www.KitGuitarsForum.com

I've replaced a fretboard on a guitar that requires compression fretting. I'm satisfied with the neck relief. How do I level the frets with a neck relief?

you need to have the weight on the guitar to adjust relief. If you are happy with relief at say 12 lb of weight on the body with the head stock supporter , you then adjust the weight to where you get the neck straight.

When I do a compression fret job I rely on the weight to let me make my adjustments. As I am doing this I am looking for a slight back now to show. I want to see about .009 thou back bend. Then I string it up and let the barbs seat for a few days then make adjustments .

To level once I am happy with the seated frets I than add the weight to get to as straight as possible. Or if I need to tweak the relief I can add or subtract weight to get the relief where I want it.

Thank you John. I saw your video from 2013 ASIA, so I followed directions. I had to make a couple of adjustments, but now it seems to be settling in. I think I need to get a different type of weight, though, in the form of a flat bar, so I can level the frets with it.

I use lead shot now 2 bags total about 12 lb
I use a flat bar to level frets that is 16 in long I use 220 grit on one side to rough down and 320 on the other.
treat nut to body joint as one then body joint fret to last fret so you have about a .010 fall of on the body.

Thank you John. I wasn't sure how to handle the neck relief once the fretting was done.