While waiting for the other parts to be engraved, I decided to have a closer look at neck and frets.
Actually, I was hoping to not have to level and recrown the frets as I have never done this before, and as I was hoping that with a new neck, this wouldn't be necessary to start with.
Doing some further reading on this on the internet then told me that you may have uneven frets even with the major players and expensive necks, so that it would be a good idea to at least check them carefully and decide what to do.
... after all, this was one of the reasons why I wanted to build my own guitar, so that I could learn what is to be done - and if anything goes wrong, I would "only" have to buy a new neck...
-----------------------
UPDATE:
Decided to share some links on the internet that describe nicely what needs to be done:
https://diyguitarbuilder.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/fret-levelling-you-take-the-high-cost-road-and-ill-take-the-low-cost-road/
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/201556-fret-leveling-yer-tele-101-a.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9kGnvpT5YQ
-----------------------
This is how I went about it, as this was what I found on the net:
1. Making sure the neck is absolutely straight
First, I placed the neck upside down on our kitchen stove, as that has a flat glass top - probably the most straight and even surface in the entire house.
It turns out the neck is slightly bent backwards.
I then adjusted the neck with the truss rod, one small step at a time, until it was as straight as I could measure with a metal ruler.
2. Checking fret heights with a fret rocker
I then checked the heights of the different frets with my home-made "fret rocker" (as I didn't have the actual tool, as you can see, I used a banking card for this).
The idea is to always check cover three frets at a time with the straight edge. If ever you can in any position rock the edge back and forth slightly, this means that the middle fret is higher than the two outer frets.
I then marked all the frets where my banking card indicated a high fret.
It turns out that I found only two or three frets that seemed to be slightly higher than the surrounding ones.
After thinking back and forth, I decided to level the frets anyway, as I also had some scratches and dents from when the neck had initially arrived. After all, I wanted to learn something, and ideally end up with a well set guitar, and when if not now should I do it....
So ahead I go:
3. Marking all frets with a permanent pen
In order to have good guidance later on on how much I'll be filing away from each fret, I followed advice from the internet and marked all frets black with a Sharpie.
As I was a bit afraid of the metal dust sticking to the fretboard and leaving scratches, I decided to cover off the fretboard with some tape, and to extend the markings on the frets a bit further to the sides:
4. Filing the frets level
I then used a heavy fret leveling file and carefully moved it back and forth on the fretboard, making sure that I would only use it's own weight without any further pressure, and ensuring that I'd always move it back and forth all the way from first to last fret, to get an even level across all frets.
Immediately it became obvious that leveling the frets was a wise decision, as they had very uneven heights as well as uneven settings within every fret, as can easily be seen where the permanent marker has been filed away (this was much more than I had expected after using my fret rocker banking card - seems that that wasn't precise enough for decision-making...):
There were two frets that were sitting really low (one marked in the picture below, visible as the marker is still not removed while other frets have been filed down quite a bit already), so I had to take off quite a bit from the other frets - happy to have this started, as otherwise, the guitar would probably have buzzed quite a bit on this fret...
This is how the fretboard looked once I was done with leveling (on that particular fret, the marker was just barely scraped off finally, which is difficult to see in the picture):
5. Marking all frets again with a marker
In the next step, I used my Sharpie again and marked all frets black again.
The idea is to use the fret crowning file in such a way that once done, a thin black line will remain on the fret, telling me that the level is kept where I had it after the leveling (i.e. ensuring not to file down the top of the fret any further), but with a nice round crown.
6. Using the crowning file to shape the frets
I then used the crowning file and carefully shaped the frets to a nice round crown again.
As I'm not a pro, the remaining marker lines are probably not as thin as they could be, but I hope it will be sufficient anyway. This is how the frets looked after I was done with the crowning:
7. Smoothing and polishing the frets
I then used sand paper / polishing pads to smooth and polish the frets' surfaces.
... starting off with 600 grit sand paper:
... followed by 1500 grit pad:
... then 2400 grit, then 3600 grit:
I finished off with 6000 grit. This is how the neck looked afterwards, with the tape still on:
I then took the tape off and rubbed the fretboard off with some lemon oil.
This is the result so far:
I will apply another layer of lemon oil later on for some added protection, but for now, the neck is pretty much done.
