I’m not sure I’m understanding your ‘first’ and ‘last’ frets reference. I’m thinking first frets are maybe 1 through 10 while last frets 10 through 24 or whatever. If that’s the case then it’s just that the last frets are closer together so there’s more metal to cut.


Steve

It has nothing to do with board taper. The frets are round on the top and your first passes remove the material easily. The more you remove, the wider the fret becomes with even more material to remove. Literally - the farther you go the more work you are doing.

Is your beam long enough that it hits all the frets simultaneously?

If you used a cylindrical board radius, then sanding along the string paths should remove the most material from the middle frets and away from the center of the board. In other words, there is an apparent hump due to the string cutting across the cylinder at an angle. Initially the sanding beam will want to tip back and forth over the center of the hump, so probably your technique has resulted in tipping toward the nut end. Check with a straightedge to see if the last frets appear to be too low. If that is the case, then use a shorter sanding block to take some material off just the middle frets before continuing. Otherwise you'll probably just start grinding a new straight line tipped in the opposite direction.

More metal. Frets above the 12th are twice as close together as those near the nut. I have never used full length files or sanding blocks to level frets. I spend more time leveling on the higher numbered frets to achieve the same height throughout


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actually
A did you prep the fretboard first?
When I do frets the first thing I do is prep the board so it is true , If I have to adjust the rod to get it dead flat
that had to be done.
when fretting be sure you get them seated. I do this by breaking the corner of the fret slots with a small pillar file
I use water and a dab of tite bond ( this works like a lubricant ) and softens the end grain so the barbs seat better,,

allow a little time for the wood to take the barbs then I use a black magic market to mark the frets.

I prefer a straight machined bar but use what you feel comfortable with. And DO NUT USE A LOT OF FORCE be sure the neck is supported.

If you don't support the neck the neck will bow and guess what part of the neck moves the most ???? Yes the top 5 frets so don't be aggressive let the weight of the bar do the work. I use 400 and 600 grit for roughing the fret level process.

Once I see that I have leveled the frets it crowing and polish. I think you may be overly aggressive causing some neck flexing of not getting the fretboard true..

My leveling bar is laminated Maple and Mahogany.

Chris,
The first few frets (1-5) get wider faster than the last few frets (16-21).
Does this make sense?
Dan

I guess I level frets a bit differently than some. I mark the tops of all the frets with black marker. As the marker is removed from the frets at the peghead end I quit filing them and move the sanding beam down the board to level the next frets, and so on. This may add a slight amount of "fall away" to the fret plane, but if the board was reasonably flat to start with and the frets are seated properly this won't be noticeable, and it keeps me from over filing the tops of the frets.
Starting out with the right size fret wire would also be helpful. I recently needed to buy a size I don't normally use to replace a couple of frets on a friends guitar and located a source on eBay (bitterroot guitar) who stocks many sizes in small quantities (enough to refret a single guitar). Here is a size that may work for you - a bit bigger than StewMac's mando wire:
https://www.bitterrootguitars.com/fret- ... 15-5pk.htm

More metal. Frets above the 12th are twice as close together as those near the nut. I have never used full length files or sanding blocks to level frets. I spend more time leveling on the higher numbered frets to achieve the same height throughout


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