Can't believe this is here on youtube for nothing. I would've spent thirty or forty bucks for a VHS of this not all that many years ago. You guys are the best.
YT is an incredible resource! We've always been about sharing knowledge within the luthier community, and YT is the perfect platform for that. Thanks for the positive feedback!
It's great. I wish there could be more of that kind of content. Dan's book is great but video's are much easier to learn from. I wish you guys could release more materials like that, so a beginner could learn all those things and maybe do it for a living.
I've never seen a better presentation of technical material on any subject. It's very difficult to cover a topic thoroughly without becoming confusing or getting bogged down in detail, but this video has done that very well.
@excavatoree we really appreciate that sentiment! It's a challenge to figure out what to include and what details are too "in the weeds." It's comments like this that make the task worth it to us!
I have been doing this type of work for a long time and I still pick up tips and tricks from stewmac videos. I watch the videos and buy the books. Some may say “don’t you know the stuff?” And it’s like yeah, but we don’t want to get a vaccine against education and we may forget a little step and a refresher never hurts.
The Stewmac Fret tang Nibbler *is worth every penny!* I've done some single fret replacements here and there and even without binding, I found I needed to trim the tangs shorter. Once you trim the tangs, it's a fairly easy process and doing a full neck won't be intimidating, but trimming the tangs the way I did with a Dremel and cut off disc was daunting. I had to curve my wire by hand but my attempts without tang trimming and using a small rubber mallet to press them flush, they were tailing away from the board at both edges. *After I trimmed, a small amount of wood glue and various tactics installing them in flush produced professional results even though I was whamming them with a rubber mallet! lol*
Man. As a young player I just dealt with these issues as they arose. Now I’m 30, been playing my whole life nearly, and these are such simple fixes. Thank you guys at Stew Mac for making this vid. Seriously, now I could be a mature player and care for my guitar like I need. lol. 😊
@KaiDown wow, thank you! We really tried to make something that everyone could learn from - beginners to more advanced. Hopefully it helps folks do some of this work on their own guitars!
These videos are the primary reason I’ll be buying from stewmac. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for you all passing on this knowledge for free!
Amazing video! StewMac should do a certification program; would love to know if a potential Luthier is trained in this stuff - especially when outside of the USA! I've had two bad experiences with different luthiers in Australia; which has led me to taking on much of this work myself.
I'm decently comfortable with basic guitar setups but a total noob when it comes to fretwork. I have an Epiphone Sheraton that had a dead note that I realized was from a high fret. After watching many Stew Mac videos, I decided to try fixing it on my own. I know that Stew Mac tools are on the high end in cost but my reasoning was that I would be spending the same amount on having my local shop do the work as I would buying the Fret Kisser and the compact Z-file. They really took the guesswork out with these tool designs and made it so that if you take your time and go little by little, you'll get the job done correctly. The guitar plays great now, and I have these tools for life, ready to take on any other fret leveling that I may need in the future. Stew Mac tools really end up paying for themselves rather quickly.
Gene, great teaching here again. Many thanks to you and Dan. It's been about sixty years of maintaining, repairing, modifying, building, etc. for me and Dan's old book and the Guitar Player articles are well used over and over. And now I'm learning more from this electronic video thingy in my hand. Way to go guys! It really has been wonderful.
This is absolutely amazing. I have an old Korean Squier Stratocaster, it was my first guitar, and my favorite one to pick up. I now know how to address any fret issues it has. Id asked a local shop what it would cost to have the work done by their luthier, and was told "that guitar isn't worth putting that kind of money and time into, just replace it". Well its worth it to me, it plays great, feels great, and that guitar and I have history. Thank you for this video!
This is gold. I have been working on guitars for a bit over 5 years and playing for over 18, there are many videos but none is as comprehensive as this. Great work Stewmac!
Absolutely fantastic video. I have done a couple of my own fret level, crown and polish jobs but I'm still a learning newbie building my confidence. This video is reference quality! Thanks.
