Jackson Compound Radius Neck - Level, crown, and polish jumbo frets! (StewMac Z-File)
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2022
- Complete step by step guide on my method for leveling, crowning and polishing frets on a Jackson compound radius guitar neck using a StewMac Z-File, and other tools.
Here are the tools and equipment that I used in this video:
Notched Straight Edge: amzn.to/3RQpn8s
Fret Rocker (mine is no longer available but here is an alternative): amzn.to/3RtkEbE
Neck Support Caul: amzn.to/41yFjQ3
Tape Dispenser: amzn.to/4amkCLr
FretGuru Sanding Beam: amzn.to/3GSKT6t
StewMac Z-File: amzn.to/41sz6Fe
StewMac Fret Erasers: amzn.to/3GUSUHO
Music Nomad F-One Oil: amzn.to/3NyCZCN
Dunlop Lemon Oil 65: amzn.to/3Rt5eUL
McMaster-Carr Sanding Sponges (back of neck): www.mcmaster.com/46355A35/ 
Видеоклипы
The reason at the end you felt the fingerboard still looked " Dirty" 1:04:57 is you should first clean the FB with Naphtha or even alcohol first before applying any conditioners. This step ensures a extremely clean playing area and gets out all old dead skin or whatever is built up on the FB. I always use Naphtha because it not only cleans great by lifting all dirt,grime or whatever but it also dries extremely fast. Then i apply the Dunlop 65 conditioner.
Thanks for this tip also! I have some naptha so I will use it on the next project. Thanks!!
I like how you explain things ! You make it where someone like me can understand what’s going on.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad this video is helpful!
Mother’s chrome and aluminum polish is the best and most affordable I’ve found for the final polish.
Good to know, thanks! I love Mother's products for my car care stuff so that's really cool.
i use the same for all my fret polishing needs as well! the final result when using in tandem with a Dremel with a padded polishing wheel is so reflective its almost mirror polished.
What a great tutorial ! Big thanks from Quebec !
Thank you very much! Cheers!
I have a 1989 HM Strat that needs frets leveled. Gonna try this for sure! Thank you sir!!
Best video i've ever watched so far for newbie guitar techs 🙂 thanks man, keep up the good work. 👍
Thank you so much. I'm glad the video was helpful. Cheers!
Hey Brian this video has really helped me figure out more my Jackson neck mine was the made in India version but is pretty much identical to this one. But mine had the dot inlays VS the shark fin ones and mine is 24 frets with the overlapping fretboard.
My frets look a little less wide or tall but that could be from almost 20 years of wear.
Mine also had no locking nut. But I thought on my neck it was the scarf joint that was bad but after sanding a small section it turns out it was the laquar job and when the neck was built not sanding the neck corectly before applying the laquar.
Anyway eventually when I redo the fretboard with an ebony fretboard and stainless steel frets I am going to completely sand down the back of the neck which should improve the neck shape profile the relaquar the back of the neck with probably watco gloss or semi gloss. And polish it up.
Also mine was not a compound radios but a flat 14 inch radius which I like.
I also figured out why the body for a v felt to heavy weight wize and pulled the neck down it was because the made in India Jackson body's were made of Indian cidro wood or Indian ceder which from what understand is heavier than northern ash and that Indian ceder is very prone to warping which explains why with the string through body I could never get it intimated properly with the jumbo frets my understanding was the made in Japan jackson king V were made of alder or basswood.
Anyway I also tried running my serial number through Jackson's serial never look up from the neck plate but nothing came up.
I hope soon that I will be able to order my basswood blank so I can after profiling and making a mdf template from my existing crap body will be able to make a new king v body out of the basswood with a gotah 1996t floyd rose installed so finally I will have a killer jackson guitar that is really like those 1990s and 1980s models.
