I personally put fall away in all of my builds I actually sand a little fall away in the fingerboard before I install the frets that way I don't need to remove so much from the frets themselves but yes fall away makes a difference no doubt!
Some great tips and techniques there man, I agree with your thinking on this, nothing to add. Except to say that masking tape properly used is one of the best secret weapons of a good woodworker.
I had some guitars Pleked at Glaser Guitars in Nashville, and the results were terrific. Well worth the time and money, the guitars are perfect, to me anyway. But for less expensive guitars, Plek is a somewhat expensive process. I'm going to try your method on a Squier, makes sense.
Thanks for that I took the wear out of the frets on a fender adjusted the truss rod lowered the action and there must have been fall away on it cause buzzing has come only on the wound strings up the fret board
No that 12" radius is for sanding the fret board. If you use that and your frets are not exactly 12" you will not remove the correct amount of material. Measure your fretboard at every fret you'll see what I mean, even the big companies have some variances here.
So you do the fall away first!! Before doing the normal fret level? Ok. Bring up the 15, last 5 frets get the hit/sanded level (so 17 to 22 frets are going to get hit on a 22 fret board and 19 to 24 get hit on a 24 fret board). I am correct on this?!?!? Please advise.
everything from 13 to 21,22,24 will get the fall away there will be tape over the 12th fret. With 8-12 wraps of tape at the 5th fret put a straight edge across and you can see where it will touch. The key to any fret level and dress is to remove the minimum amount of material from the frets. Hope this helped.
Soo my warwick 6 string bass has some ski jump here is the relief i saw with strings on. 1 to 3 fret no gap 4 to 17 fret 0.30mm 18 fret 0.25mm 19 fret 0.20mm 20 fret 0.15mm relief 21 to 24 fret no relief Then i wonder what would u do if i send u my bass to you?
First it would be cheaper to send it to Warwick in Germany. Second it sounds like the neck has a back bow (over straightened with the truss rod(s)) the first thing I would do is determine if you have one or two truss rods in that model. Next it it is two are they synced or are there creating an artificial twist in the neck (common on some Rickenbacker). If the neck is only back bowed loosening the truss rod and applying downward pressure to the neck may bring the curvature back . The next thing to check is your fret board radius if it is standard and not compound each fret space should have the same radius= This ensures the frets have the correct radius. SO here are some starting points to look at however without visually inspecting the guitar these are only assumptions of possibilities. Framus/Warwick is a great company and I have been in contact with them in Bavaria all ways helpful.
I've always thought of it in terms of the farther up the neck you play, the closer together the frets are. If you have/want low action you need to compensate for the decreasing room there is for the string to pass over the next fret.
I came here specifically for this. I just completed attacking high frets on my Tele with a fret rocker to find them, a marker to mark them and a “dagger” crowning tool to spot knock them down. They came out perfect. But after putting it back together I notice a tone drop on the 1st and 2nd strings after the 12th fret. They started sounding thin. I could easily raise the string heights but I don’t want to if I don’t have to. I’d heard this term fall away and started my research. Here I am. Now, my question is, since frets 1-12 are good to go, after I add a little fall away as you demonstrated, do I need to remove the tape off fret 5 and go over the whole fret board to blend it in? (You mentioned removing the tape then sand beaming the whole fretboard). Or can I just crown and finish the 12+ frets and put it back together? Probably by the time or month or year that you see this 😂 I’ll have made a decision but I would value your opinion regardless. Thank you
What decision did u made? 😊I’m here for the same reason as you..and I have the same question .. after the fall away do I need to go all over the fretboard or leave it like that with the fall away..?
That makes no sense, fall away on a good guitar is already there, if you know how to do this work you'll understand, I do it for a living an my necks are super shredders
So, let me think. Well, that didn't take long. Either I listen to what Dan Erlewine has to say on the subject, or I listen to you. Not a real tough choice there.
Called a fret chop, you put the fall away in the fretboard. Not on the frets, you want maximum height on frets, 100% for vintage radius or its choke city. The main cause of ski jumps is cheap arse techs putting a half shim in a neck pocket. Put a straight edge on the heel and watch how much the end of the neck will kick up. Plek can put fall away on on fret job or have none. The fall away option on a Plek is for planning a fretboard. Suhr / PRS and few other have very little if no fall away, just straight fretboards...
"We can program in a perfect radius or compound radius, and even dictate how much fall-away we want in the upper registers. It only removes the minimal amount of material out of the frets" That quote is from Plek website.
@@talonguitarworks7514 yes thats on a fret dress, you don't have to use fall away. If you look at the scan of a Suhr or PRS the are basically the same height from first to last. Do we have an internet full of people saying the Suhr or PRS are crap playing guitars 🤔 Plek is a tool that will fix a guitar if the operator wants to fix ski jumps or a rollercoaster fretboard ie Gibson. I use one and if the customer doesn't want the fretboard corrected ( unless its a Vintage guitar ) I won't except the work. Just because a Guitar has been on a Plek doesn't mean its perfect. But it is a machine that allows me to do 300 plus stainless refrets a year without damaging my body..