Visually, I like the result a lot - let's hope it plays as well as it looks...
Actually, I was hoping to not have to level and recrown the frets as I have never done this before, and as I was hoping that with a new neck, this wouldn't be necessary to start with.
Doing some further reading on this on the internet then told me that you may have uneven frets even with the major players and expensive necks, so that it would be a good idea to at least check them carefully and decide what to do.
... after all, this was one of the reasons why I wanted to build my own guitar, so that I could learn what is to be done - and if anything goes wrong, I would "only" have to buy a new neck...
-----------------------
UPDATE:
Decided to share some links on the internet that describe nicely what needs to be done:
https://diyguitarbuilder.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/fret-levelling-you-take-the-high-cost-road-and-ill-take-the-low-cost-road/
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/201556-fret-leveling-yer-tele-101-a.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9kGnvpT5YQ
-----------------------
This is how I went about it, as this was what I found on the net:
1. Making sure the neck is absolutely straight
First, I placed the neck upside down on our kitchen stove, as that has a flat glass top - probably the most straight and even surface in the entire house.
It turns out the neck is slightly bent backwards.
I then adjusted the neck with the truss rod, one small step at a time, until it was as straight as I could measure with a metal ruler.
2. Checking fret heights with a fret rocker
I then checked the heights of the different frets with my home-made "fret rocker" (as I didn't have the actual tool, as you can see, I used a banking card for this).
The idea is to always check cover three frets at a time with the straight edge. If ever you can in any position rock the edge back and forth slightly, this means that the middle fret is higher than the two outer frets.
I then marked all the frets where my banking card indicated a high fret.
It turns out that I found only two or three frets that seemed to be slightly higher than the surrounding ones.
After thinking back and forth, I decided to level the frets anyway, as I also had some scratches and dents from when the neck had initially arrived. After all, I wanted to learn something, and ideally end up with a well set guitar, and when if not now should I do it....
So ahead I go:
In order to have good guidance later on on how much I'll be filing away from each fret, I followed advice from the internet and marked all frets black with a Sharpie.
As I was a bit afraid of the metal dust sticking to the fretboard and leaving scratches, I decided to cover off the fretboard with some tape, and to extend the markings on the frets a bit further to the sides:
4. Filing the frets level
I then used a heavy fret leveling file and carefully moved it back and forth on the fretboard, making sure that I would only use it's own weight without any further pressure, and ensuring that I'd always move it back and forth all the way from first to last fret, to get an even level across all frets.
Immediately it became obvious that leveling the frets was a wise decision, as they had very uneven heights as well as uneven settings within every fret, as can easily be seen where the permanent marker has been filed away (this was much more than I had expected after using my fret rocker banking card - seems that that wasn't precise enough for decision-making...):
There were two frets that were sitting really low (one marked in the picture below, visible as the marker is still not removed while other frets have been filed down quite a bit already), so I had to take off quite a bit from the other frets - happy to have this started, as otherwise, the guitar would probably have buzzed quite a bit on this fret...
This is how the fretboard looked once I was done with leveling (on that particular fret, the marker was just barely scraped off finally, which is difficult to see in the picture):
5. Marking all frets again with a marker
In the next step, I used my Sharpie again and marked all frets black again.
The idea is to use the fret crowning file in such a way that once done, a thin black line will remain on the fret, telling me that the level is kept where I had it after the leveling (i.e. ensuring not to file down the top of the fret any further), but with a nice round crown.
6. Using the crowning file to shape the frets
I then used the crowning file and carefully shaped the frets to a nice round crown again.
As I'm not a pro, the remaining marker lines are probably not as thin as they could be, but I hope it will be sufficient anyway. This is how the frets looked after I was done with the crowning:
7. Smoothing and polishing the frets
I then used sand paper / polishing pads to smooth and polish the frets' surfaces.
... starting off with 600 grit sand paper:
... followed by 1500 grit pad:
... then 2400 grit, then 3600 grit:
I finished off with 6000 grit. This is how the neck looked afterwards, with the tape still on:
I then took the tape off and rubbed the fretboard off with some lemon oil.
This is the result so far:
I will apply another layer of lemon oil later on for some added protection, but for now, the neck is pretty much done.
Visually, I like the result a lot - let's hope it plays as well as it looks...
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