Stepping back in time-fretting
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:24 pm
I was fretting this new fingerboard for a bass guitar repair the other week, and had to use my old fretting method due to not having a template to use my dedicated fretting saw bench.
I thought that there are probably newcomers that do not as yet have the slotting circular saw blade and are doing frets with a handsaw, so I thought I show how I used to do it for many, many years on many guitars.
Pictures show:
• Shaping the fingerboard radius
• I then mark the fret positions and scribe across the board with a sharp knife
• I use a Stanley knife blade screwed to a block of wood as a fence/guide. The edge of the blade sits in the scribed slots in the board. On the face of the blade there is layers of tape, this gives the clearance I need for the saw.
• The saw fence is brought up to the face of the guide fence and clamped into position and the guide is removed
• The saw is lined up with the face of the fence and the slot is cut
• Then repeat as you go up [or down] the fingerboard
In these pictures I’m using the slotting saw I got from Stumac, this works very well.
There are many ways to do this job and different jigs to help, this just one of the ways I did it.
In the last photo you can see the attempts I had at getting a fretting saw, before the days of getting a “fretting saw” made for the job. All these had the set on the teeth ground down to try to get the correct width slot, except the last saw at the bottom that became available with different thickness blades.
I thought that there are probably newcomers that do not as yet have the slotting circular saw blade and are doing frets with a handsaw, so I thought I show how I used to do it for many, many years on many guitars.
Pictures show:
• Shaping the fingerboard radius
• I then mark the fret positions and scribe across the board with a sharp knife
• I use a Stanley knife blade screwed to a block of wood as a fence/guide. The edge of the blade sits in the scribed slots in the board. On the face of the blade there is layers of tape, this gives the clearance I need for the saw.
• The saw fence is brought up to the face of the guide fence and clamped into position and the guide is removed
• The saw is lined up with the face of the fence and the slot is cut
• Then repeat as you go up [or down] the fingerboard
In these pictures I’m using the slotting saw I got from Stumac, this works very well.
There are many ways to do this job and different jigs to help, this just one of the ways I did it.
In the last photo you can see the attempts I had at getting a fretting saw, before the days of getting a “fretting saw” made for the job. All these had the set on the teeth ground down to try to get the correct width slot, except the last saw at the bottom that became available with different thickness blades.
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