Dovetail joint fit need help with correction

[Tim Benware]

Assuming (I need to take care with that assuming stuff) that the finger-board is not attached ---- flossing to mate the surfaces is done by pulling the abrasive out to the side. To tilt the neck plane back away from the sound board pull the abrasive toward the back. To tilt the neck plane up toward the sound board, pull the abrasive toward the top. Its a matter of the sand paper being in contact with the wood longer in the direction it is being moved. --- Make sense?

That's how i do it. The sanding block method goes quicker because one is not always fitting the neck into the mortise, lifting to insert the paper each pull and then pulling again. For the fine tuned fit I get close and then floss.

[Beau J]

ok finaly the neck is straight. the dove tail fits properly. the neck meets the sound board properly. the neck angle is so close I dont want to adjust any further. the is a .030 gap between the sound board and the end of the neck. I can either shim it or glue it down and live with the action and intonation isuues on tthe lower frets. I do have a piece of veneer i can make a shim from. if I have measured correctly I think by the time I have the frets installed and sand the bridge to fit the body contour the straight edge sitting on top of the fretted fingerboard will be below the bridge .010 inch. I think this is as good as this guitar will get. I could shave the bridge the additional .010 and it will be as perfect as can be. the 14th fret is sitting over the inside edge of the binding rather than the outer edge. is this a concern? if so can it be fixed? also the fret board sticks out slightly over the sound hole.

[John Parchem]

I would not sweat the 14th fret. I personally would glue down the fret board without a wedge but you can use one. If you use a wedge it is still nice to have a little drop off as the alternative is worse.

Ideally the straight edge would be just over the bridge at this stage without the frets. But that will create a slightly bigger gap at the fret board edge. I am not sure how high your bridge is but as you are measuring with the correct action at the 12 fret you will end up with a low saddle especially on the treble side. But I think you will have a working guitar.