Sunday, October 30, 2011

Fret work



Today, I worked on two of my neck projects. The top one for the Red Special and the bottom one for the carved tele. I set my frets into place. I've learned a few valuable lessons here.
1. Over radius the frets before fitting them. The fret boards on both of these necks are radiused at 16 inches. When hammering the frets into place they flatten out. On the maple fret board I bent the frets to exactly 16 inches. On the ebony fret board I bent the frets to a tighter radius. When I hammered them they flattened into place.
2. I am planning to put a shellac on the maple fret board to protect it. I'm still undecided on the best approach for future necks. But here I decided to shellac the neck after setting the frets. In the future, I'll try shellacking the neck before I set the frets.
3. I start hammering each fret from center and working slowly towards the edge. (By hammering I really mean a gentle tapping. remember these are not nails but a much softer metal.)

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