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Don't rule out Dinosaur-tech just yet

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stubhead

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This is an old English guy who's returned to building, fretting a neck with a hammer - cause he LIKES it that way. And not a Stew-Mac safety-face plastic head hammer with NSF warning, certificate of non-allergenic toxicity and safety-goggles interlock, a HAMMER hammer.

I wouldn't be shocked if the compound radius is curved right, all without 14 different blocks too....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be2yj0qMYpU

Channel for abalone edging
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFVAGwqE2fA
 
I'm surprised he radius's his frets by hand, although it's likely he uses nickel-silver fretwire, which is easier to bend and shape. Stainless wire is like weapons-grade hard, relatively speaking, which would make that sort of thing very difficult. You can't hammer that stuff in and expect it to stay if it's not properly bent on the going-in side. It'll spring up in no time flat. The tangs/barbs are no match for the tension.

Also, there's a reason to use brass-faced hammers instead of playing Conan the Barbarian - you don't want to deface the frets any more than you have to. Banging iron against nickel-steel is just going to create more work later when crowning/polishing.
 
I prefer to fret before I shape the neck. hammering or pressing in the frets on a totally square neck is imho a better way because the neck doesn't have to endure as much stress.
 
Orpheo said:
I prefer to fret before I shape the neck. hammering or pressing in the frets on a totally square neck is imho a better way because the neck doesn't have to endure as much stress.
Click to expand...

I agree.  I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I think that it allows the fingerboard to adjust along with the neck shaft to the multiple humidity changes that occur when shaping the neck shaft as each later of wood removed exposes wood underneath that has more humidity in it than what was just removed.  That's just my own presupposition though.
 
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