Acoustic Guitar Construction

A luthier who has been a local consultant to me during my kit assembly project adjusted the truss rod so as to raise the center of the neck about .010", and suggested that I assemble the neck and fretboard without changing the truss rod adjustment, and then sand the fretboard level, in effect sanding out the slight crown. Then go ahead and install the frets and carry on with the rest of the neck assembly and preparation. At least I think that's what I heard, and concluded. I didn't clearly understand the reason for the pre-loading. Can someone please try to explain this to me? I was quite prepared to sand the fretboard flat on the workbench, install the frets, and then install the fretted fretboard on the neck, which is not possible if I'll need to sand the crown out of the fretboard after it's installed on the neck.

Thanks, folks.

I will reserve comment – I was told “if you can’t say something nice don’t say any thing at all” --- but here’s my recommendations, by now thousands have used this methodology, nothing dazzling about it, just how its done by factories, hobbyist as well as pro makers. Keep it simple

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/fret.html
http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/ne ... embly.html

The broad flow I had in mind before being 'advised' would not contradict anything Ken mentioned in his assembly instructions. I asked my question in great part because of my wondering why I was being asked to assemble in a way that made final fingerboard shaping and fretting the fingerboard and finish-shaping of the neck harder than it seemed it needed to be. Assembling the neck/trussrod/fingerboard while the trussrod was arched, and then levelling the resulting crown before fretting seemed to me to be adding complexity that didn't need to be in the task. Thanks.

Continuing to scratch my head....can someone explain what reasoning is being applied when builders are advised to put a bit of a back-bow in the neck before assembling the fretboard to the neck and then sanding the fretboard level? I've bumped into the advice in a luthier's photo walk-through of a guitar build-up in their shop. No 'why', just 'we did it this way'.

Thanks!

Lemmings?

peter havriluk wrote:... are advised to put a bit of a back-bow in the neck before assembling the fretboard to the neck and then sanding the fretboard level?

Thanks!

This makes no sense; the truss rod needs the fret board to put a back bow on the neck With out the fret board the truss rod will just bow and you will not be able to glue on the fret board.

I have heard of luthiers who glue on the fret board without frets then put just a touch of back bow and sand flat. I heard reasons like it keeps the truss rod for rattling around. Also when I thought about it if the guitar only had a one way truss rod one could put in a slight backwards bow, sand flat then have a little bit of room to set the initial relief.

I like the truss rod in neutral myself. I sand flat after the fret board is glued and then fret. I found that the string tension has given me just a touch of relief for steel strings.

Damaging the fingerboard on a newly constructed instrument makes no sense. On the other hand, stabilizing a squirrelly neck, those that develop a double curve etc., requires a special repair fixture such as the one described in Don Teeter’s second volume – Stew Mac copied and markets it as well. With those jigs the guitar is tuned to pitch, the body and neck are then locked in place – with the frets removed the surface of the fingerboard is milled flat removing the irregularities. Note that this is done as a corrective measure, not a shot in the dark preemptive operation.

Why is this so cryptic? Exactly where are you getting this information and why do they refuse to answer your questions and justify their logic --- to me that’s what’s puzzling.

To further put this notion into perspective – think about it, you are going to actually be able sand off .010” to .000 in two directions in a graduated manner? This is just over the thickness of one 3x5 index card (.008”). If this was something I thought was necessary I certainly would do it before the FB was attached to the neck.