or ‘Putting in the dots and the frets…….’
Putting the dots in is easy just drill a hole the same diameter as the dot (size for size) and glue them in. I Used 3mm Mother of pearl for the front dots – I think they look really classy. The dots sit slightly proud and are sanded flush after the glue has dried. The fretboard is then fine sanded ready for fretting.
Binding the neck makes fretting slightly more tricky. Each fret must be undercut at both ends so it fits over the binding. To make sure they don’t work loose I run a bead of woodglue along the tang of the fret before hammering or pressing them in. Usually I would run a few drops of superglue under the fret ends but this is not possible on a bound neck.
I put the side dots in the same way as the front dots and then clean up the sides of the fretbaord with a file and a sanding block. This cleans up the fret ends and dots at the same time instead of doing it twice. The fret ends are still quite sharp at this point. There is still a couple of hours work to do on the frets but this will done the same day I put the strings on.