And I decided to scrap the Chinese knockoff jackson style necks and to just copy the Jackson neck I have design as I decided since the maple is pretty much the same as maple I can get at Lowes near me why the heck not just get one 8 foot 1 by 6.,since it's the same price as a cheap Chinese knockoff and I would have to tear it apart anyway.
So that's why I am like can just glue 2 pieces of the 1 by 6 on top of each other to in actual size make a 1 and half inch neck blank and if I need it thicker in spots I can always glue more wood on top or the bottom VS doing a scarf joint.
Which never made any sense to me.
I they just don't make guitars like they used to.
Man I am really starting to turn more Eddie van Halen like.
Wanting to experiment more and messing with necks and the little details like how the neck was sanded down to the type of laquar used to what profile I like but you know what that's what the world needs right now. But unlike Eddie I don't feel the need to drag a guitar neck through a parking lot to do a durability test.
But am finding I need to use my Jackson neck right now to set neck pockets and to test to get 2 guitar bodies up amd running and to tone test. Which is very Eddie like.
It personality wise I am probably a little more easy going but just as picky sound wize as he was or yngwie malmsteen but you know the world needs that so guitars are made better and hold up.
It sounds like you are making a lot of progress on your ideas/options. That's interesting about the India bodies. I had a few of those India made "J" range bodies and they didn't fit well with the typical MIJ parts that I have laying around. So, I'm not surprised to hear what you discovered.
Great video. Absolutely loved watching. This also really promotes the use of stainless steel frets in my opinion. Immediately hit subscribe button and tapped ALL.
Thank you very much!
Great narration and video of the details.
Thank you very much! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks, picked up some great tips there, nice work, very inspireing. 🙂
Thanks for watching and commenting! Cheers!
Thank you for your demonstration.
Thanks for checking it out!
Thnx for sharing your skills. This is really interesting. I gotta get me one of those sanding beams ;) super job you do.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting! Cheers!
Nice neck and satisfying to do and you’ll get lots of playability out of the work performed.
Thanks!!
Well done, i learned a few techniques
Great to hear! Thanks for watching!
Awesome tip there at the end with the McMaster pads on the back of the neck. I would have been scared to try that without seeing you do it first.
Thanks!!! It really does make a huge difference!!! I love the way it makes the neck feel like brand new again.
So detail, step by step, clear explaination ❤
Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Hey man, just wanted to say this video was amazing and thank you for this! Easy step by step, clear and concise, and super informative with no filler. Best fret video on RUclips in my opinion! One thing you should try on your fret boards is Howard's Feed n' Wax, that stuff does MAGIC to rosewood, ebony etc. I like F-One oil too, but that Howard's stuff just transforms old boards.
Thank you very much for the kind words! I'll look around for that "Howard's" product! Thanks for the tip!
This stuff? www.howardproducts.com/product/feed-n-wax-wood-polish-and-conditioner/
@@CoffeeDrinker71Super sorry for the extremely late reply, RUclips didn’t notify me you responded twice! Yes! That’s the stuff. Even the shop I work in uses it for their dark wood boards haha.
Nice job bro 🤘🏼🤘🏼🎸😎
Thank you brother!
Thanks. I recently ordered a Warmoth neck and there was rocking at most levels 1-12. I decided it was too much to try for my first leveling attempt.
Hmmm...usually those Warmoth necks are pretty good right out of the box!
Very good description of the process! There's no real secret to it, just time and elbow grease. It's very similar to the process I use, but as a final step, after the 0000 steel wool, I use Mother's Mag Wheel polish on the frets. I don't bother with a dremel tool, just use a rag, and the frets gleam like mirrors.
Yeah I don't really care for the Dremel tool method either. Oh...Mother's Mag Polish? I'll have to give that a try!! Thanks for watching and commenting!! Cheers!!
I second on the Mothers Mag Polish!
Great work at a nice leisurely pace we can all follow easily!
Beautiful 😍
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
A really pleasant work to watch. I really enjoyed your effort and skills, definitely a huge difference and very professional!
