Here's a risky one I just finished. I got a nice red 540R body from
Frank Falbo a while back and needed a neck. I've some other 540Rs with the original style necks for those guitars but wanted something slicker for this one. In my parts bin there was an early 90s S series wizard neck that felt pretty good as it was thicker than the typical wizard of that time and not as wide. But the frets are very worn and it buzzes like crazy, so no go. I had a red heastock wizard as well with a repaired crack behind the nut that wasn't going anywhere so I cut off the last two frets and put that on. It had one buzzy fret and was comfortably thick with a nice U shape but was way more narrow than any wizard I've ever held. The nut hung over the neck on both sides. So it was just going to be a temp neck. The red headstock didnt' match the red of the guitar anyway.
So then I get a '92 wizard in with a large V finish crack behind the nut. This one has no buzz and I was waffling on using it. It was wider than the red-head which was good, but still a little too wide across the fretboard. Some wizards are like a V shape were at the top of the V they are just too wide for my comfort. Back and forth I think, cut off those last frets? Wait for another neck? Cut off those frets? Wait?
I cut them off. Still...
Here's the low-tech part of the show:
I figured that I'd try to roll the shoulders a little to lessen that V and make the fingerboard more comfortable. I got a mini-screwdriver and rubbed the shaft of it back and forth between the frets on the edge of the board. It worked but was tricky to get the same amount of roll between each fret. So it feels better now when fretting and playing but the fret ends were jabbing into my hand when I moved around. Can't have that. But how to fix? I could take the guitar to a luthier so the frets could be filed back, OR, do a poor man's luthier job myself. I went with the poor man's job and if you didnt' cringe about the screwdriver shaft, you probably will now.
I got some 120 grit sandpaper and wrapped it around an old rg neckplate and went to work sanding the edges of those frets by running the sand paper up and down the length of the neck. I'm almost embarrassed thinking about how low tech I must have looked. It worked beatifully though and also rounded the fretboard edges a little more than the screwdriver shaft had done. The neck is amazing now and fits my hand perfectly with no ouch as I move around.
That guitar handles like a ferrari now. Zoom zoom!
