Acoustic Guitar Construction

Hi!
I installed the frets before sanding the fretboard.....which was a bad idea. Now I can´t sand it. I was to eager to get the frets in place, and totally missed that.
/haggis

No problem -- this is a common operation when doing a re-dress secret is shown here:

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/fretdressing.html

You can still do it just like Ken's link shows. It's just easier to do before the frets are in.

Hi Haggis
Are you concerned that the finish on the fretboard is too rough or that the fretboard isn't flat along the string paths?
If it is just too rough, you can use a single edge razor blade as a scraper between the frets, it will give you a perfect playing surface and no sanding needed, but if there are any lumps and bumps along the string path, you will need to determine - with a straight edge - just how much you will have to remove from the fret crowns to achieve a dead straight board. If the frets are going to end up nearly flat in some areas, then you might be wise to pull the frets and start again. Hopefully tho, you are just talking about a rough surface and then fret leveling can continue as normal.

Bob

Litmus wrote:Hi Haggis
Are you concerned that the finish on the fretboard is too rough or that the fretboard isn't flat along the string paths?
If it is just too rough, you can use a single edge razor blade as a scraper between the frets, it will give you a perfect playing surface and no sanding needed, but if there are any lumps and bumps along the string path, you will need to determine - with a straight edge - just how much you will have to remove from the fret crowns to achieve a dead straight board. If the frets are going to end up nearly flat in some areas, then you might be wise to pull the frets and start again. Hopefully tho, you are just talking about a rough surface and then fret leveling can continue as normal.

Bob

The finish on the fretboard is too rough so it looks undone. I´ll try to scrape it.

If I place a straight edge on the frets the first one is lower than the others. So maybe I have a problem here.

thanks
Haggis

Did you radius the fretboard yourself or did you purchase it radiused? The pre-radiused boards I have seen have a pretty good surface on them. You could fix that first fret issue with a good fret dressing, but like Bob (Litmus) said, you could end up having to remove too much of the frets thus necessitating a re-fret anyway.

TonyinNYC wrote:Did you radius the fretboard yourself or did you purchase it radiused? The pre-radiused boards I have seen have a pretty good surface on them. You could fix that first fret issue with a good fret dressing, but like Bob (Litmus) said, you could end up having to remove too much of the frets thus necessitating a re-fret anyway.

I bought a kit so the fretboard had the radius.
I´ll post a picture of it later, maybe it´ll show how good my chances are to get it even without pulling the frets.
/Häggis