@GerryBlue thank you for the positive feedback! You're right, it is a complex topic. We tried our best to simplify it and make it approachable to anyone interesting in tackling it on their own.
Awesome video! Thank you so much! My only question is how to properly widen the frets. This was my biggest issue during my first refret. My Gibson had very narrow fret slots compared to the StewMac frets (0.6mm wide). I used a Japanese saw, but this was not an ideal tool. I bought 0.6 mm dremel bits and want to try them out.
Great question! It's usually preferable to reduce the size of the tang and preserve the slot. We have the Fret Barber that is meant to "shave" down the sides of the tang for a better fit. There are also "refret saws" meant to work between binding to open up the slot width if you'd prefer. Links below. Thanks! www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/tools-by-job/tools-for-fretting/pullers-nippers-sizing/fret-barber/ www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/saws/refret-saw/
Subscribed!! I’ve watched this at least 3 times start to finish and ordered a bunch of these tools from the website. It’s amazing to have such a great resource to learn from. Thank you Stewmac.
Great video. Your fret puller will draw heat away from the hot fret. Heating the puller jaws for just a few seconds with a propane/MAPP/MAPP-PRP torch will help keep the puller from cooling the fret.
That's a lot of tools shown. But, to your credit you show why they are needed and how to use them (and frankly, anyone attempting to do guitar repair should probably have all the necessary tools anyway or else take the job to a pro). Thank you!
Perfect timing, as I am diving deeper into “level 2” fretwork with the goal to do a “level 3” partial refret on my Martin later this year. (Thankfully I have a cheap broken guitar to practice on first!)
Fantastic video. Any plans to do a video on refretting an acoustic or classical? I'd love to see the approach when dealing with the fretboard extension to the soundhole.
Thanks, Gene. This is an absolute wealth of information. Quick question: why not just use a radius block and sandpaper to do your fret level or fingerboard level? Wouldn’t that be quicker than flat leveling first? Thanks!
I've been watching a lot of guitar building and modifying videos ever since I started playing electric guitar at age 10 and now I'm 18 and I know that building guitars is fun but is also a lot of hard work especially when it comes to the fretwork on the fretboard so I watch so many fretwork videos and most of the fretwork videos I watch are very long and I prefer to watch videos that aren't so long so I'd recommend this video for a fretwork tutorial but tbh I watch all videos on how to do fretwork but definitely this video is my number one video on how to do fretwork, also do you have a video on how to install frets on a bound fretboard?
This is gold! So well explained. Thank you sir! I've a question. What's the lowest fret height you can go with a fret level before considering a refret. I've a Epiphone dot that has a fret height of 1mm and 2,7mm width and they have some minor dents in them. Maybe after the fretlevel I've 0,8mm height left and I'm not sure if that is enough. What would you advice me? Thanks
Thank you! It's not so much about the height of the fret as it is the amount you have to remove from the fret relative to the width. It becomes difficult and tedious to reshape at a certain point. We consider the 20% we discussed in the video to be a reasonable rule of thumb. You can go beyond that if you like low frets and you don't mind the extra work crowning them. At the end of the day, if it works for you it isn't a problem!
It's amazing and super thorough but I'm curious how to handle a compound radius fretboard refret. Since the radius keeps changing, it looks like we can't use the radius block.
This is Fretwork 101, leveling a compound radius is Fretwork 7001! Since a compound radius isn't the same measurement in any 2 spots on the board, you can't use radius blocks. It's difficult and I would encourage you to get very good at a uniform radius before tackling something like this. If you're interested in understanding the geometry better, we have an excellent article written by Don MacRostie on our website: www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/neck-building-and-repair-and-setup/compound-radius-explained/ Thanks for watching!
Why is it better to sand of the board or the frets with sanding beam first and radius block afterwards, instead of doing it only with the radius block?
