Official Luthiers Forum!

FWIW…

I use a 1/16” bit to drill four holes for alignment. Two in the first fret, two in the body joint fret.

I clamp the FB to its proper location, then drill the holes. I start with the drill in reverse so it doesn’t tear out the top of the slot, then drill an approximately 1/8” deep hole into the neck.

When it comes time to glue the FB on, I use aluminum welding rod. I push it into the pre drilled hole and clip it just above the surface of the neck, high enough that there is something for the FB to index to, but low enough that the bottom of the fret doesn’t touch it.

I believe the time between when the neck is made and the fingerboard is attached can make a difference. We all know that wood moves, and it tends to move more after being sanded or planed. I try to make up a few necks ahead of time so they can settle. As Mario used to say "a flat board glued onto a flat neck with a non water based glue". I think Michael Greenfield does it the same way.

Brent

So I just fretted a fingerboard before gluing to see how it would go. It went very well.

First of all, the fingerboard was much easier to fret while not on the neck.

Furthermore, I had no back bow of the fingerboard, which was one of my main concerns. My guess why is because I cut my fret slots on the CNC and they aren’t too narrow.

Finally, after gluing the fingerboard to the neck, leveling the frets wasn’t any different than when I glue to the neck first. I only found 2 slightly high frets with the fret rocker before level sanding.

So far so good.