nccyr Posted October 1, 2003 Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 Hello, Forgive me if this has been covered before. I am making a bass neck. The neck will have a maple fingerboard and I just received the frets material from Stewmac. The question is this: I will make the fret slots (.024") and shape, sand the radius of the fretboard first. Then what is the proper sequence between installing the frets and finishing the maple fretboard with some clear satin nitrocellulose lacquer, etc. If I put the finishing lacker first, then I have to re-saw the slots and when I insert the frets, they may not fit tight on the fingerboard because of the thickness of the lacker. If I put on the frets first, then the lacker will cover them and I will have to spend a great deal of time cleaning the fret to remove the the thin layer of lacker. I have read many articles but didn't yet see how it's really done. Thanks in advance for your help, ncc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted October 1, 2003 Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 Fret the neck first then clear it. Fender did/does it this way. The clear isn't really that hard to remove because it doesn't stick that well to the fretwire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted October 1, 2003 Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 i've also heard of people finishing the board then cutting the fret slot and putting the frets in after the finish is done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nccyr Posted October 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 Thanks for the replies. I didn't know that the finishing will not stick to the frets. Given this new info, it should be easy to clean up. ncc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted October 1, 2003 Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 you could also just tape off the frets, and use a knife to cut out the tape thru the laquer once your done.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted October 1, 2003 Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 you could also just tape off the frets, and use a knife to cut out the tape thru the laquer once your done.. That sounds like a lot of totally uneccessary work, especially considering Scott has already pointed out the lacquer doesn't stick to the metal frets... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StratDudeDan Posted October 2, 2003 Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 typically, any type of finish (cellulose, paint, varnish, wood stain, etc) doesn't even begin to stick to metal or soak in or anything. the "stick" that people are referring to isn't really adhesion, rather the stuff filling in the pores/grooves/grain of the wood. this does not apply to airbrushes and spray cans, however. those do have adhesives in them. but yeah, i spilled half a can of wood stain on my chrome bridge during my last project and just ran some water over it and was done with it. it's almost that easy. i didn't let it dry, though, like you should when you're doing a fretboard, unless you have a very stable hand and won't bump/touch/dab/bother/disturb the drying laquer that is on the fretboard while you're wiping off the very thin frets. hope what i said helps to at least emphasize someone else's point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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