I wish I could have the 'courage' and the tools/conditions to do the same on my guitar.
Really impressive, thanks for your explanations and time you put in this video.
Kind regards from Portugal.
Thank you very much! I appreciate your comment. :) Cheers!
This video is a good demonstration of the differences between a modern fender jackson neck VS the old school jackson necks even the ones made in India. With the super jumbo fretwire.
options of 14 inch raduis like my neck or compound raduis that's how jackson necks were done a Gibson style double action truss rod necks that felt like boats made of maple wood. And other things choices like maple fretboard rosewood or ebony. Not making all necks with amaranth and using cheap Chinese knockoff versions of fender style Allen key skinny truss rods jackson while owned by fender is not a fender guitar and should be treated as such not like garbage.
Yes, I’ve always loved the older MIJ Jackson products. The materials and craftsmanship are top notch!
@@CoffeeDrinker71 yes they were like I said mine was the made in India one from 2005 and was a cheap one at 350 dollars at the time and the bodies string through may have been done incorrectly but at least the neck is workable and the truss rods are durable my only issue was the necks were not a skinny c shape which is comfortable for me. And like modern fenders but that's an easy fix and as my yamaha rgx 110 made in Taiwan neck from 1987 1988 proves you can have a skinny c shape with the same Gibson style double action truss rod which has a 7 mm hex nut in it just like your jackson neck and my made In India neck. From 2005 without the neck snapping or breaking if you build it correctly. And Brian as I said even though jackson calls them just jumbos on the older ones and new ones the older ones used super jumbo fret wire like mine so yours probably was super jumbo fret wire so I think and I need to confirm on mine with the width that it is 6110 fretwire from Jim Dunlop or that type. But for Eddie van Halen necks or modern fender necks thats 6105 medium jumbo frets but for me I have gotten used to that more scalloped feel of the super jumbo frets of my Jackson neck so thats what I have to use in any neck I use and again I do not like the modern jackson made in China necks at all with the medium jumbo frets amaranth fretboards and the flimsy skinny truss rods like what is installed in fender necks and the necks not bieng built like tanks and as I said you can build a good quality neck that's lightweight and still built like a tank.
Great video ! I have a jackson kramer squier and 2 epiphone guitar i want to buy a z file but I don’t know which one to crown the frets after leveling on my guitars
I liked the offset version. It only "cuts" on one side at a time. They suggested it was a better choice for beginners as well.
love your vids .. just discovered them.. i do a lot of this work myself.. takes worn out guitars to fresh in no time.. curious with the floyd nut.. you now have nut action that is too high.. was the nut shimmed to begin with.. and how will you adjust the action at the nut if you need it lowered?.. sand it?.. another good video perhaps..?.. I know shimming up is easier than lowering those ..
Great observation. If the action is deemed too high at the nut, I believe the best course of action would be to sand/file down the backside of the nut. That way, you don't permanently alter the neck...and in the event the neck ever receives a full re-fret you can simply replace the old nut with a new one to return the string height back to the original spec. Thanks for checking out the videos and commenting!
@@CoffeeDrinker71 you have to do a follow up when you can.. I don't mind the fender nut size.. I have long thin fingers.. works for me especially since I got used to late 60's Gibson era nuts..
Did you measure the height of the frets before and after? It looks like you ground them down 50%.
Not sure if you still use the Z file but when compared to the "Fret guru" crowning file in a shootout the Fret guru did not scratch/mark up the frets as much making polishing much easier.
That's really good to know! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome video :) But I was wondering why you didn't need to dress the fret ends? Wouldn't they be a bit sharp after crowning and need rounding off?
Good point! In this case the fret ends were still rounded over adequately...but I see what you mean. In an extreme case you would want to go back over your fret ends with some type of sanding step to roll the edges back over. Thanks for watching.