That's a great question! Sometimes you can, and we do finish up the leveling process here with the radius block as we true up the curve. Essentially, if the error you need to correct is uniform across the board, then a radius block can work great. But much like the concept we cover for multiple length edges, you can't easily focus on singular high spots with a radius block that spans the whole width of the neck, you hit everything for the entire width and length of the radius block and risk removing good material. In most cases, it's better to get the board uniform with a narrower leveler, then blend in with a radius block once you are close. Thanks for watching!
Have I missed something? I don’t understand why you would go to all the bother of levelling frets under string tension 25.17 and then to undo this fine tune by using a radius beam 28.10 with a straight neck with strings off reversing the the good effect of levelling frets with string tension.
That's a fair question! At some point with an approach like this, you have to accept a certain potential for insignificant error. There are other places in the process we make that choice too. Here that would be choosing to stop after the leveling and keep a radius that may vary or truing that radius and potentially adding a little error in the levelness. We've already straightened the board, so if that looks the same with and without string tension, the chance of introducing significant error with the radius block is small. We are sanding with high grit paper and removing only a few thousandths of an inch at that point. This is a basic approach, there are other more accurate ways of doing this work but it's a bigger investment in time and tools, but in many cases the outcome isn't noticeably different. Thanks!
what do you do for the gaps under the ends of the frets on the fretboard. Glue and sawdust? I have maybe 0.2 millimetre gap under the first 3 frets on the edge of the fretboard.
Makes me wonder what to do with one of my guitars. It has 6100 size frets which are not to my liking as they're too tall. Would a re-fret be easier than leveling and crowning? The fret wire has minimal wear so I hate to toss them. Also, they're on a one piece maple neck.
It’s difficult to say for sure without evaluating the specific guitar, but in most all cases I would refret rather than try to shape a jumbo fret into a smaller one.
@@guitarrepairman that's what I'm leaning toward although I already have all the tools for leveling and crowning. I'm always reluctant to buy tools that I might only use once.
I used to waste time hand polishing frets like that. Going through 8 different grits across 22 frets. 176 frets polished. By hand. Won't do it again. Today, I used a 4 inch buffing/polishing wheel on my cordless drill along with blue stick polish from Dialux. I tested it and I can polish with that directly after crowning with a Z-file. Nothing else after crowning. it'll take out all the scratches and polish the frets to a mirror finish with maybe 5 mins of polishing with the drill, polishing wheel, and light blue Dialux polish. I'll take that ALL DAY over an hour or more by hand.
It is possible, and below a certain price point most guitars are probably done this way because leveling and dressing is time consuming by hand. On a refret, even the most accurately done work still usually benefits from some leveling and dressing. It's rarely zero, but the idea is to make that as little as possible. Thanks!
Question: Why did the fingerboard need leveling after the frets were removed? It seems that relief was added with the truss rod adjustment and then sanded level again. Wouldn’t string tension reintroduce relief back into the neck thus negating the previous work? Or was the leveling done because the truss rod adjustment by itself couldn’t get the neck uniformly straight along it’s entire length?
Yes...often the truss rod alone will not straighten a neck perfectly. We didn't exactly add relief, we were just avoiding a back-bow. If you can't get the neck straight it needs planed (in normal cases) so you have to choose to level out a little relief, a little back bow, or sometimes a combination of both. We find the straightest point we can get with the rod, then we level it straight. Hope that answers your question...Thanks!
@@stewmac Ok, that makes sense now. Just asked because I haven’t seen anyone else “yet” that took that extra step when doing a re-fret. There is a ton of good info in this video! I have watched it several times and am still finding new things that I haven’t seen before. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me a detailed answer. This is how you attract and keep loyal customers to your company.
What brands of paste wax can be used to protect the fingerboard when glueing frets? I saw SC Johnson being used in this video but it is $159.00 for a 1lb. container on Amazon!!!
