Faux Acoustic guitar build

[gitlvr]

Time for some fret work, I think.
I have an old, cheap plane that I use sometimes as a sanding block, because it's heavy, and dead flat on the bottom. I usually use a large bastard file to bevel the ends of the frets, but I thought I'd give this a try instead.

Worked pretty well, I think.

Next it's fret leveling time.
I adjust the truss rod until the fretboard is as flat as I can get it. Then i mark the tops of the frets with black marker.

And I thought I'd take a tip from Frank Ford and use that same plane to level the frets.

Basically run it over the fret tops until all the black is gone, like so.

 

[gitlvr]

Next it's time to crown, or round over, the fret tops. I start by again marking the tops of the frets with black sharpie.

And then I take my fret crowning file..,

... and begin the crowning process.

The goal here is to use the file to round over the sides of the frets, leaving a little strip of the black marker on the very tops, or crown, of the fret. This helps insure that all the frets are still level with one another.
To complete the crowning of the fret tops, I take some 320 grit sandpaper, and wrap it around my fingers, going over the very top of each fret until it is nice and round and smooth.

 

[SurferJoe46]

How do you keep the cross-grain sanding marks off the board?

 

[gitlvr]

Once the frets are crowned, it's time to dress the fret ends. I do this by taking a 3-corner file that has one edge ground smooth so it doesn't mark up the fretboard. Then it's just a matter of gently rounding of the sharp edges where the fret ends were beveled.

This is followed by 320 sandpaper along the edges, just to polish up any scratches made by the file. I follow that up by buffing the entire thing, frets, fret edges, and fretboard, with 0000 steel wool.

And, the results.

 

[gitlvr]

How do you keep the cross-grain sanding marks off the board?

Most of them are taken care of by the final buffing with steel wool. I usually go across the frets and then from end to end with 0000 steel wool. That usually takes care of most of it. I'm not really that anal about it. As long as the frets are smooth and don't drag, a couple of microscopic scratches on their surfaces won't make much difference. The strings will polish the very tops(the only point of contact anyway) much more than I could with just a little bit of normal playing.
Another thing that I do that is not covered in this thread is to take a screwdriver, and, using the edge of the round shaft and a little pressure, I hit the very edge of the fretboard. This compresses the fibers of the wood slightly, and gives an effect similar to natural wear of the fretboard edge, like it has been played for years. I forget what Fender and other manufacturers call it, but it gives a nice feel to the board. If you look closely at the last pic, you can see it.

edited to add: Oh, you were talking about scratches on the fretboard itself. Sorry. the steel wool takes care of that quite well. I'm not using a lot of pressure, just hitting the tops of the frets. There are very few scratches to the fretboard from that, anyway.

 

[Dark Horse]

How on Earth did I miss this thread ?

Cool stuff... nice improv work, some good saves, and a nice looking design. I dig.

 

[gitlvr]

How on Earth did I miss this thread ?

Cool stuff... nice improv work, some good saves, and a nice looking design. I dig.

Thanks, Dark Horse.
And you missed it because it has been, and will continue to be, a slow build. It's fallen off the front pages of this forum several times. And probably will again before it's finished. I just hope everyone will have patience and stick with me 'till the end.

 

[SurferJoe46]

Another thing that I do that is not covered in this thread is to take a screwdriver, and, using the edge of the round shaft and a little pressure, I hit the very edge of the fretboard. This compresses the fibers of the wood slightly, and gives an effect similar to natural wear of the fretboard edge, like it has been played for years. I forget what Fender and other manufacturers call it, but it gives a nice feel to the board. If you look closely at the last pic, you can see it.

edited to add: Oh, you were talking about scratches on the fretboard itself. Sorry. the steel wool takes care of that quite well. I'm not using a lot of pressure, just hitting the tops of the frets. There are very few scratches to the fretboard from that, anyway.

I call it: 'burnishing', as I've always just used wood of the same hardness - the same wood if possible - to do the same thing by rubbing it hard on the wood I want to chamfer.

Another thing I have done on a few necks is to just use a big mill bastard at about a 60º angle to the flat of the board and file both the edges and the fret wires to a mice profile. Finish up with needle files on the fret wires and your in Fat City.

Then a few coats of paste carnauba wax seals it all off and makes it nice and smooth.

