Warhead dark rosewood (with veneer) / roasted maple neck

[docteurseb]

Picked up the neck this morning for my "Soloist Dragon Breath build" (https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=31846.0).
Nice rosewood and neck, I'm looking forward to completing this guitar!

 

[rgand]

Beautiful. It'll be spectacular when you roll the edges.

 

[Cactus Jack]

Wow, love it!

Would you consider posting a "how to" roll fret board edges tutorial? The work you do is awesome and I'm sure many of us would love to know your mysterious ways.

 

[docteurseb]

Wow, love it!

Would you consider posting a "how to" roll fret board edges tutorial? The work you do is awesome and I'm sure many of us would love to know your mysterious ways.

There's already one in the "Laguna Dragon Breath" WIP thread. Although I checked recently and pictures weren't showing up even though they are still there with valid links...

 

[docteurseb]

Wow, love it!

Would you consider posting a "how to" roll fret board edges tutorial? The work you do is awesome and I'm sure many of us would love to know your mysterious ways.

I'll post again what I did for this neck. I approached this a bit differently than back then to speed things up a bit.

Step 1: mask the neck.
It protects frets from scratches and the wood from getting fret dust (you definitely want to avoid that for unfinished bright/white woods like maple).

And yes the tuners buttons are eventually for this neck.

Step 2: rough bevel
I sand the fingerboard edges with a sanding block and 180 grit at roughly a 45 degrees angle.
I used to do this 1 fret at a time with a straight file as well as razor blade, the sanding block makes it much easier and more consistent.

One side is done:

Notice the 'scalloped look' (less wood removed around the frets) ? That's not ideal but we'll take care of it later

At this step I make sure I round the side of the fingerboard too using the sanding block.
I do not round the top of the fingerboard yet, it'll be done at the end.

Step 3: rounding the base of the frets.
The goal is to remove that 90 degrees angle using a straight file from Stemwac. I forgot what this file was intended for, it may have been a nut shaping file.

Before:

And the before (left) and after (middle/right):

I try to be careful to mildly careful but there'll be rough marks left that we'll clean up in subsequent steps:

Step 4: rounding the fret ends
I use a crowning file for that:

Before (bottom), after (top):

Step 5: clean up
Once all the frets are rounded. It's time to clean up and round the fingerboard edges completely.
For that I use again the straight file from #3 moving back and forth between each frets at different angles.
Finally I use a 220 grit sanding sponge running along the fingerboard edge to smooth things a bit more.

Once done we're left with:

To do steps 1-2 on both sides, and steps 3-5 on one side took precisely 1 hour.
Step 3 is quite time consuming, but step 4 is far worse. So I'm going to guess it'll take me close to 2hours to do both edges.

Step 6: frets polishing.
I use that crowning file with 3M mesh sandpaper which works wonders.
I used to use normal sandpaper until someone here mentioned that magical mesh sandpaper which is much easier to work with.

This step, when done on stainless steel frets, is the most time consuming and the most painful steps of all. I think it can easily take 2+hours.
This time I'm hoping it'll be much faster since I protected the frets with masking tape.


Obviously not all of these steps are necessary depending on what you want to achieve.

Since you recently asked on another thread why Warmoth doesn't roll fingerboard edges, I hope the above process and time needed to do this answers that.

 

[stratamania]

A good looking neck again. I like the veneers on the headstocks you are using.

And as someone else who also does a not too dis similar process for frets and rolling the edges I second it is a lot of work. But I am always pleased to see your fret ends as many completed builds on here I often think give me a file and lets get those ends done  :icon_thumright:

 

[docteurseb]

Thanks! I actually just finished polishing the frets and burnishing the neck (1st time).
Polishing those stainless steel frets took way longer than all of the other steps combined. I feel like I’ve been doing it all evening... It’s insane and pretty hard on the hand and  fingers, but at least I’m done with it now.
The burnished look is interesting, I’m curious to see it in daylight.

 

[stratamania]

Polishing stainless takes a while to do it right I think. I have to wear gloves when I do it and find it a lot of work but the results are worth it.

I have not tried a roasted maple neck or burnished one. To be honest I am a bit on the fence about roasted maple.

