Flat fretboards.....

[koshikas]

Re: Flat fretboards.....

this could very well be a personal problem but I find higher action on flatter fret-boards counter-productive. I feel the flatter the frets are, the f action should be setup lower

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[Moniker Guitars]

Re: Flat fretboards.....

We started using 14" radius boards. When people arent used to it its the first thing they notice... I always tell them to play on it for 15 or 20 minutes, do some bends and slides... then tell me what they think.
Theres a great Rig Rundown with Jimmy Herring where he talks about "discovering" the benefits of the flatter boards.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Flat fretboards.....

We started using 14" radius boards. When people arent used to it its the first thing they notice... I always tell them to play on it for 15 or 20 minutes, do some bends and slides... then tell me what they think.
Theres a great Rig Rundown with Jimmy Herring where he talks about "discovering" the benefits of the flatter boards.

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[DarkMatter]

Re: Flat fretboards.....

I'd love to try a flat board on an electric. It should improve picking consistency.

 

[shawnlanefan]

Re: Flat fretboards.....

vinta9e-
I do scoop out the neck I have. Using a big rat tail round file from fret 12-22, and a rounded rasp file from frets 1-11. So I in fact create a totally flat fretboard between the frets. This in turn makes the frets essentially quite tall so they are actually taller that the highest fret you can buy but on a 9-12 radius neck they don't feel as high as mine.
Goes w/out saying I must sand the wood down as cosmetically, when I am done "scooping, or flattening" the wood, maple or rosewood they look like Rocky the squirrel has been eating the fretboards. And it looks like he is really hungry.
the whole fingerboHowever, I have now just taken on a re fret by myself, took the frets (medium jumbo) out, and will now just flatten ard ( did that a couple days ago ) and bought the highest widest frets StewMac had to sell, and will be using those on my flat fretboard.
I will give the frets a 20" radius, taper the ends by hand with a special edge trimmer from S.Mac
Polish it up, restring, slide a very thin but hard piece of glass with 600 sandpaper under the strings at pressure to find any uneven frets so I am positive I have no string fret outs or buzzing on ANY BENDS.
Used this process on all of my guitars ( the frets radius and flattening ) all 6 or 7 of em.
They all play great, bend without buzz and get the string right in the middle of my finger pad for a great grip and ease of bending. I must wait as my spine is giving me hell for a whole week now and I am sure I'll need some more time before I can finish some must do projects, especially my no load 500K problem where I blamed the pot when someone pointed out certain things that made me doubt my findings. Gotta fix that too.
Thanks all,
SJB

Boy, I hope you aren't taking off too much wood going flat like that. Fender necks are usually 7", 9 1/2" or 10" radiuses. I hope you don't break fretboards down the line from truss rod tension. Another thing to watch for would be if your taking off so much wood that the fret slots aren't deep enough for the fret tangs. StewMac sells fret slotting saws and a depth gauge thing for slots too. LMI is cheaper for whatever you can get thru them. I've re-fretted 17 or 18 guitars now, so I'm still learning. I've been putting in stainless steel wire----boy does that chew up tools, but ya, LMI sells a fret nipper cheaper than StewMac. OH, one thing I just learned was if your pulling frets out of ebony or rosewood, use a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water. Put that on both sides of the fret with a Q-tip real good. It really helps the fret slide out----way less chipping of the fretboard. I like that you switched over to keeping string tension on the neck, thats the right way to do it (a straight edge, and a notched straight edge, esp. the notched one, is pretty much essential). I guess the main thing is, I hope your not taking off way too much fretboard. Good Luck, Brian