Is this a compound radius fretboard like a lot of Jacksons? I have a 12-16" radius board I need to do a fret level on (same string divots) but I am concerned about the flat beam. Do you try to tip the beam to follow the radius? What about multiple smaller radiused sanding beams - maybe 12" for the first 3rd of the board, 14" for the second 3rd, and 16" at the bottom?
Yes this is compound radius. I think using the smaller beams may have been a better idea, I just didn’t have them at the time.
@@CoffeeDrinker71 It is certainly a more expensive idea! How do you try to maintain the radius with the flat beam? Do you angle the beam as you move to the outer edges of the frets? Or does the crowning tool take care of the radiusing for the most part?
Hi Brian I am still trying to figure out my exact fretwire and I am looking at the Jim Dunlop chart for my Jackson my frets are wider than standard fender jim Dunlop 6105 which according to the Jim Dunlop chart is wider than 6100.
I am trying to pinpoint if it's 6000 or 6110 fretwire from your measurements width wize it seemed to come up close to 6110 but might be 6000 jim Dunlop spec.
The original jackson manual called it jumbo but said for that scalloped feel I am thinking I need to order the jescar stainless steel super jumbo frets. But might have to take some of the height down.
But the stew mac says wide highest as used in many Jackson's esp Ibanez.
Now I did see one video where a guy refretted a 1990 mij jackson neck with a compound radius and installed 6110 jim Dunlop fretwire. So if you know exactly which one is in this neck that would be great.
It just seems like the jescar super jumbo stainless steel is probably the closest to mine.
Yeah, I would probably go with the Jescar Super Jumbo's. I don't have the exact measurements of mine handy at the moment, but your hunch is probably right.
@@CoffeeDrinker71I did see your measurement specs you put up but you said Dunlop 6100 hundred but that's narrower than 6105 spec which is what eddie van Halen used but with stainless steel.
The specs you provided seemed to come up closest to 6110 but also 6000 Dunlop spec the stew mac wide highest seemed to match 6100 which is high but narrower.
Mine on my Jackson is wider than the 6105 spec on my yamaha. So Brian so mine must be super jumbo. That I know. But jescars super jumbo stainless steel says tallest highest fretwire they sell. But might have to shave down a bit.
But thanks Brian.
I may order a 6000 at some point and a 6110 just for reference points at some point if I need it.
I just bought a centered Z file and will attempt my first fret job, will it work on Dunlop 6000 super jumbo fret wire without a problem?
Hard to say, I would suspect that it will. I'm pretty sure these Jackson frets are about the same size.
@@CoffeeDrinker71 thanks
I own the center z file. are you supposed to use both sides?or is one for small and one for medium frets? also have the frett guru and stewmac notched straight edge short scale
The centered Z file cuts both sides at the same time, at the same grit so you don't have to flip that one. The one I use is offset so it needs to be flipped.
The "V" should be the same angle on both sides of the Centred "V" file so flipping shouldn't make a difference, but you are correct, I found one side is thinner on my "V" files than the other, so using the thinner side on wide frets did leave a slight ledge on both sides, so perhaps the different sides are for thicker and thinner frets. It is NOT metentioned on StewMacs site but "Highline Guitars" mentions this fact on his review of the shorter "V" files.
do you need to adjust the nut height?
That's a great question. It depends on how much fret material was removed. Each case will be different. Once the guitar is fully assembled and strung up, you would need to re-check the new gap at the first fret (between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret) in order to determine if the nut will need to be adjusted.
@@CoffeeDrinker71 yes... thanks! I ask because it is much easier to adjust a bone nut (with a file and similar tools), but a "floyd type nut" is completely different... and the question is whether to take away some wood from under the nut or file the nut itself...
Usahakan tanpa leveling. Bagaimana ! Siapkah.
Does Jackson use Big Jumbo frets? Every company has Jumbo but I found they are not created equal, some feel low others wide , etc.., I am looking for big frets and was considering a Jackson guitar?
