I have an acoustic that I built from a StewMac kit, and the frets at the body end of the body don't sit down properly. As a result, if you lay a metal ruler edge along the top of the frets you'd think the neck was warped. I'm pretty sure it isn't, because if I line up the edge of the ruler with the join between the neck and the fingerboard, it appears to be perfectly straight.
I live in Lutterworth, Leicestershire (junction 20 of the M1), so does anyone know of anyone relatively nearby who I can trust to do a number on my frets? I'd go to Sheehans but I fell out with them (long story).
Or any good advice on how to get it right? It's a bolt-on neck so there's no problem with removing it to get any work done.
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Ta for the link, I appreciate it.
I can certainly help if you are struggling but there are a few thigns you can try first
have you glued the end of the fretboard down, your comments make me think not. even bolt-on necks on acoustics have that bit stuck down normally, removing the neck invovles a bit more work than a bolt on electric
are the frets seated properly. it can be hard to get these last frets on an acoustic done on refrets, but should be fine if building from scratch. worth checking though.
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And no, I haven't glued the end of the fretboard down - the biggest problem with my first two builds was the neck angle. Despite all my measuring and fine-tuning and all of that, I still got them wrong, so I wanted to make sure I'd got that right before I glued anything.
Besides, a few years ago I went to the Acoustic Avalon thing that Sheehans in Leicester hold every year at Leicester racecourse. They had two Taylor techies there from their factory in San Diego who were sorting out actions and neck angles and stuff, and they say they have always used bolt-on necks and shims, and none of the necks they worked on had been glued in. I watched as they simply removed the strings, stuck a spanner inside the body, undid the bolts, lifted the neck off and replaced the shims in the joint. (They did this to at least three guitars while I stood there astonished at their speed and dexterity.)
I figured that the the tension of the strings pulling the end of the neck up would thus force the fingerboard down onto the guitar top as surely as any glue would. That's the theory, anyway.
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I'll check out the other guys in Leicester, see what they say and then get back to you.
Appreciate the info.