Tutorial - how to use fretboard locating pins 

I'm a beginning luthier, and your videos help me out so much! you're awesome Ben! :)

I believe it was in Melvyn Hiscock's book that he recommended using staples out of a staple gun. In my first (and thus far only) guitar build, I popped a couple of staples into the top surface of the neck, making sure to leave them proud of the surface by 1 or 2 mm, and then clipped off the horizontal portion of the staple to leave two tiny pins from each staple. I carefully aligned and dry-fit the fretboard to create pin holes in its underside, and then proceeded with the glue-up by re-aligning the pins and holes. Not saying it's any better, but just an alternate method.

Very interesting technique! I would use Bamboo Skewers as pins! thanks for sharing!

You know, everybody seems to do videos about locating fretboards in the right place..we did it totally different.fretboard glued on..before trimming neck and fretboard to size , fretslots and truss rod done after this..simple.

This is great, ive used cut nails before and made some terrible mistakes, the worse one being that i chipped the fretboard when attempting to clean out the fret slot after the glue had cured.... thank you so much for this tip!!

Great insight Ben. Thanks for sharing!

Great video, thank you, just getting ready to attach a fretboard to my first guitar build. And figured I'd let you know, your reaction to typical shop sounds in the background are comically distracting, far more than the sounds in the background. Funny. Thanks for the well done and informative video.

When Ben first drilled and left the dust on the fretboard I almost blew on my phone screen to get rid of it, lol!

I use nails. The process is slightly different thou. I hit the nails through the fertboard with their heads on. The clamping caul has a small area where the heads fit. After the glue is cured, I can just pull the nails out with pliers. I think thia works great, thanks for my teacher for this tip :)

thank you Ben

After watching several videos, and having discussions about locator pins for mounting fretboards, this by far is the MOST helpful and sensible demonstration of it that I've come across yet. So thank you for that. I do have one question, though. I see (at 06:14) where, after mounting the fretboard and pre-clamping, you snip the excess locating pin "down to size"; specifically to the level of the fretboard, is what it looks like in the video. This would indicate a small stub of the plastic riser gets left down in the slot; assumed to be necessary for stabilization while under clamping pressure. Then after clamping and curing you show the outcome (at 08:11) where the pin has "basically disappeared", and the slot is now empty and clean where the excess stub out for the locating pin once was. Maybe I missed it, or perhaps it wasn't mentioned, but how did the small stub of left down in the slot after snipping it off level to the board at 06:14 -- "disappear"? I assume you used a fret saw or slot cleaning tool of some kind to remove that portion of the plastic rod from the slot itself? Or... what?

Great video Ben! It took me a few builds to use this method, I use nails, i remove them after the glue is cured, and it's done. A few months ago, I discovered a Crack all along the fretboard of a guitar i've built for sale, Which i'm pretty sure was caused either by a not quite dry piece of wood, or the thickness of the masking tape i used to cover the truss rod. I noticed a on a clarity build video, that you removed the tape before clamping, so i started to do that, and at least, it makes me feel more at ease with myself. Maybe it was the wood, but just in case, you know. Cheers!

...I usually use veneer pins in the fret slots, then pull them out afterwards...I never leave them in for the reasons you mentioned...so, yes, much better idea, thanks... :- )

I always use toothpicks for this purpose, and I discovered, that two points is not enough to prevent fretboard from sliding while gluing. So I use four. Seems to be that the side dot plastic rods are stiffer, so you use them in only two points. Thanks for interesting video, Ben. I'll try side dot plastic rods on my next guitar. BTW, for people, who try to do this trick first time: don't drill too deep. There is nothing worse that suddenly see these little holes on back side of you neck, when you make the profile shape. I checked this=)

simple and awesome results... although... i´m intrigued by the headstock, what kind of tuners you used on that guitar? i think its brilliant too

Thanks for sharing. Could you or anyone else explain how the locator pins do not create a problem when installing the frets?

What about gluing the board on, planing to fretboard and neck down to size, and then slotting? I'm asking because I just did this method with a piece of Che Chen on a 7 piece neck (maple, Katalox, Bloodwood) for a baritone to bass multiscale 8 string and am about to begin slotting the 30-33" scale fretboard when the fretwire arrives

I have an unusual homemade jazzmaster type guitar that needs alot of work. the fretboard is heavily worn and is beginning to delaminate from the neck. should I take it off and reglue it or replace it and how would I go about removing it? when you tap it near the first four frets and the twelfth it sounds hollow like it's coming off.

i was thinking you could do this underneath where the fingerboard dot markers, (or inlays) would go, but of course you can't do this, where it would go into the truss rod underneath. D'oh! But... if there were inlay positions that were to one side, or that straddled the truss rod location, wouldn't that be better than going through a fret "hole"? Then your pin could be glued in, and be covered by an inlay? Or is there something I'm missing? (Wouldn't be the first time!)

Hi Ben, what would you suggest to do with a fretless fingerboard with no slots? thanks!

David Fletcher has it in one of his videos.

I have taken some whisky but at 2:08 the colour difference on the fretboard makes it look as if it dips in the middle. I have no idea why I felt I should share that... BTW. I love your video's.

what radius do you use ben?

its A LOT easier to keep the pins in the board, because then it just pops right in place and you clamp away. I prefer finishing nails anways, since you can pull them out after, and they only need to be 1-2mm into the neck blank.

My GOD !!!!!! WHAT A NECK!!!! (the guitar neck :P) Soooooooo sekseeeh!!!

It doesn't stop the fret from going all the way down when you put in frets?

Why not use 1.5 mm side dots?

WHY DONT U USE RUBBER BAND TO HOLD THE BOARD IN PLACE BETTER THAN CLAMPS

Toothpicks, strong enough? Got to be cheaper......