Fretboard relief
Is there a consensus about sanding some relief directly into the fretboard versus having a perfectly straight fretboard and getting all the relief from the truss rod? And for sanding relief, any suggested approaches? My gut would be to backbow the neck slightly with the truss rod, sand flat, then loosen the truss rod back to zero. Thanks, elders!
Both yes and no. If you watch my video on sanding out fingerboards I am constantly adjusting the truss rod to make sure it’s working exactly how I want it through completely slack to back-bowed. I also don’t mind if there is a hair more relief on the bass side. So yes, to that effect. But on the other hand, you will raise the neck angle on an acoustic (or any guitar) if you back-bow it and sand it flat. I have used that technique dozens of times to avoid a neck reset, it’s very, very, affective.
@patreon_94549210 https://dev.loothgroup.com/post-type-videos/dan-and-doug-show-fingerboard-prep-the-taylor-way-fret-o/
I’ve done the back bow a-go-go on acoustics without truss rods where it’s hard to get relief because of back bow. Although I’ve been fairly successful at using heat to get relief back into the neck. The neck jig seems to be handy in this situation as you can really keep the neck from moving and you can use the dial indicators to measure what’s going on. In truss rod situations, same thing if rod won’t overcome back bow. I use heat first to get it back, but have done the back bow sand if can’t get enough relief as Dave and Ian’s posted vid suggests. But heat treatment has been successful in all but a couple of instances.