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Can anyone lead me to a good narrative on dressing, leveling, and smoothing out frets. I know there is a point in which frets simply need to be replaced as well. I was considering getting the stewmac fret repair kit. Anyone tried to do the work themselves? I have decent shop skills and have performed other repairs successfully.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Steve
Whoaa, warning danger Will Robinson! This is one thing you do NOT want to dabble in on a keeper guitar!
I concur. We ain' talkin' 'bout swappin' some knobs heah or unsolderin' some pickups. Fret work is serious bidness!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gris
Jus' mah 'pinion, y'unnerstan'......
I've been doing all my fret work for years. It's easy if your are good with your hands.
If you mess up a simple leveling/dressing job, you won't hurt your guitar (as long as you don't chew up your fretboard edge too badly).
Use plenty of masking tape, and that three sided file with the smoothed off corners is your best friend!
I learned on a Les Paul (a beat Studio that I paid $200 for. It had a repaired headstock and mismatched knobs).
It came out very good. I did not use a kit. I bought a few things from Stew Mac and modified some files per one of Dan Erlewine's book.
It's pretty tedious work but pretty satisfying when it comes out good.
Stew-Mac has a "how to" section which goes into pretty good detail on a lot of these procedures. Biggest thing is not getting in a hurry! I taught myself too... out of desparation because I couldn't afford to have luthier here locally do it... albeit they do tremendous work! But dang!!! At about $300 - 350 depending on how much they have to do!:confused:
It's really pretty easy. And if you mess up the frets can always be replaced. Just go slow and if you're handy, it will be fine.
Get a beater.
Then get Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide".
Then visit Stew-Mac to get the tools and have at it!
I bought one of these kits http://www.fretrefinishing.com, and can't say enough good things about it. I didn't follow the instructions to the tee, because after leveling, I pulled the strings and taped the fretboard before "crowning" and polishing. Judging from the marking on the tape, I'm glad I did. Other than that, it made the job a snap and didn't take long at all to go through each of my older guitars to make'em play purdy again.
Plus, once you learn to level and crown & polish - you can buy a MIM neck and make it a keeper.
I'm always amazed at the number of people that will shell out for a Warmoth or other neck, install it but never level, crown a polish it - just use it as received.
Wow, that looks interesting! (and affordable)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mesotech
How many necks can you do with one kit?
You can do quite a few. The main part of the kit is a small metal plate that is bent appropriately to do what it does. The rest of the kit (and the parts that wear) are sheets of wet or dry sandpaper. The sandpaper is easily replaceable from any hardware store (and in some cases from WallyWorld's automotive section).Quote:
Originally Posted by Gris
Oh, and there's that little lever thing to lift the strings above the nut. That doesn't wear out either.
So buy more sandpaper when you need it, and you can level, crown, and polish as many frets as your heart desires.
Hmmm, what is the radius of the metal thing...? Can you choose diff sized ones?
Gris, you can buy levelers with different radii, but you don't need to. Using a bigger radius can actually help if you are only fixing a problem on one part of the neck. What's really cool, is with today's monstrous frets you can re-radius the neck by fretwork alone.
my frets are, gulp, tiny...
He said while looking around nervously.......anxious to get to the towel rack as quickly as possible!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gris
I've been using this kit for for years now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mesotech
Of course, all my kits were comped to me, but I'd still buy one if that were not the case...
Yer - like me - I bought a MM LIC neck and just bolted it onto a Squier body - both of which I bought on fleabay - set of Sperzels, a Wilkinson trem, three GFS lipsticks, set of 11-50's, a little bit of filing on the nut, set the intonation & spring tension, checked the relief and I was rockin' down the road - they don't all come with ropey fret jobs...Quote:
Originally Posted by Offshore Angler
Now if they only made a re-fretting kit that worked that easy... :D