Great question! SC Johnson stopped making that product, so people are asking ridiculous prices for them online. Minwax paste works great, also beeswax or carnuba wax, we've even used Vaseline in a pinch. Hope that helps!
That's an old can of SC Johnson, which I believe is discontinued. There are other brands that work just as well for this purpose, Minwax should be readily available or you can use Bees wax or Carnauba. Thanks!
Be careful leveling your frets under string tension unless you really know what you’re doing. I sanded all my frets off doing this, but I got some great tools!
Can't believe this is here on youtube for nothing. I would've spent thirty or forty bucks for a VHS of this not all that many years ago. You guys are the best.
YT is an incredible resource! We've always been about sharing knowledge within the luthier community, and YT is the perfect platform for that. Thanks for the positive feedback!
It's great. I wish there could be more of that kind of content. Dan's book is great but video's are much easier to learn from. I wish you guys could release more materials like that, so a beginner could learn all those things and maybe do it for a living.
@@walerybien8193 We are working on it...stay tuned!
Sweeey
Stew Mac is the best!
A whole book on fretting in a video less than an hour long! Wow!
We asked ourselves "what would a crash course on fretwork look like?" and this is what we came up with. Thanks for checking it out! More to come!
I've never seen a better presentation of technical material on any subject. It's very difficult to cover a topic thoroughly without becoming confusing or getting bogged down in detail, but this video has done that very well.
@excavatoree we really appreciate that sentiment! It's a challenge to figure out what to include and what details are too "in the weeds." It's comments like this that make the task worth it to us!
Fantastic! The CGI's were a nice touch.
I have been doing this type of work for a long time and I still pick up tips and tricks from stewmac videos.
I watch the videos and buy the books. Some may say “don’t you know the stuff?” And it’s like yeah, but we don’t want to get a vaccine against education and we may forget a little step and a refresher never hurts.
We never stop learning! Thanks for watching!
The Stewmac Fret tang Nibbler *is worth every penny!* I've done some single fret replacements here and there and even without binding, I found I needed to trim the tangs shorter.
Once you trim the tangs, it's a fairly easy process and doing a full neck won't be intimidating, but trimming the tangs the way I did with a Dremel and cut off disc was daunting. I had to curve my wire by hand but my attempts without tang trimming and using a small rubber mallet to press them flush, they were tailing away from the board at both edges.
*After I trimmed, a small amount of wood glue and various tactics installing them in flush produced professional results even though I was whamming them with a rubber mallet! lol*
Man. As a young player I just dealt with these issues as they arose. Now I’m 30, been playing my whole life nearly, and these are such simple fixes. Thank you guys at Stew Mac for making this vid. Seriously, now I could be a mature player and care for my guitar like I need. lol. 😊
That's awesome, we believe you really do become a better player when you know how to maintain your own rig! Thanks so much for the comment 🙂
I've watched so many videos on fretwork, this is by far the best and will be the one I recommend to people new to the topic.
@KaiDown wow, thank you! We really tried to make something that everyone could learn from - beginners to more advanced. Hopefully it helps folks do some of this work on their own guitars!
More of these please!
These videos are the primary reason I’ll be buying from stewmac. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for you all passing on this knowledge for free!
Really appreciate that @algio3041 We hope these videos can be of service to the community we love!
Hands down one of the best videos within the genre.
Also probably the best presented content I've seen in a while.
Thanks so much! We appreciate that feedback. Good fretwork is so critical, we wanted to get this one right 🎬🎸🤘
Amazing video!
StewMac should do a certification program; would love to know if a potential Luthier is trained in this stuff - especially when outside of the USA!
I've had two bad experiences with different luthiers in Australia; which has led me to taking on much of this work myself.