My fret leveling takes the same course of action, although I uses an extruded aluminum piece of 1"x4" square tubing and some 3M sticky-back strips of 400# dry paper.

Once in a great while, I'll fire up the Dremel flex-shaft and a wheel charged with white jeweler's rouge for a really nice shine on the wires.

 

[gitlvr]

I call it: 'burnishing', as I've always just used wood of the same hardness - the same wood if possible - to do the same thing by rubbing it hard on the wood I want to chamfer.

Cool idea.

Another thing I have done on a few necks is to just use a big mill bastard at about a 60º angle to the flat of the board and file both the edges and the fret wires to a mice profile. Finish up with needle files on the fret wires and your in Fat City.

I've seen this done before. might try it one day.

Once in a great while, I'll fire up the Dremel flex-shaft and a wheel charged with white jeweler's rouge for a really nice shine on the wires.

I tried this once with polishing compound. Got compound in almost all of the pores of the rosewood fretboard. Spent hours with a needle, picking white compound out of those pores, since everything else I tried to remove it didn't work.
Got smart(so i thought) and taped off the board, only to get compound in the pores when removing the tape. Not as bad, but bad enough. Won't try it again.

 

[SurferJoe46]

I tried this once with polishing compound. Got compound in almost all of the pores of the rosewood fretboard. Spent hours with a needle, picking white compound out of those pores, since everything else I tried to remove it didn't work.
Got smart(so i thought) and taped off the board, only to get compound in the pores when removing the tape. Not as bad, but bad enough. Won't try it again.

I missed that experience - thankfully! Maybe because I heavily waxed the board first - I dunnow. Hopefully I never experience that myself.

BBL - gotta buy a nice 10MM or .45 cal Sig Sauer --- saw some Gray Wolves here.

 

[gitlvr]

I missed that experience - thankfully! Maybe because I heavily waxed the board first - I dunnow. Hopefully I never experience that myself.

Not fun. Hope you never do.

BBL - gotta buy a nice 10MM or .45 cal Sig Sauer --- saw some Gray Wolves here.

I vote .45. 'Course, i'm partial to a 1911A1, but that's just me.

 

[Stealth]

Not only is the bass progressing nicely, the fretwork tutorial is really well-documented. This'll surely come in handy the first time I dare dress the frets. Thanks a lot for keeping such detailed tabs on all steps.

 

[gitlvr]

Not only is the bass progressing nicely, the fretwork tutorial is really well-documented. This'll surely come in handy the first time I dare dress the frets. Thanks a lot for keeping such detailed tabs on all steps.

Thanks, Stealth. I hope it helps you and others.
One of the biggest, most daunting tasks for most people who want to build is the neck and fretwork. I hope that my posts will help to show that building a neck and doing the fret work aren't as maddeningly difficult or scarey as they seem at first.

 

[John D]

Gitlvr, I always look forward to your builds. I leave each of them feeling like I have been schooled...in a good way.

 

[abarson]

I love Workmate builds! Your's looks especially scarred!

 

[gitlvr]

Thanks, guys.
Abarson, yeah my Workmate has been through two sets of tops, and I really need to replace them again. They see a lot of work. It's taken a lot of abuse, but my trusty Workmate is still going strong.

 

[Arnie]

Congrats this was awesome for me.. What I took the most out of this is how much work you did with your tools... I was too concerned about filling the shop with tools before I start and I see I don't "need" a lot of tools..

Thank you so much..

I am bookmarking this thread when I get to the neck dressing...

 

[gitlvr]

John D, Arnie, thanks to both of you.
Arnie, as for tools, if I had the cash I'd have all of them(and a shop as well). I'd love to have a jointer, drill press, bandsaw, and sanding station. But I don't have the cash, or the room for them. But you don't absolutely have to have any of them. One of the good things about using what you have instead of going out and buying a ton of tools is that you get to figure out which tools you really need, which ones you can do without, and which ones would make your life a lot easier. That right there can save you some cash when the time comes.

 

[Hopkins]

My hats off to anyone who can do this kind of work with out at least a band saw. I have done nothing but ruin wood with a jig saw

 

[JimInRadfordVA]

My hats off to anyone who can do this kind of work with out at least a band saw. I have done nothing but ruin wood with a jig saw

My personal experience has been that power tools only exist to allow me to ruin more expensive wood at a faster rate than I can achieve with mere hand tools.