Calling Cagey: Frets Are Your Friends

[Cactus Jack]

We hear it all the time, "Warmoth necks are playable right out of the box." Yes, they are playable and most folks will bolt them up and never look back. However, to achieve the best results I recommend folks search and read every post from forum member Cagey they can find. The time invested gleaning his insight regarding all things necks, will pay dividends for years to come.

I normally level, crown, and polish the frets on all of my necks. I opted to bolt this one straight on, in part because I wanted to finish my build, but also because Warmoth necks are "playable." I tried playing it as is for a few weeks, but I could feel Cagey staring at me shaking his head in disappointment . Also, I could feel the fret ends grating my hand.

Below is an example of the old Dan Earlewine fret end test. Essentially grab a dowel and run it back and forth over the fret ends to see if they're sharp. As you can see, the initial results were not good. However, after an hour of applying Cagey's craft the results are much better. While the neck was technically playable before, it's now enjoyably playable, and even though it's not perfect, it's noticeably better. Folks, if you want to maximize your playing experience, and dramatically improve your instruments performance, call on Cagey.

Straight from Warmoth fret end results:

Cagey time:

Thanks Cagey!

 

[stratamania]

Have you heard something from Cagey lately?

The last we heard we was not well and that was now sometime ago...

 

[Cactus Jack]

Have you heard something from Cagey lately?

The last we heard we was not well and that was now sometime ago...

Unfortunately, I have not. I sent him a message a few weeks back, but haven't heard back. I hope he is well.

 

[stratamania]

Have you heard something from Cagey lately?

The last we heard we was not well and that was now sometime ago...

Unfortunately, I have not. I sent him a message a few weeks back, but haven't heard back. I hope he is well.

I hope so too. Though at this point I am wondering if he is MIA.

 

[Unwound G]

Same here. I posted here a week ago calling for him to shed some light on heating up a neck for further trussrod adjustment. No response from him so far.

 

[stratamania]

Same here. I posted here a week ago calling for him to shed some light on heating up a neck for further trussrod adjustment. No response from him so far.

You perhaps have not seen this thread that was first posted back in July.

https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32126

 

[jay4321]

I don't know what Cagey's approach is but fret spout is an easy/inexpensive problem to solve & isn't something anyone needs to live with. You need much more care and patience on a finished guitar, and some thought ought to go into the timing of when you do the job too as temp & humidity are factors also.

I've seen it done a lot of ways with good results but on a finished neck, I use a combination of blue painters's tape, edge dressing file, and lately a thick bone nut blank with various grits of sandpaper. With the painters tape on I take things down to about 800/sandpaper, once the tape's off I switch to the green polishing papers you can get from Amazon or stewmac and work down from there. I don't want to attack the finish and will adjust if a thinner or less robust finish is in place. In which case make sure you stick any tape to your shirt once or twice first to take off some tack, in fact I do that with lacquer-finished anything.

On a neck I haven't painted yet I'll do a whole side together with a block + diamond leveling file, then dress edges, then very little sanding is need before the papers. By the time you're into finer papers or micromesh obviously the problem is solved, if I can run the non-abrasive side of the paper up and down without issue your hand will be fine.

The real trick is patience. Getting fret sprout addressed is nothing, but avoiding damage & polishing out takes some effort.

My PREFERRED approach with guitar builds more recently is to bolt the raw neck up to a test body, string it to tension, take relief to 0 (and make sure it stays there a day or two), then level the frets under tension. Then crown, then fret edges, but only polish out to 600 grit. At that point I finish the neck and, if lacquer, let the thing take its time drying. Once the finish is done and I bolt it on its final body ill re-check level--by the way I tend not to have any issues leveling on my stock body and transplanting, at most I might have a spot level here and there. Then polish frets out. I rarely do maple fretboard and had some history overspraying the face a bit when I did, but the concept is the same. I don't like the nail trick to remove finish from frets or scraping either, this is where those papers come in handy again. 

Side note: green 3m or Zona polishing papers are one of those most useful things in my shop anymore. Other grits are needed but the green is so good with finishing and fretwork. I barely touch the sides or contours of guitars with actual sandpaper anymore.