I'm decently comfortable with basic guitar setups but a total noob when it comes to fretwork. I have an Epiphone Sheraton that had a dead note that I realized was from a high fret. After watching many Stew Mac videos, I decided to try fixing it on my own. I know that Stew Mac tools are on the high end in cost but my reasoning was that I would be spending the same amount on having my local shop do the work as I would buying the Fret Kisser and the compact Z-file. They really took the guesswork out with these tool designs and made it so that if you take your time and go little by little, you'll get the job done correctly. The guitar plays great now, and I have these tools for life, ready to take on any other fret leveling that I may need in the future. Stew Mac tools really end up paying for themselves rather quickly.
Having seen hundreds of videos on this topic, this is the best!! Congratulations and thanks for sharing!!
Awesome...thank you for watching!
Gene, great teaching here again. Many thanks to you and Dan.
It's been about sixty years of maintaining, repairing, modifying, building, etc. for me and Dan's old book and the Guitar Player articles are well used over and over. And now I'm learning more from this electronic video thingy in my hand. Way to go guys! It really has been wonderful.
We were all lucky to have Dan’s books starting out, mine are well worn and dog eared that’s for sure! Thank you for the kind words!
Really great info from a real pro! This is going to be VERY helpful going forward. Thank you!
Great to hear it will be of use to you! Thanks for the feedback.
This is absolutely amazing. I have an old Korean Squier Stratocaster, it was my first guitar, and my favorite one to pick up. I now know how to address any fret issues it has. Id asked a local shop what it would cost to have the work done by their luthier, and was told "that guitar isn't worth putting that kind of money and time into, just replace it". Well its worth it to me, it plays great, feels great, and that guitar and I have history. Thank you for this video!
Awesome...That's a perfect guitar to learn fret work on and exactly what this method is intended for! Good luck!
53:25 Shoutout to the video editor for this 25 seconds of editing gold! lol 👍Nicely done!
Thanks for noticing! 😎🤘🎬
This is gold. I have been working on guitars for a bit over 5 years and playing for over 18, there are many videos but none is as comprehensive as this. Great work Stewmac!
This is the best instructional/informational video I've ever seen. Thank you
Thank you for watching...glad you found it helpful!
Dang!! So much information in a clear and easy to understand way!! Thank you so much!
Glad to hear it, and thanks so much for watching!
Outstanding ! Probably the best tutorial I've watched on RUclips, and I've watched a ton !!
Wow, thanks so much, we love to hear that!
I agree this is the best video still on the internet for all the fret and neck coverage. I'm saving this to my playlist for future work.
Thank You!!!
What a righteous video! Great information well-presented. Nice!
Thanks for the feedback! Appreciate that!
Thanks. You see it done all time on all the guitar building vids, but this my man,shows you how it really done.
stewmac videos always hit it out the park! Nice one Gene! 👌🏻
Thanks a bunch 👍
Thank you! Supperb video. Stewmac Team is the best!
Thank you so much for the positive comment! 🤗
Absolutely fantastic video. I have done a couple of my own fret level, crown and polish jobs but I'm still a learning newbie building my confidence. This video is reference quality! Thanks.
This is what we love to hear...Thanks for watching!
Truly the best fret video I’ve ever seen! Thank you!
Wow, thanks! We appreciate that.
One of your best, if not the best video, and for one of the hardest topics, thanks!!
@GerryBlue thank you for the positive feedback! You're right, it is a complex topic. We tried our best to simplify it and make it approachable to anyone interesting in tackling it on their own.
Thank you Gene for this incredible video. I love your work and I have learned a lot from all your videos.
You guys are the best!
@SuriSanJose thanks so much! We're so glad they've been helpful to you.
Awesome video! Thank you so much!
My only question is how to properly widen the frets. This was my biggest issue during my first refret. My Gibson had very narrow fret slots compared to the StewMac frets (0.6mm wide). I used a Japanese saw, but this was not an ideal tool. I bought 0.6 mm dremel bits and want to try them out.
