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I'm planning a bass build but my problem is that I don't know how to accurately get the frets in exactly the right spot. Any tips?

You can use the free fret scale calculator here

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Frettin ... tcalc.html

Make sure to take your time and be very precise when marking and cutting them. It's crucial to make sure that the slots are perpendicular to the fret board face and that they don't angle as you saw. Also make sure you saw them deep enough and that your saw kerf matches your tang width on the fret wire. Don't ask me how I know this

its easy. just choose your scale length, convert to millimeters, find a ruler that has metric increments, lay a piece of tape down on your fretboard(which ideally hasn't been radiused already; if it has then you just need to be more careful with your cutting technique. using something VERY pointy and sharp, start poking your fret positions into the tape. you should be able to get to the closest half -MM, and that is close enough, especially in a bass scale. always keep measuring from your starting point, as opposed measuring from fret to fret, in order to mitigate a cumulative error.
pull the tape off, make a guide or use a mitre box, find a saw(i have been lucky; seems like lots of cheap saws have the right width to accomodate most guitar fret tangs); and cut, under bright lite, over the marks you poked into the fretboard
thats how i do it, anyway. simple but it works, with care.

What I did was I lined up the ruler to the edge of the fretboard (which hadn't been tapered yet), with the 0 mm end of the ruler towards the bridge end of the fretboard. I slid put the ruler so that the measurement I wanted was at the nut end of the fretboard, and traced along the end of the ruler with a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil (this obviously only works if the ruler has the end as 0 mm, not a seperate mark). If you have a dark fingerboard you would want to lay down tape first. I used the 0.025" nut slotting saw from stew mac. I clamped a nice and square block of wood to the fretboard lined up with one of the marks. The block had the right thickness that when the spine of the saw came down to the top of the block, the slot is deep enough.
There are certainly better ways, but it was cheap and worked fine.

This only works if your fret tang width is that size. The fret wire I worked with initially was .028". Trying to get that fret wire to work in a slot cut to .025" could be problematic.

True, It does depend on your fret wire. I used the stew mac fret wire, and the stew mac saw (for their wire) is 0.023". So since they also sell tang trimmers in case you want a easier fit, I figured 0.002" oversize wouldn't be the end of the world. But if you were using a fret wire with wider tang, you would need a wider kerf (perhaps the 0.030 saw).

depends a bit on the fretboard material too, it can be a judgement call: for example you can bang a fat tang into a worn maple refret job, but try that same fret on a freshly cut ebony board, and it won't likely want to go in...
also, on a freshly cut slot, especially in very hard woods, its helpful to run a triangle file across the slot a few times to give the slot edges a bit of a bevel, which aids in getting the new fret seated, and also reduces chipping and tearout for the next guy come time to yank the frets out

This is how I do my frets:

First, I draw a centerline down the neck, have my fret calculations ready, and use a long straightedge/ruler with the aid of a caliper to get as accurate as humanly possible when marking the frets. I typically just pencil directly onto the fretboard but if your eyes aren't great you may want to do the masking tape route. With the right angle of light, I find I can see pencil lines even on dark Indian rosewood. But I'm also a photographer.

If your board is not yet tapered you can use a square up against the side to mark/cut them. If your board is already tapered as it would be for a one piece neck who's taper is already cut, what I do is mark my centerline down the neck by measuring the width of the neck at the nut and multiplying by 0.5. Same thing for the last fret, that gives you the length from edge to middle. Using a calpier, I draw this line from both sides of the neck to make sure the pencil mark ends up right in the middle. That gives you your centerline. Then mark the fret locations carefully with a square. Use sharp pencils.

Then to cut the slots I use a LMI fret saw (trusty old steed) and a square lined up with the centerline and each fret mark. What works really well for me is to clamp the square to the neck for each fret and START each fret, but don't do the whole thing. Then go over and finish each cut. It takes a little practice to cut them nice and straight but heres some tips:

1. Cut them as shallow as you can while allowing enough room for the full tang to be inserted. What I do is put some masking tape on my fret saw that marks how deep the slots need to be, plus a pinch for clearance. I check each fret by placing the saw with the tape mark into each slot until it lines up perfectly with the top of the board.
2. Cut very slowly and have a real good grip on your saw. With practice, you can get them pretty darn straight.
3. Always start with fret no.1 and go down. If you make small discrepencies they will be much less noticable where the frets are further apart, and by the time you get halfway down the neck you should be getting the hang of it and make your last frets super accurate.

The best way to put your frets in, in my experience so far, is with a drill press and a small piece of hardwood with a shaft epoxied into it. MAKE SURE YOUR FRET SLOTS ARE SUPER CLEAN. Little chips and dust can get in there and give you a real pain in the ass later on. I sort of "clean them out" with the end of my fret saw before slotting, making sure it glides through the whole slot smoothly. I think this helps a lot.

Then you nip them off with good nippers. Stainless steel frets need high quality nippers. Then file down the sides with a flat file and angle the edge down, pretty much like it looks on a finished fretboard. Don't angle it too long or it will be easy to pull your strings off the board. To clean things up, I dab super glue into the fret ends (there should be a small gap in between the end of the fret tang and the bottom of the slot) and pinch in some wood dust from the fretboard. Then file that down nice and flat. Redo some spots if necessary.

Using the drill press method, I find I need to do very little to level the frets. I think sometimes, if you did a real good job, you can manage without leveling at all. If you do level though, my method is using a piece of square metal stock with some skateboard grip tape on it. Make sure the stock is already perfectly level beforehand. Take a sharpie and draw a line on top of each fret. When using the square metal stock, make sure you keep it straight and let the weight of the metal do the work. The frets are level when the top of the marks are sanded all across the top of the frets. Sometimes you'll get a spot that takes some extra time till the sandpaper gets to it.

If you like flat fretboards you can just take the neck and sand it on a piece of plate glass or a really flat piece of wood. I like flat fretboards, so that's how I do them. Thru-necks are a little trickier but the same idea is involved.

Once your frets are leveled, you need to crown them using a fret crowning file. The reason it's important is that when you level the frets, it will throw off the intonation a bit, and you really want the tip of your frets lined up perfectly with the slots you made. So use a fret crowning file. Then you can finish things up with some sandpaper, starting with 600 and going up as high as you want. 2000 grit makes them look nice. Make sure you do the sides too. I've heard of some nice metal polishing products that will get them ultra shiny, but I think 2000 grit sandpaper does a pretty good job.

If you already have a super shiny, nicely finished fretboard, you can protect it with masking tape while you crown and polish your frets. Otherwise you might have some sidways marks on the fretboard that are hard to get out. Still haven't found a really good way to get rid of this other than a lot of time and patience.

Anyway that's how I do it. Hope it helps. P.S. Be patient!

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