Latest faux pas - fretboard / neck fit

[chimpotle]

I searched the archives and google for this to no avail...

I glued my fretboard to my neck last night (frets already installed) using the stew mac method (ruber band), i did a dry fit and didnt see any problems.

I checked on it this morning and lo and behold, theres a problem. The fretboard appears over hang the neck a bit starting at about the 6th fret and the treble side. The bass side appears fine.

Disclaimer - i have not removed the rubber band, but i'm sure you can imagine i've been brainstorming this all day.

Assuming there was a problem with my measurment and not with my clamping, its seems like i have a few options:

Pull the frets, plane the FB edge close using a shooting board with the frets down, sand even and then refret (which i'm assuming will be tough with out a caul - so if anybody can point me to a plan for a caul, it would be appreciated).

Same as above but also remove the FB.

Use fret leveling file or similar to file down the ebony and fret ends simultaneously, using a radiused caul here too. (I'm thinking you guys will talk me off this ledge pretty quick).

I'm wide open for suggestions. ust dont want to rush forth blindly. (and keep in mind i have yet to confim the magnitude of the error).

BTW, i've noted that pin indexing wouldve shown this straight away.

Also, i'm not disheartened in any way, so if the right thing to do sets me back some time and money, i'm cool with that.

Thanks yet again for your advice.

[chimpotle]

FYI - the overhang is .028" at the worst. Pic attached.

IMG_1647.JPG

[darren]

can you post another pic from further out?

[chimpotle]

here ya go:

IMG_1651.jpg

IMG_1649.jpg

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Chuck,
I'm not getting it. What are we looking at in the photo?
What is the light colored wood? The dark colored wood?

Kevin

[chimpotle]

Kevin -

The photo is of the glued up neck laying on a black and decker work mate fret side down - so the lightest wood the workmate, the light reddish wood is the mahogany neck, and the darkest wood is the ebony fretboard (the overhang i'm talking about). In the first pic it is workmate on the left, the sliver of black in the middle is the freeboard overhang, and the mahogany is on the right. It's .028" proud of the side of the neck at worst. It looks minor in the picture, but it will not make for a very playable neck.

I think the first pic show the overhang well, but doesn't give perspective or a frame of reference as to the severity of the overhang. The second two pics give perspective but you can't see the overhang.

Hope that clarifies a bit.

[chimpotle]

Thanks for the advice Rick.

I am following the sequence from the stew mac manual, so i haven't done the neck set yet. So i don't know the affects yet.

As a matter of fact, to clarify, when I marked out the taper on the fretboard, i aligned the center lines of the neck and fret board and then traced the neck out line (per the stew mac manual). I'm afraid that what i did was allowed the pencil to drift out a bit when i was doing the treble side - the angle of the pencil in relation to the edge of the neck drifted, causing the starts at the 6th fret and ends up at .028 max. I think i drew it wrong, and then cut and trimmed it to the line. The reason i think this is that the bass side is perfect, and the first six frets of the treble side are perfect. Does that make sense? It's getting late and I'm not sure I'm clear… but i think i might be ok if i can bring in that over hang flush with the neck.

One thing - I don't follow this:

"I fair the edges of my fingerboards into the neck close to this amount to make them comfortable. The edges shouldn't be square when you've finished carving/shaping the neck. So undercut the entire edge -- both bass and treble edges, actually -- equally and you should be fine."

I dont understand what you mean by undercutting the edges.

Also, i want to restate that the fretboard is fretted, which i fear limits what I can do as far as shaping from this point

[darren]

I was thinking the same as Rick... you have to sand/carve a transition area where the neck ends and the fretboard begins. blending the square FB into the round neck will make that overhang disappear. If your worried about the frets, a bastard file easily takes down the fret ends and the fretboard at the same time. Make sure this 'blending' is consistent on each side of the fretboard, all the way up and down the neck.

Kincaid has some good illustrations of this process in his book. You'll come out of this just fine.

[chimpotle]

Thanks guys. I ordered the Kincade book - will be here Friday. I'll hold off on doing anything until I'm sure i have a firm grasp on what i'm going to do.

So if i understand correctly, "fairing" is bascially "smoothing or blending"?

And if i undercut the fret board edge, the bottom edge would basically be angeled in relations to, say, the sides?

Al in all, sounds like good news. Best case scenario i fix it with a file, worst case i'm making a new fretboard... it helps that this is fun!

[darren]

Darren described it better than I!

don't hear that very often... :)