Norbertocaster, part 6: fretboard shaping and truss rod channel

norbertocaster (build 1)

Started: July 15, 2025 • Ended: September 13, 2025

Shaping the fretboard

Once the rough shape of the neck was done, I moved on to the fretboard. Normally, at this stage it would make sense to cut the channel for the truss rod... but there was a small problem: I didn’t have one. And I couldn’t find one anywhere. Luckily, my well-connected colleague came to the rescue again, passed me some contacts, and eventually the truss rod arrived — almost a month later. So in the meantime, I focused on other parts.

Shaping the fretboard is kind of like working on the body and neck... but also not really. This was the moment I realized it was time to order another essential woodworking tool: a small plane. Sure, you can try to remove excess wood from a fretboard in other ways, but nothing beats the feeling of slicing off those perfect, chocolate-like curls of wood!

Making truss rod channel

Before cutting the actual truss rod channel, I decided to work on the neck profile. Honestly, I’m not even going to try describing the whole process here — it’s a bit complicated. Instead, just check out this YouTube video, and you’ll see exactly what I did step by step: creating neck profile.

Once my truss rod finally arrived, I could move on to making the channel. The idea here is pretty straightforward: use a 6 mm chisel to cut a channel right along the center line of the neck, with the length matching your truss rod (460 mm in my case). I decided to place the adjustment at the body side rather than the headstock.

Oh, I forgot about something!

As you probably know, woodworking creates a lot of mess — especially when it comes to sanding. Luckily, I’ve got a small garden with our ground-floor flat, so I picked up a foldable workbench to do the messy work outside and keep the dust outside.