Great question! It's usually preferable to reduce the size of the tang and preserve the slot. We have the Fret Barber that is meant to "shave" down the sides of the tang for a better fit. There are also "refret saws" meant to work between binding to open up the slot width if you'd prefer. Links below. Thanks!
www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/tools-by-job/tools-for-fretting/pullers-nippers-sizing/fret-barber/
www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/saws/refret-saw/
Excellent video, guys! Really well made production, excellent explanations and helpful demonstrations. I'll be referring to this in future, too!
Thanks so much, we're glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback.
Incredible video. Very detailed, and close up. Really showed off your great skill. Thanks.
Thank you very much!
This is without a doubt the BEST info I’ve seen on these topics! Thank you!🔥
Thank you so much!
watched all of it, beautiful work
Thank you, glad it held your attention! 🤗
Well this was extremely educational. Thank you very much StewMac.
awesome video! thanks for sharing
Greatest video. Great detail content and close-ups are so helpful! Thanks a thousand
So glad it was helpful to ya - cheers!
Finally. Thanks StewMac
This is pure gold!
THANK you Gene what a brilliant video ! So well scripted and shot - info was brilliantly organized ❤🔟👌🏻👍👍
Awesome, thanks so much for watching! We appreciate the comment!
Subscribed!! I’ve watched this at least 3 times start to finish and ordered a bunch of these tools from the website. It’s amazing to have such a great resource to learn from. Thank you Stewmac.
Great video. Your fret puller will draw heat away from the hot fret. Heating the puller jaws for just a few seconds with a propane/MAPP/MAPP-PRP torch will help keep the puller from cooling the fret.
This guy's the fret master
Super awesome demonstration Eugene! Just loved it, you just put together 30+ video content for learning fretwork for newbies like me! Thank you!
Thank you!
Thanks a bunch, glad you enjoyed it!
awesome vid, thank you for all the tips and tricks!
Thank you for watching!
That's some sick animation.
Thanks! It definitely helps show the specifics!
great video, really appreciate it
Excellent video and answered all of my questions on fretwork!
Great video!
Wow! Thank you! It`s very useful!
Awesome, glad it was helpful!
Wow! What a great video.
Very thorough 👍👍
Thank you for watching!
That's a lot of tools shown. But, to your credit you show why they are needed and how to use them (and frankly, anyone attempting to do guitar repair should probably have all the necessary tools anyway or else take the job to a pro). Thank you!
Great video
A Nobel Prize for this man, please.
😅There should be a Nobel Prize for lutherie! Thanks for watching!
These videos always give me more business. Thanks StewMac!
Wow fancy graphics y'all!
✨😎🎸
Great video great educator
Perfect timing, as I am diving deeper into “level 2” fretwork with the goal to do a “level 3” partial refret on my Martin later this year. (Thankfully I have a cheap broken guitar to practice on first!)
Awesome...good luck with it!
Beautiful work and a great and essential video. Thank you StewMac & Gene for sharing.
Thank you!!!
Great animation!
Fantastic video. Any plans to do a video on refretting an acoustic or classical? I'd love to see the approach when dealing with the fretboard extension to the soundhole.
Yes! We have more fretting videos in the works.
Love this video!
@EricMerrow thanks a bunch!
This is a great video. Thanks for the info and advice. Really useful.
Thanks, Gene. This is an absolute wealth of information. Quick question: why not just use a radius block and sandpaper to do your fret level or fingerboard level? Wouldn’t that be quicker than flat leveling first? Thanks!
Brilliant! Thanks
37:56 Wow, that's a cool tip, really clever, never thought of that, a smart way to fix your guitar with only two clamps! thanks!
Great stuff! I've done level 1 and 2, just need to dive in and do a re-fret sometime! My Yamaha may not agree haha
Killer! You can totally do it, especially if you've nailed levels 1 & 2. Your Yamaha will thank you! 😎
Excellent again. the anamation on this one is next level. Your channel is a life saver
Thank you! The concepts of fretwork are often so small and subtle, we thought some animation might help a bunch.
Great job .. Thanks .. 🙂👍🥂.