 

[docteurseb]

I'm with you on roasted maple, this is my first one ever.
It's just that I got into the "PRS look" (outrageous looking tops with natural mahogany backs) only 2 years ago. And for that type of look I could finally see myself using a roasted maple neck as it pairs well with natural mahogany.
I still wouldn't put it on a Strat/Tele unless the peghead has a veneer, or unless the body is finished in a similar color (tiger eye, copperhead, etc...). That too will likely evolve.

By all means it's a fantastic wood.
You can get a fast raw neck feel while keeping the weight down compared to the usual exotic alternatives (RW, ebony, wenge).
And if you like something glossier, yet super fast to play, burnishing is an easy/fast thing to do.


On the fretboard edges, I suspect one could skip the crowning file to round those fret ends and merely rely on the used of finer and finer sanding sponges. I might try on the next neck (no plan for that yet).

It's also interesting to see Ibanez's "Premium fret edge treatment" on sub $2k guitars. That looks impressively good and puts to shame anything else I've seen in that price range (and even most that cost 2-3x as much):
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/JEM7VPWH--ibanez-steve-vai-signature-premium-jem7vp-white



Polishing-wise, as I went through the 6 grits of 3M polishing paper:
https://www.amazon.com/Wetordry-Polishing-Microfinishing-Flexible-Backing/dp/B07X56G951/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=3m+micro+mesh&qid=1595091759&sr=8-17

the two coarsest took about 30 min each, after that it went much faster the higher the grit.


As much as I appreciate the end result I truly despise the process (well,the polishing part).

Long post, so here's what I'm left with after spending most of yesterday working on this neck:

Still a few fingerboard marks from the files but I'll leave them 'as is'. It almost looks like the frets have some scratches still but these really are just skin/oil marks from holding the neck.

 

[PhilHill]

Excellent work. It's a pain, but the end results make it worthwhile I think. You obviously take pride in your work.  :icon_thumright:

 

[docteurseb]

Excellent work. It's a pain, but the end results make it worthwhile I think. You obviously take pride in your work.  :icon_thumright:

Thanks, it's almost pathological.
In fact, even though I just wrote "Still a few fingerboard marks from the files but I'll leave them 'as is'.", I actually just fixed those...
The thing is that when you spend so much time on this you want to make sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.

 

[rgand]

That's as fine a neck as one can have. Outstanding work.

 

[stratamania]

Those results look good and I might give the roasted maple a try ccasion14:

 

[docteurseb]

While we're here let's enjoy the benefit of unfinished wood and how easy it is to repair dings using an iron and wet paper towel...

Before:

After heating up the area with an iron (and wet paper towel), now the wood is raised again:

... and sanded smooth:

I did that on the roasted maple too to fix couple accidental marks I left while installing tuners.

 

[PhilHill]

An old repairman's trick, but valuable when you need it. Well done.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Dazkeirle]

This is a great thread.

I'd done the fretboard rolling before but in terms of the fret end finishing I have that to come.

Is nice to see the less glamorous in between images where it's not looking great and then the final, will inevitably stop me freaking out during the in between stages of mine.

I trust you had already levelled the frets / checked them using a straight edge / levelling beam prior to starting this bit?

 

[docteurseb]

I trust you had already levelled the frets / checked them using a straight edge / levelling beam prior to starting this bit?

Actually no, I don't deal with that anymore.
Polishing SS frets is hard enough that I don't want to have to crown them: I'm still feeling a bit of numbness at the tip of my index finger this morning from that polishing session on Friday.

If it's not level enough to my taste I will have the guitar PLEK'd, but I'll want to wait a while for the neck to settle in first.

 

[stratamania]

I trust you had already levelled the frets / checked them using a straight edge / levelling beam prior to starting this bit?

I have arrived also at the conclusion that it makes more sense to dress the ends first. Also taping off the top of the frets as shown is a good idea.

Why, because the fret ends will need doing in any case unless you just want a bevel and if you slip with a file on top of already levelled and newly crowned frets while dressing ends you will not be happy. Any slight work however needed on the already dressed ends after levelling and crowning will generally be picked up by the overall polishing process.