Re: Flat fretboards.....
Kramersteen-
I could not be more with you. Every guitar I have I flatten out, by hand, the wood between the frets, this gives me a flat fretboard effectively. I then radius the frets to 20" - string it up, tune it with a raised nut (very high about half an inch off the fretboard) this way while the neck is bent in it's full string tension, I flatten out the center with a FLAT fine sander, loosen the strings, smooth the frets with a StewMac tool, and hand taper the fret edges. I can bend anywhere and have NO string buzz, plus there is plenty of room for my fingers to get under the string and really grab it to bend without hardly any wood dragging on my fingers.
I love it. I almost PM'd you about this but now I don't have too. I am currently making my first re-fret from scratch. Just removed the old frets from a Squire neck and am in the process of flattening the fingerboard. I bought the highest, widest frets I could from StewMac, but the only problem is I had no idea how hard just the nickel/silver frets were! I have some strong industrial strength wire cutters but they are clearly not enough. Almost broke my hand.
Have to get a professional fret cutter from LMMI or StewMac before I can go any further. Cheapest ones I can find are 30 bucks, so that will be worth it.
Any advice is welcome if you can think of anything. Thank you,
Steve Buffington