Fret Leveling Tools on the Cheap

[Whale Bone]

I recently made some fret levelers and a notched ruler for checking fretted neck straightness/relief.

After reading the Aug 2006 Bass Player Magazine article on fret leveling, (Good article: http://www.bassplayer.com/article/le...s/jul-06/22006) where Dan Erlewine suggests using a carpenter's level as a leveler, I checked the StewMac.com site for comparison to see what they sell. They offer 8", 16", 24" ($120 for all three), I decided to buy a $25 48" level and cut it into three sections: roughly 8.25", 17.5", 22.25". I can only use one side of the 17" because there's a opening to see the middle level gauge from the edge (left, lower edge in picture). I found that I mostly used the 17 and 8 - 22 is a bit too long. They worked really well.

The notched ruler I made from a nice straight-edge (<$10) from a Pearl art store. I notched it 34" scale with a Dremel. I'll notch the other side either for my short-scale bass or for my guitars. I picked up another ruler with one thick edge for around $10 to use for checking the final job, and to use with strings on for checking relief.

The whole job came out really well on my P bass on on my crappy acoustic guitar.

[Slowjett]

how do you use the levels?

[Whale Bone]

They're sanding blocks.

[Corndog]

For such privative tools a lot of people can't use 'em properly. They put their weight into it too much. Let the grit do the werk.
My friend Tony is a jeweler and spent 2 years learning proper file technique.

[Light]

We just use some old 12-14 inch files we've had for about 37 years. We cut the tangs off, and epoxied them to some wood handles. Before we did any of this, we of course made sure they were dead flat.

Frank Ford just uses the body of an old jack plane wrapped with sandpaper (obviously, the plane iron is removed - as is the throat block for it and all the handles).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi