Official Luthiers Forum!

Greetings,
I have a question for those that level the fretboard with the neck on the guitar and then fret with the neck on. I've been doing this for quite a while, like it a lot, and have tried various approaches. What I am wondering is how many of you level the fretboard with some weight on the shoulders of the guitar and the peghead supported to mimic string tension, and how many just level with the neck under no tension with or without some truss rod cranked in? I'm talking about the fretboard,not the frets.
Thanks a million
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Terry buddy I just level the fret board on the neck and guitar with the neck supported about mid-section with my bunny eared support. I use the Stew-Mac sanding beam.

I'll add that prior to gluing the fret board (epoxy) I also true up the neck with sand paper on a surface plate.

I use two leather rifle support (bunnies) on the neck and the body secured via V-clamp vacuum clamping system. I too use the Stewmac precision ground aluminum bar and 16" aluminum radius sanding caul.

Personally I think unless you use a method that flexes the neck with enough precision to match in a controlled and measurable manner what the string will actually cause, then you are pretty much just taking a wild guess.

Frank Ford method for me, Stanley #5 sole with PSA sandpaper glued to the bottom, 4 or 5 layers of tape around the 9th or 7th fret to taper the FB tongue. FB is compound radiused before assembly though, so very little material is removed. If I'm using a one-way rod I very slightly pre-tension it.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Thanks guys,
I've been leveling pretty much like you all do using Frank Fords info. I did notice however that if I took one of my OMs with light gauge strings, measured the relief, then loosened the strings, supported the peghead and put about 6lbs of weight on each shoulder (like in Dan Earlywine's book and John Halls website) the relief was almost exactly the same.
That made me wonder about leveling the fretboard with that setup.
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

When I learned to do this from Frank Finocchio he used 5.5 lbs on each upper bout when the fb was leveled.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com