Archtop Guitar Build - Fret and Neck Work

I left the neck as a solid block because it would make support for seating the frets very easy.  I usually seat my frets with a dead blow hammer but I got a fret press with 12 inch radius insert from Bob when I bought the radius beam.  Wow, what a nice tool!  The frets seated well and easily but the fret press really shined in the area over the neck extension.  Just shim up a support and gently press the frets into place.

Now that I don't need the support of the neck block, I trimmed the neck to shape, added the extension for the nut channel as well as ears for the headstock.  We're getting close now...

Sega J Bass Neck and Fingerboard Leveling

I built a Sega J Bass a while ago and the neck has always seemed a little funky.  I had to have the action fairly high to avoid buzzes, but those buzzes occured only on the G and D strings and only around the 3-5th frets.  I finally took the time to diagnose the problem by straightening the neck via the truss rod.  I made a straight edge from a cheap aluminum yard stick and cut notches for the frets.  This straight edge showed that there was a hump in the fret board around the 3-5th frets under the G and D strings.  The frets were all in good shape so I carefully pulled them using a Stewart Mac fret nipper and set them aside for future use.  The fret slots were cut quite deeply by the manufacturer of this neck and small splines were placed in the outboard ends of the slots to form pockets for the fret tangs to sit in.  Because these pockets were deep, I didn't have to worry about recutting them in the areas that I planned on flattening.

I then set to work at leveling the hump.  I rocked a 24" long straight edge on the fret board and penciled an "X" over the highest spot.  I then used 120 grit paper on a small sanding block, knocked the area down slightly and repeated the process to remark the new high spot.  As the neck leveled, the high spot would move slightly until after about 20 or so cycles, the neck was perfectly flat.  I ended up having to remove material all the way up to the 13th fret under the D and G strings.

The fret board was checked to ensure that the 12" radius was unchanged and the frets were reinstalled.  Once in place, a fret leveler was used to hit the high spots and the frets were re-crowned, buff sanded and polished.  A fret rocker was used to find any remaining high frets and at last the bass was restrung and it now plays well with the action set at factory specs, something it was unable to do before.  A small bead of thin CA glue was wicked under the frets to make sure they stay in place.

Ukulele Build Part 6

Tonight was fret installation night. The fret wire was cut to be a little wider than the fingerboard width.  Because the finger baord has a binding on it, the fret wire needed to be under cut on the ends to allow it to hang over the binding material.  A Stewart Mac fret nipper worked well for this and a fine file was used to clean up any remaining tang.

A fret hammer was used to seat the wire and a fret leveler was used to make the fret edges even with the binding as well as create the 30 degree beveled profile on the edge.  A fine file was used to dress the fret edges and the fret crowns will be leveled on the uke since there might be changes to the flatness of the fret board once it is mounted.

Here is a photo of one of the mother of pearl palm trees for the head stock.