Binding

[Rohan]

Hi Guys,

Yes, its dumb question time.

I have not yet had the luxury of a guitar kit with binding. Looking forward to my next kit... do you actually sand the binding? It sounds like there is a big issue with not sanding the "cap" but what about the binding?


Second question. Do you sand the fretboard? I have a Rosewood fretboard....

Thanks in advance..

Rohan.

[Gavin1393]

Rohan, you would have to remove the frets to sand the fretboard......removing the frets will destroy them and so a re-fret job will be necessary.
You can sand the binding but you do need to be careful as it will sand away faster than wood. Ultimately, after you have finished sanding the WHOLE guitar (Bindings included) with 240 -320 grit. You should continue on with 400 and 600 grit on the bindings only finishing by polishing the binding with Super Fine steel wool. This extra step will prove useful when you paint your guitar with Wudtone as the Wudtone that attaches itself to the binding will come off without too much effort. Ignore the final step and you will annoy yourself when the time comes to remove the painton the bindings

[Rohan]

Hang on, hang on.....

My first kit was an ST-1 which had no binding....

If I order a guitar kit with binding how do I go about sanding? Am I trying to avoid sanding the binding? Or do you sand the binding just like I did with the edges of the ST-1?

In other words how do i respect the binding?

[Fretworn]

You just sand the guitar, focussing on the wood. It's ok if the binding gets sanded a bit, and you aren't going to be able to avoid it anyway. You are likely to find glue issues next the binding so you need to take some time with this. After you have sanded the wood you polish the binding as discussed by Gavin above. You have to be careful not to polish the wood as the the Wudtone doesn't like that

[Rohan]

Thanks very much for your help guys.