to fret the board this weekend.

This is my first post on the new forum. I like it!

[tippie53]

If you can get it to about .010 you should be ok. Take your time and feel free to ask questions. We are here to help

[johnnparchem]

I only build one guitar but on my classical guitar the fret board does slope such that the bass is thinner. It helps keep the thicker bass strings from buzzing. The steel strings guitars often have a radius that you would not want to sand level.

[Darryl Young]

If you can get it to about .010 you should be ok. Take your time and feel free to ask questions. We are here to help

Ha! I don't think there is any fear of working too fast......the sanding is going extremally slow. <smile>

[Darryl Young]

After re-measuring, it appears most all the fall off is from the second fret to the bass end of the fret board........and most of that is from the first fret to the end of the fretboard. So I'm sanding down almost the entire length of the fretboard to match the drop off at the very end of the board. That's odd that all the drop off is in this small area rather than the entire fretboard being tapered (0.231" on the bass end while most of the fretboard is 0.250").

[Darryl Young]

If I get arrested for some reason, the fingerprints will be interesting.......sanded off flat spots that appear as black dots from the ebony dust <smile>. I have sandpaper on a bock of granite that is 2ft long and 5" wide. It's difficult to grip the fingerboard and slide it back and forth and around in circles both directions. When you pinch hard, you sand off the end of your finger tips!

Oh well, I have it within 0.003" now. I'm letting my fingertips recover a few minutes then I'll finish that last little bit and final sand with 150 grit paper Using 80 grit now as the 150g wasn't getting anywhere on the dense ebony.

[naccoachbob]

I'm with you on the fingertips thing. I let mine fall on a belt sander last week.
Just now getting to where I can play the guitar again.
Maybe the two of us need a handler!

[Darryl Young]

All done now. Here is a shot of the granite block I used. I will use it on my drill press while fretting as well (I'll press the frets in with my drilll press using the SM press jig). A local National Lumber store cuts and installs granite and I went by their shop and picked this chunk of granite up for free. I think it was a leftover piece from cutting a backsplash.

SandingFretboardSmall.JPG

[Freeman]

If this is a steel string I assume you will be re-radiusing the f/b. If it is a classical you will probably end up sanding (or in my case, planing) both relief and a bit of a "twist" back into it as John suggests.

A handy little "tool" for cleaning out fret slots is to take a piece of fret wire, bend it into an L and file the tangs off. You can swipe it thru the slot to get the grime out and it is handy to measure the depth, particularly if you have been doing much sanding.

The SM fret caul works great in a drill press. Unfortunately it does not have an infinite radius (flat) caul for classicals or a 20 inch (which is my prefered radius). You can use the 16 for 20 inch and tap the center down with a mallet, but I'm not sure about a classical.

[Ken Hundley]

If you are going to be doing a lot of sanding and worried about your fingers, coat the ends a little with super glue. Make sure you have glue remover, but going through a layer of superglue first might save your fingertips a bit. Just a thought.