Wonderful content, thankyou for this!🎸🌟
Thank you for watching!
Gene is the next Dan Erlewine 👍
Dan was an influential mentor of Gene's (and still is!) 😎
I've been watching a lot of guitar building and modifying videos ever since I started playing electric guitar at age 10 and now I'm 18 and I know that building guitars is fun but is also a lot of hard work especially when it comes to the fretwork on the fretboard so I watch so many fretwork videos and most of the fretwork videos I watch are very long and I prefer to watch videos that aren't so long so I'd recommend this video for a fretwork tutorial but tbh I watch all videos on how to do fretwork but definitely this video is my number one video on how to do fretwork, also do you have a video on how to install frets on a bound fretboard?
We sure do! Link below...Thanks!
ruclips.net/video/BYTVAYgN1RE/видео.html
that was damn fantastic!
Fantastic video, thanks a lot!
Thank You!!!
This is great! Thanks!
love his video. as good as Dan's
I never knew that you could use micro mesh. Good thing too because I thought mine were needing replacement
Yep! Keeping them clean will extend the life drastically. Thanks for watching!
This is gold! So well explained. Thank you sir! I've a question. What's the lowest fret height you can go with a fret level before considering a refret. I've a Epiphone dot that has a fret height of 1mm and 2,7mm width and they have some minor dents in them. Maybe after the fretlevel I've 0,8mm height left and I'm not sure if that is enough. What would you advice me? Thanks
Thank you! It's not so much about the height of the fret as it is the amount you have to remove from the fret relative to the width. It becomes difficult and tedious to reshape at a certain point. We consider the 20% we discussed in the video to be a reasonable rule of thumb. You can go beyond that if you like low frets and you don't mind the extra work crowning them. At the end of the day, if it works for you it isn't a problem!
Excellent video, though I would've loved the topic of fall away to be included.
We'll cover that subject in more detailed future videos. Thanks!
It's amazing and super thorough but I'm curious how to handle a compound radius fretboard refret. Since the radius keeps changing, it looks like we can't use the radius block.
This is Fretwork 101, leveling a compound radius is Fretwork 7001! Since a compound radius isn't the same measurement in any 2 spots on the board, you can't use radius blocks. It's difficult and I would encourage you to get very good at a uniform radius before tackling something like this.
If you're interested in understanding the geometry better, we have an excellent article written by Don MacRostie on our website:
www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/neck-building-and-repair-and-setup/compound-radius-explained/
Thanks for watching!
Well done
Thank you!
Thank you!!!!
Great Video. But please. What model is that Gibson guitar at 16:06 ? 'Cause that is a beauty!
Why is it better to sand of the board or the frets with sanding beam first and radius block afterwards, instead of doing it only with the radius block?
That's a great question! Sometimes you can, and we do finish up the leveling process here with the radius block as we true up the curve. Essentially, if the error you need to correct is uniform across the board, then a radius block can work great. But much like the concept we cover for multiple length edges, you can't easily focus on singular high spots with a radius block that spans the whole width of the neck, you hit everything for the entire width and length of the radius block and risk removing good material. In most cases, it's better to get the board uniform with a narrower leveler, then blend in with a radius block once you are close. Thanks for watching!
Have I missed something? I don’t understand why you would go to all the bother of levelling frets under string tension 25.17 and then to undo this fine tune by using a radius beam 28.10 with a straight neck with strings off reversing the the good effect of levelling frets with string tension.
That's a fair question! At some point with an approach like this, you have to accept a certain potential for insignificant error. There are other places in the process we make that choice too. Here that would be choosing to stop after the leveling and keep a radius that may vary or truing that radius and potentially adding a little error in the levelness. We've already straightened the board, so if that looks the same with and without string tension, the chance of introducing significant error with the radius block is small. We are sanding with high grit paper and removing only a few thousandths of an inch at that point. This is a basic approach, there are other more accurate ways of doing this work but it's a bigger investment in time and tools, but in many cases the outcome isn't noticeably different. Thanks!
pretty cool. !!!
