New setup for fretting fingerboard extension

[Barry Daniels]

This may be nothing new but I came up with a good method for fretting the fingerboard extension on a detached neck. I made a diy version of a Jaws II a couple of years ago and it works OK but is a bit of a balancing act. On a current repair I had to pull the neck of a red-label yamaha and am converting it to a bolt-on. I decided to refret the neck while it is off the body. The lower frets were easily installed with my arbor press. But the frets over the extension begged for a different approach.

I clamped the extension to the end of my workbench with Quick clamp and a slotted spacer block under the bench top to cover the hangar bolts sticking out of the heel. The jaws II worked really well in this setup as the neck is held firmly to the workbench. I can walk away with the clamp in place to allow the fret to setup.