Installing frets before gluing down the fretboard ?

[Howard Williamson]

Building my first guitar following J. Kinkead's book, he mentions that some (not him) prefer to install frets before gluing down the fret board.
I hadn't thought of that but I must admit that the idea is somewhat attractive to me - I don't like the idea of hammering frets home over the body.
I can imagine that it would limit your ability to " fine tune" things after gluing down but are there other pro's or con's --- or is anyone really installing frets before gluing down the fret board ?

[Louie Atienza]

I believe Mario does it this way. I've done it on a few guitars with success.

[Patrick Hanna]

When I've done it, I left out the first fret and the fret where the neck met the body (in that case, a 12-fret mandolin neck). Before fretting, I dry clamped the fret board to the neck and drilled very small holes through the first and twelfth fret slots into the neck. These held registration pins later on. Then I fretted all but those slots. I glued up, with registration pins IN, to keep the fretboard from sliding around in the wet glue. When the glue cured, I pulled the pins and installed the last two frets. Then leveled and crowned. It all went very well.

[Howard Williamson]

Thanks, that's re-assuring.
Yes, I can see where register pins would let you trim everything right up close.
I might just give that a try !

[Greg Robinson]

The biggest advantage with fretting before gluing is that you are able to handle the back-now induced by the fret tangs much more easily before the fretboard is glued to the neck.
Once you've fretted the board, place some 1/2" blocks under each end of the fretboard, and then clamp down around the twelfth fret to a bench. Leave it overnight, and when you unclamp, the barbs on the fret tang should be well seated, and the fretboard should be dead-flat, or at least much closer than without this step. You may have to adjust how high you shim it for harder/softer fretboard materials, but 1/2" seems to work well for me.
Mario Proulx turned me on to this, and it works a treat.

[Jeff Highland]

I do it like Patrick with registration pins in the fret slots
But ..... I use plastic pins (2mm side dot rod) and leave only a short stub protruding from the neck surface so that I can install all the frets before glueup.

[Craig Bumgarner]

I've been recently fretting the FB before gluing to the neck shaft, pressing the frets rather than hammering them for a more consistent set. I like to shape the neck before final gluing, so I temporarily stick the FB on to the neck shaft for shaping using double sided tape. To get the FB off the neck shaft, use an old B string with a couple handles to slice between the FB and shaft.

[Clay Schaeffer]

One suggestion I would make if you do it this way, is to used a non waterbased glue (epoxy) to glue the fretboard on the neck and have both parts fully aclimatized at 40 to 55% humidity before gluing. Water based glues can swell the wood and cause the neck to back bow. Having the frets installed doesn't allow you to relevel the board if this happens.

[Matthew Atkinson]

I pressed frets in before gluing on my last one. I was very happy with it. Much more control. Gluing wasn't really any more difficult.

[Mario Proulx]

I'll add that I use 1/16" steel pins through the fret slots also, but I leave them in place, thereby I can and do install all the frets. If the idea of leaving a tiny metal pin in place bugs you, use toothpicks...

Craig, how can you(and why do you?) completely carve a neck before the fretboard's in place? You should be blending the fretboard into the neck so that the two become one and are completely "invisible" to the player's left hand.

[Howard Williamson]

I've done mine now and it worked fine (as far as I know anyway).
I used .062 stainless register pins (Tig welding filler rod). Installed the frets over them.

[Mario Proulx]

Common 1" 'finish' nails are exactly 1/16", and make great, and inexpensive, locating pins for many uses and jigs.

[Rod True]

16 ga nails are also 1/16" diameter. I use brass as they are easy to nip off to length. And as Mario said, they work for many other 'locator' ideas.