Fret Dress Help

[thisSNsucks]

Ok I have a few questions for some of you who have done this before. First, I've been reading a ton of books and I keep getting confused.

The neck should be set straight, or as straight as possible, from end to end correct? I was just reading my "Fret Dressing Basics" book from Stew Mac, and they said get it straight from the 1st through the 12th. Is that because from the 13th up there's no way for the neck to bow? That kinda confused me.

Second, when leveling the board, I'll be using a radiused block with 320 grit sandpaper. I know to go up and down the neck w/ even pressure but in the Stew Mac book it said to do the upper frets a little more for a "drop off". Wouldn't this then mean that all the frets are not level with each other? The thing that sucks is the whole book shows how to work on mainly acoustic guitars, so I dont know if things like that work different for basses.

I'm pretty confused, and while I have a few scrap necks to practice on, I dont want to keep doing the same thing wrong over and over. Any tutorials or advice you guys have would be great, thanks!

[202dy]

Originally Posted by thisSNsucks

Ok I have a few questions for some of you who have done this before. First, I've been reading a ton of books and I keep getting confused.

The neck should be set straight, or as straight as possible, from end to end correct? I was just reading my "Fret Dressing Basics" book from Stew Mac, and they said get it straight from the 1st through the 12th. Is that because from the 13th up there's no way for the neck to bow? That kinda confused me.

Second, when leveling the board, I'll be using a radiused block with 320 grit sandpaper. I know to go up and down the neck w/ even pressure but in the Stew Mac book it said to do the upper frets a little more for a "drop off". Wouldn't this then mean that all the frets are not level with each other? The thing that sucks is the whole book shows how to work on mainly acoustic guitars, so I dont know if things like that work different for basses.

I'm pretty confused, and while I have a few scrap necks to practice on, I dont want to keep doing the same thing wrong over and over. Any tutorials or advice you guys have would be great, thanks!

It is true that the neck on an acoustic will not pull into relief beyond the neck body join. The same is often true for a bass. But the neck body join is typically at the fourteenth or fifteenth fret on a bass guitar. Initial leveling is usually done the length of the neck. "Drop off", otherwise known as "fall away" is sometimes worked into F14/15-20/last fret. These frets are level in the same plane with one another. The difference is that the plane is at a down angle from the lie of F1-14/15.

Personally, I'm not a fan of using a radius block to level frets. They are difficult to use, especially for someone who has no experience with fret dressing or is not handy in the extreme. If the centerline of the block is not kept absolutely parallel to the centerline of the fingerboard the playing surface becomes distorted. It doesn't take much to cause problems. A half a dozen strokes with 320 grit can cause hours of hunting down buzzes and noises. Unless a cylindrical radius is desired it is much easier for the novice to use a long straight leveling device. It can be employed to level in the lie of the strings imparting a conical radius to the fingerboard.