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Hey Folks,
Last night I attempted to change the fretboard radius on a Squier strat neck. First off this neck had issues with a rise in the last 4 frets and the radius was off being 10 inch at the nut and a 9.5 at the 22 fret. Not sure why this neck was like this but I wanted to use this neck to learn fretting. This was a indo Squier neck. Not sure the quality control is always good there, maybe this neck was a dud... I have other Squier necks that play fantastic though...
Well another issue I ran into when pulling the frets is that the Squier had the tangs cut short from the edge of the neck and I thought that was strange but I proceeded to use a fret saw to make the fret slots all the way thru the neck. that went well.
Next I tried to fix the rise in the end of the fretboard by using a radius block and 100 grit sandpaper to fix that, not so good. no matter how much I sanded it just did not seem to get me to a 10 inch radius at the end of the fretboard...
I sanded the entire fretboard till it was somewhat straight but never could get that 10 inch radius all the way down the fretboard. I think I needed one of those long metal radius sanding blocks to achieve what I was trying to do.
Finally I decided to try to do the fret installs and being my first time I found that pressing is much easier than hammering. I also found that radiusing fret wire is critical to getting a good press fit and using two different fret inserts on the caul, like using the 7-1/4 brass insert to get the fret ends to seat, then using a 10 inch brass insert to get them to seat all the way.
Then I had to pull a fret out to redo and the slot would not hold the next fret down after replacing so I had to glue in that fret and put a clamp on it.
Finally I ran the CA glue thru all the fret slots and let it wick up only to find that it came out on the fretboard so now I now why wax is so importand on the fretboard when using tha CA hot stuff.
Over all it was a fun experience and I learned alot. I definitally need to keep doing this to build a set technique but I got over being nervous about trying this and feel hopefully that the next job should be much better than this first time.
I did find my fretbender worked just like it should have. The fretboard radius blocks do work but thats a technique all its own and you cannot rush that.
Finally doing the fret installs, pressing is easy and cool to do. hammering is a bit harder and you have to have a steady hand or otherwise you can get a dented fretboard.
Thought I would post my experience to everyone, maybe some can tell their first time stories too.
Cheers
Last night I attempted to change the fretboard radius on a Squier strat neck. First off this neck had issues with a rise in the last 4 frets and the radius was off being 10 inch at the nut and a 9.5 at the 22 fret. Not sure why this neck was like this but I wanted to use this neck to learn fretting. This was a indo Squier neck. Not sure the quality control is always good there, maybe this neck was a dud... I have other Squier necks that play fantastic though...
Well another issue I ran into when pulling the frets is that the Squier had the tangs cut short from the edge of the neck and I thought that was strange but I proceeded to use a fret saw to make the fret slots all the way thru the neck. that went well.
Next I tried to fix the rise in the end of the fretboard by using a radius block and 100 grit sandpaper to fix that, not so good. no matter how much I sanded it just did not seem to get me to a 10 inch radius at the end of the fretboard...
I sanded the entire fretboard till it was somewhat straight but never could get that 10 inch radius all the way down the fretboard. I think I needed one of those long metal radius sanding blocks to achieve what I was trying to do.
Finally I decided to try to do the fret installs and being my first time I found that pressing is much easier than hammering. I also found that radiusing fret wire is critical to getting a good press fit and using two different fret inserts on the caul, like using the 7-1/4 brass insert to get the fret ends to seat, then using a 10 inch brass insert to get them to seat all the way.
Then I had to pull a fret out to redo and the slot would not hold the next fret down after replacing so I had to glue in that fret and put a clamp on it.
Finally I ran the CA glue thru all the fret slots and let it wick up only to find that it came out on the fretboard so now I now why wax is so importand on the fretboard when using tha CA hot stuff.
Over all it was a fun experience and I learned alot. I definitally need to keep doing this to build a set technique but I got over being nervous about trying this and feel hopefully that the next job should be much better than this first time.
I did find my fretbender worked just like it should have. The fretboard radius blocks do work but thats a technique all its own and you cannot rush that.
Finally doing the fret installs, pressing is easy and cool to do. hammering is a bit harder and you have to have a steady hand or otherwise you can get a dented fretboard.
Thought I would post my experience to everyone, maybe some can tell their first time stories too.
Cheers
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