I just measured mine with calipers. Here’s what I found. Fret height is 0.051”. Fret width is 0.113”. This seems pretty consistent with 6100 Jumbo sized frets. Keep in mind I probably shaved a few thousandth’s off the height with this fret leveling job. Hope this helps.
@@CoffeeDrinker71 thanks for the quick response and effort. I never considered Jackson before but am serious about them now.
Brian I think you mean the Dunlop 6110 fretwire I was looking at the specs of the 6100 and 6110 and the height and width measurements you mentioned seem most cobsistant with the 6110 fretwire and Brian I am looking at your fretwire and it looks a little wider than mine.
But the 6110 was showing fret width of 0.110 and the fret hieght of 0.053 when I checked the Dunlop 6000 and 6100 specs the width was not even that close and neither was the hieght..
As for me I am looking at the jascer stainless steel super jumbo fretwire and the one that they say is a little taller than the stew mac wide highest fretwire which seems to be the one that comes closest again to the specs you mentioned which seems cobsistant with the Dunlop 6110 fretwire but I can't seem to find it in stainless steel.
Hope this helps Brian @@CoffeeDrinker71
I'm trying to decide what crowning file i should get. What made you decide to go with the Z-file?
I chose the Z-File because it seemed to be more forgiving and easier to work with overall.
@@CoffeeDrinker71 what about your thoughts between the original Z vs the centered z? I get the same feeling about the tool as well
@@xav3ng3rx The centered Z file cuts on both sides of the fret simultaneously...whereas the original Z file only cuts on one side, which again, makes it more forgiving. If you're comfortable filing both sides of the fret at the same time, then the centered one is your choice...but if you're like me and want a little bit of insurance then go with the standard Z file. I'm sure they (StewMac) has a comparison video on the two. There might be other pros and cons to each.
I just did a crowning job recently with the Z Safe Edge and got amazing results after polishing up from 800 to 3000 grit and then polish with a dremel using Rouge as a finish. The frets will be sparkling after.
@@solderbuddy did you have to "roll" the file to help you get a rounded shape back? Or its safe enough to just file straight? I dont want to end up with "V" shaped frets
You do not think your removing too much material? Other wise great job.
Thanks for watching. No, I don't believe so...it requires enough material to be removed to completely eliminate the indentions in the frets.
How big are Jackson Jumbo frets? I am finding out Jumbo is not a standard it varies which makes it ambiguous. I tried an ESP with Xtra Jumbo frets, I was so excited as I love big frets but was disappointed, their Xtra Jumbo isn’t so Jumbo. Slick guitars has medium jumbo which are huge those are closer to Jumbo.
I just measured mine with calipers. Here’s what I found. Fret height is 0.051”. Fret width is 0.113”. This seems pretty consistent with 6100 Jumbo sized frets. I hope that helps!
@@CoffeeDrinker71 thank you. Looks like already asked and you had previously answered , no wonder it felt so dejavu. Sorry for exercising you twice.
@@bluwng Ha! No worries! I actually didn't notice. I just remembered someone asked before so I just copied and pasted the same answer without realizing it was the same person! 😅
My old school jackson neck from 2005 is super jumbo fret wire to give that scalloped like feel there is a video on you tube of someone replacing all the frets on a 1990 jackson neck with a compound raduised neck with him using jim Dunlop 6110 nickel silver fretwire which is probably what mine is medium jumbo is 6105 jim Dunlop which is what modern fender necks use but so does jackson necks now which I don't like. Along with their skinny flimsy truss rods made in China to look like fender truss rods no jacksons are supposed to have the Gibson style truss rods with the big 7mm hex nut on them that are double action. Along with super jumbo frets. They are not fenders. Even if fender owns them now.
You don’t dress the fret ends?
This particular neck did not need the fret ends dressed. They felt great as-is.
Do you need the radius sanding blocks to do this? Like crossing both 12' and 16' on the frets?
I've never tried it that way, but it could possibly be a better method. Thanks for watching!
No. The radius blocks are for the fretboard w frets removed.