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I`m planning on finishing the body of this guitar before attaching the neck,which is a mortise and tenon bolt on attachment.I want to bolt on the neck with the fingerboard attached,then fine tune the neck angle and radius the fingerboard ,then unattach the neck,do all the finishing and fretting then re-attach and dress the frets.I`m a little concerned that when I glue the fingerboard to the body things may change a bit and possibly cause problems.I was wondering what sequence some of you folks use ,when finishing the body without having the neck attached.
                          James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Things do change a bit when the neck is bolted on and the fingerboard is glued down.

I lacquer with the neck off then fine tune the fingerboard after the neck is permanently attached. Then I install the frets. That seems to be the only way I can get it the way I want it. I don't like the idea of smoothing out the lumps and bumps by dressing the frets.

Mark

Rough fit the neck to the body. I use dovetails.

Finish both body and neck.

Final fit the neck.

Glue up.

The fretboard extension isn't changed much, because you remove all finish under the fretboard and glue direct to the top. So it doesn't change the architecture much to put in an PVA glue joint.

I radius my tops, but flat the fretboard area by sanding during rough fit.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Mark I`m assuming you do glue the fingerboard to the neck first?I usually like to wait until the fingerboard is fine tuned to finish carving the back of my neck to get the correct thickness.So I`ll probably finish the neck after it`s attached permanetely.               
                  James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Bruce do you go ahead and radius your fretboard and fret it before final glue up?
                James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

James

I do glue the fingerboard to the neck first.

I radius the fingerboard with the neck bolted on dry, no glue.
After the lacquer is done and the neck is on for good, I "fine tune" the surface of the fingerboard, then I fret.

Mark

James,

I glue a radiused fingerboard to the neck, then fret before installation. I hear what Mark is saying, you can get that last bit of fine alignment by fretting after glueup.

Frank Ford has a nice tutorial on refrets. It's quite enlightening and would be worth a look when asking this question.

I just may switch and start fretting afterward.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I fret first, build the neck and body separately, finish separately, and haven't found it to be an issue when gluing up the fretboard extension to the body. If everything's on the same plane(or like me, plan a little drop off at the body) before you glue, it should also be afterward.

Fretting has got to be my worst part of the build. Clinton

It doesn't have to be so...

By fretting first, I can take the neck over to the belt sander and practially sand the fret ends to perfection. Don't laugh, I sometimes get on my knees, so I can really see well what I'm doing and the angle I'm holding the fretted neck. Takes all of 45 seconds.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Clinton...I had the same problem with frets....Then I purchased a fret press from Stewart McDonald....You will be totally amazed with the finished fret work....Larry...

Not to steal this thread, but I still hammer my frets in. Probably why I install frets with the neck off. It's when I try to use binding on the neck, my ends don't seat well. Clinton

Binding, on the neck? No wonder. Do you have a fret nipper? It's on my Christmas List, along with some real shellac, a burnisher......

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

No, I use a dremel and then finish up with a file, takes awhile. Yeah, my Christmas list is still growing.... Clinton

James,

Thanks for asking this question. I'm bookmarking this thread for future reference...  

J.R.

Clinton, one of the best tools for fret ends is a file mounted in a block of wood at 30 degrees.

I made one in just a jiffy and have used it a lot. I think stewmac sells one if you don't have a table saw.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com