Today's been a bit of a guitar day for me. So, one thing I've never quite gelled with on my green Tele is the fretboard edges. This was a NOS custom shop, so it's basically like new, not even a bit of relicing or wear. Though the frets were very well done, the fretboard itself had absolutely no rounding to the edge.
Been afraid to mess too much with it, but I don't ever see me selling this guitar, and I wanted to address my biggest issue with it. I've rounded fretboard edges in the past with a razorblade, but I wanted a little more of a worn in feel versus a simple rounding.
Found a great video where the guy basically got the finest grit sandpaper, rolled it into a tight roll, and then ran it back and forth across the edge of the board. This not only rounded the fretboard, but also started to round off the fret end edges as well, which is something the razorblade method doesn't do. Well, I did that to my tele, and the result is fantastic! Because I used 0000 paper, it was a process that took a bit, but was good because it's so hard to mess it up by overdoing it. Now the fretboard edge feels so comfortable to play on. Definitely happy I finally gave this a shot.
One thing you do have to be careful about is the angle you use with the paper roll. If you angle it too much, you can start to increase the fret edge gradient, which can remove a little off the top of the fret, giving you less space for your string until it hits the end of the fret.
