My First "Les Paul" Build ~ Neck Binding

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P.H.Fawcett

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I've built a few guitars in the past ie a few acoustics and a number of Fender type electrics, but never bound a finger board.

So my question is bind the neck like Gibson does and then shape the binding flush to fretboard and frets ? Or start with the binding flush to the f/board and nip off the tangs of the fret ends to extend over the binding. ?

Given that a first attempt at anything always has stuff ups which method is easier to stuff up ? And given that there are stuff ups with the uninitiated should I leave the binding to a practice f/board and settle for a an unbound neck like a LP Studio ?
 

nuance97

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It can be done either way. It just depends if you want "nibs" or do you want the refretted look.
 

jonas335

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I found that doing it the way Gibson does actually turned out to be much easier than I had thought it would be. This is one of those things you worry yourself into knots over and afterwards wonder why you thought it would be so hard...
 

ARandall

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The gibson way is to taper, inlay and fret the board, then apply the binding to the side. You then cut it down to size and form the nibs.

Look at the Bartlett Build sticky for details
 

Jmorris

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Binding nibs aren't anymore tedious than nipping and filing fret tangs. They're both time consuming. Seems like nibs may even be a little less work seeing how you don't have so much fret end dressing to do. I've even seen a few videos where guys use a dremel to shave down the binding inbetween frets when doing the nibs. I'm not that brave.
 

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