Hello,
About a month ago I stupidly ordered a headless fan fretted neck off of *sigh* Aliexpress. After removing all the frets and rounding the fretboard itself, I started to notice that the 22nd fret is "crooked", it doesnt follow the same pattern, I guess you could say. I looked back at photos of the neck with the frets still in it, and to my surprise I was right. I was wondering if this is actually normal (which I doubt) and if not, what are the ways of correcting something like this. I was thinking of cutting it back into shape by eye and fill the off-centered part with some glue&dust. Any guildance would help out tremendously.
Thank you, David
Welcome to the group @dav
I've got no experience at all of fanned frets, but I'd agree that it certainly doesn't look right. I'm guessing that there must be some kind of formula to position the frets, so I would say find that formula and fill/recut the 22 fret where it should be. That of course is assuming that its only the 22nd thats wrong.
@robin Hey, thank you :D. Yeah thats the thing. I gave it some thought and I feel like the best thing to do is to get a fretboard replacement. Do you know where I could buy a blank from? Im looking for Maccasar Ebony blank if possible.
Thank you 🙂
@dav I don't know which region you live in, but in Europe this is a place I usually buy stuff from: FRETBOARD BLANKS (guitarsandwoods.com)
Do you know where I could buy a blank from? Im looking for Maccasar Ebony blank if possible.
I don't know what part of the world you are in, but here in the UK, I've bought mine from @markbailey
how much does markbailey price for his fretboards? Thank you again
https://guitarmaking.co.uk/product/fretboard-electric-guitar/
I would definitely try to rescue the fretboard first and indeed fill it with glue and dust. Perhaps it is not a bad idea to figure out the correct placement for the frets and double check them. There is so much to learn from recovering from build errors. It will make you a better builder imho. Even if you fail miserably, you can always replace the fretboard , but you cant replace the experience of fixing the issue 😉
@koendb thank you for your reply, I gave it some thought beforehand but in the end, for what I'm investing into the guitar that being mainly the hardware, wood and time itself, I chose to go ahead and remove the freatboard. It really is à pitty because the indian rosewood looked amazing on it. When I do decide on making another guitar, I'll redo and reuse the freatboard. In any case I ordered a blank macassar ebony fingerboard and I hope it arrives soon. I'm also thinking of removing the truss rod, I am a bit skeptical with what kind of rod they decided to put into the neck, so I'm looking for a decent quality replacment. Would you know or anyone reading this know how to choose a truss rod? Here are some photos of what it looks like. Thank you 😀
@swepri I guess so, if it works it works, problem is, is that it seems like the plastic covering chipped à bit. Could you just put like masking tape to make sure glue doesnt go into what seems to be "stacked metal plates" during the gluing process? Thanks 🙂
Could you just put like masking tape to make sure glue doesnt go into what seems to be "stacked metal plates" during the gluing process?
Yes, I guess so. Mark recommends using a thin "fillet?" above the trussrod, but if the trussrod is level with the neck that is not possible. Others use a strip of thin masking tape over the trussrod, just to keep the glue out.
I don’t have any experience of fan fretted guitars and would bow to the greater knowledge of anyone that does. Would I be right in thinking that each string would have it’s own scale length and that could be determined by measuring from nut to 12th fret and multiply by 2 for each string, then calculate the distance from nut to 22nd fret for each string and use that to find the correct placement of the fret? Seems like a straightforward solution but maybe I’m oversimplifying the whole thing. Interested to know more.
Brian.
@brie Yes, you are correct. Geometrically, you only need to measure the scale of the two E strings for the calculation, since the fret wire connects in a straight line between these two scales. The scales for the other strings would be correct.