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I do fret the entire board at one time - after everything is finished,
buffed, assembled and bridge glued on.
If you're jigged to the gills, and have built enough instruments on the
same tools and procedures to achieve reliable consistency, you can work
out a method of fretting the neck before the instrument is assembled. For
small builders I think it is extremely difficult to ensure that the fret board
will still be as perfectly level after assembly as it was when you fretted it
early.
I am a big advocate of fretting being among the very very last things done
on an instrument. When the bridge is on and it's ready to put strings on,
then is the time to level the board and then fret it. There are so many
places and times for minor humps, kinks and irregular curves to occur in
a board during assembly.
I have seen so so many guitars from small builders in which one of the
first things I can say with certainty upon inspection is "oh, they fretted the
board before assembly". Often times the builders don't even notice the
flaws because they are usually preoccupied with things like plate tuning
and clean binding joints. I'm focused on the functional geometry and
playability.
Some people can fret a board even before attaching it to a neck and get
great results, but not many - certainly not many builders using water-
based glues. I guess fretting as a last step never seemed an obstacle to
me, because that's how I've always done it.
In short, leaving the board leveling and fretting to last can help ensure a
good level surface, which can be difficult to maintain in pre-fretting.
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