Slotting Fretboards

Here is a little makers tricks post: Cutting fret slots on fretboards is a painstaking process, one that you need to be incredibly accurate at. It is a crucial element during the production of any guitar, any inaccuracies and the whole guitar could be a write of with tuning/intonation issues. There is the old manual way of doing it, mark each fret out individually with a ruler, a square and a scalpel. Get your trusty fretsaw and handsaw each one individually, trying to be as accurate as you possibly can. This takes a lot of time and to be honest if your sawing is even slightly of that day, you're probably not going to the be super accurate. I have of course done it this way, mainly during my time studying, good to learn the old fashioned way. I opt for a machine based method these days, starting with the templates you can see below.

These templates are machined to set scale lengths, each template has 2 different scales per template. You can see the notches on each side of the templates. These dictate the fret slots, accurately machined to the exact fret positions. (I'd love to say I made these myself, but they were purchased from reputable tool suppliers, mainly Stew-Mac). I then get out my trusty Proxxon machine, mini table saw. I love this saw! My trusty sled that holds the template square against one edge, while running straight over the blade of my saw. There is a small metal pin receiver that slots into the notches on the template (see the photo below on the right).

Fairly straight forward from here, the fretboard is attached to the template. I use strong double sided sticky tape for this. On my clear templates, I need to centre the board on the template. On the metal template, I need to butt the fretboard square against the edge of the template. You then align the first notch with the pin, I start at the nut, first cut is the nut. Set the saw depth, I use a thin kerfed blade, 0.5mm thick. Turn the saw on and run the sled across the blade, lift the fretboard off the sled and return sled to the original position. (watching your thumbs/fingers are out of the way of the blade).

From here, you just rinse and repeat. Moving the template along one notch, nut > 1st > 2nd ... etc... Until you have your desired amount of frets slotted, 19 usually for a Classical, but can do more as required. That's it really, now the way I have my saw set up, I quite often have to just run my hand fretsaw through the slots, just to give me a bit more depth on the cuts. Far faster and more accurate than doing it fully by hand. No need to mark each fret out individually before hand and no sore forearm from all the sawing. Do need a fair bit of money for all the kit though... but being able to cut these 3 fingerboards in about 20 minutes, compared to probably an hour per board by hand, I think the money was worth it.