Oh, this is good news.
what do you do for the gaps under the ends of the frets on the fretboard. Glue and sawdust? I have maybe 0.2 millimetre gap under the first 3 frets on the edge of the fretboard.
Makes me wonder what to do with one of my guitars. It has 6100 size frets which are not to my liking as they're too tall. Would a re-fret be easier than leveling and crowning? The fret wire has minimal wear so I hate to toss them. Also, they're on a one piece maple neck.
It’s difficult to say for sure without evaluating the specific guitar, but in most all cases I would refret rather than try to shape a jumbo fret into a smaller one.
@@guitarrepairman that's what I'm leaning toward although I already have all the tools for leveling and crowning. I'm always reluctant to buy tools that I might only use once.
I used to waste time hand polishing frets like that. Going through 8 different grits across 22 frets. 176 frets polished. By hand. Won't do it again.
Today, I used a 4 inch buffing/polishing wheel on my cordless drill along with blue stick polish from Dialux. I tested it and I can polish with that directly after crowning with a Z-file. Nothing else after crowning.
it'll take out all the scratches and polish the frets to a mirror finish with maybe 5 mins of polishing with the drill, polishing wheel, and light blue Dialux polish. I'll take that ALL DAY over an hour or more by hand.
51:20 "We're going to be doing a deep dive into all things fretwork…"
Yikes! I thought that's what this was! 🎸
This is just "Fretwork 101"! 😎 We'll be jumping into each topic on a deeper level in the near future.
Is it possible to refret without leveling the new frets?
It is possible, and below a certain price point most guitars are probably done this way because leveling and dressing is time consuming by hand. On a refret, even the most accurately done work still usually benefits from some leveling and dressing. It's rarely zero, but the idea is to make that as little as possible. Thanks!
Question: Why did the fingerboard need leveling after the frets were removed? It seems that relief was added with the truss rod adjustment and then sanded level again. Wouldn’t string tension reintroduce relief back into the neck thus negating the previous work? Or was the leveling done because the truss rod adjustment by itself couldn’t get the neck uniformly straight along it’s entire length?
Yes...often the truss rod alone will not straighten a neck perfectly. We didn't exactly add relief, we were just avoiding a back-bow. If you can't get the neck straight it needs planed (in normal cases) so you have to choose to level out a little relief, a little back bow, or sometimes a combination of both. We find the straightest point we can get with the rod, then we level it straight. Hope that answers your question...Thanks!
@@stewmac Ok, that makes sense now. Just asked because I haven’t seen anyone else “yet” that took that extra step when doing a re-fret. There is a ton of good info in this video! I have watched it several times and am still finding new things that I haven’t seen before. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me a detailed answer. This is how you attract and keep loyal customers to your company.
@@XHuntinatorX You're welcome!
What brands of paste wax can be used to protect the fingerboard when glueing frets? I saw SC Johnson being used in this video but it is $159.00 for a 1lb. container on Amazon!!!
Great question! SC Johnson stopped making that product, so people are asking ridiculous prices for them online. Minwax paste works great, also beeswax or carnuba wax, we've even used Vaseline in a pinch. Hope that helps!
@@stewmac Excellent! Ordered my fret pulling kit today so frets will be coming out this weekend! Thanks so much for responding.
@@XHuntinatorX Killer! Best of luck - hopefully they come out without too much of a fight and all goes well!
What kind of paste wax?
That's an old can of SC Johnson, which I believe is discontinued. There are other brands that work just as well for this purpose, Minwax should be readily available or you can use Bees wax or Carnauba. Thanks!
Be careful leveling your frets under string tension unless you really know what you’re doing. I sanded all my frets off doing this, but I got some great tools!
I always take strings off the guitar when I level frets. It just makes life easier.
Still a valid technique...many ways to get the job done right! Thanks for watching!