Matt300ZXT
Well-known member
A few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and bought my own fret work tools. I used to go to my buddy's house, who used to build guitars, and he'd let me use his Stew Mac and other various tool brands to rock the frets, sand down the few bad spots, press frets back in, and micromesh them. I bought a notched straight edge, rocker, big and small sanding beams, and neck cradle from Skyscraper Guitars as well as a Music Nomad S File and fret edge file. I also bought some micromesh, fret hammer, super glue/application tips and fret guards from Philadelphia Lutherie when I was ordering some pickups and stuff from them.
First, an import Washburn I've had for years needed a few frets hammered back in since the .004 feeler gauge went under in some spots and then a good bit of leveling to get all the high spots out and then the s file. Afterwards, I used all the grades of micromesh and my Dremel with metal polish to get them as shiny as I could. Afterwards, no more buzzy or farted out notes and played much smoother. Unfortunately, I don't remember the guitar being so stiff. The strings are 9s and a real bitch to bend compared to my other Floyd guitars and it just doesn't play as fast. Maybe I'll drop it to Eb and see if that fixes it. Also, it needs the Duncan pickups raised....damn body mount pickups and it being hard to fine tune the amount of foam you need under them.
Next, that scalloped Warmoth I got the other day needed just a few spots touched up. After having a hell of a time making sure the neck was flat, I just barely had to sand the frets to get the few high spots out and them recrowned and polished again. Now the guitar plays like butter and I can barely put it down.
Lastly, I went to play my Wulffson last night and remembered it had just a few buzzy notes (I don't play it often), and the E and B farted out on bends around the 19th fret. I took that neck off too, made sure it was flat and it had SEVERAL frets that were coming up in the middle. I don't know if the frets weren't quite radiused properly, or maybe they've just given up the ghost somewhat on holding. I hammered them several times and it only fixed 1 or 2. I would've used the superglue, but I still don't have an arbor fret clamp to hold them in place....one day. Anyways, I went ahead and taped up the neck, leveled and crowned the frets and polished them and now it plays much smoother with no farty notes.
I'd love to have an arbor fret press to really reclamp/reseat frets like this in the future, as well as a buffer so I can REALLY polish the frets. I still haven't figured out a great way to polish the sides of the frets to get the scratches out the s file puts into them. I get the tops smooth and shiny with what I've got, but I'd like to have an actual bench one day I can bolt those two tools to. I wouldn't want to do a fret job for a friend or relative and them get it back with some scratches on the sides of the frets.
If I had to take 3 guitars to a shop for fret work, I would've likely paid just a little more by now than what I invested in the tools to do it myself.
First, an import Washburn I've had for years needed a few frets hammered back in since the .004 feeler gauge went under in some spots and then a good bit of leveling to get all the high spots out and then the s file. Afterwards, I used all the grades of micromesh and my Dremel with metal polish to get them as shiny as I could. Afterwards, no more buzzy or farted out notes and played much smoother. Unfortunately, I don't remember the guitar being so stiff. The strings are 9s and a real bitch to bend compared to my other Floyd guitars and it just doesn't play as fast. Maybe I'll drop it to Eb and see if that fixes it. Also, it needs the Duncan pickups raised....damn body mount pickups and it being hard to fine tune the amount of foam you need under them.
Next, that scalloped Warmoth I got the other day needed just a few spots touched up. After having a hell of a time making sure the neck was flat, I just barely had to sand the frets to get the few high spots out and them recrowned and polished again. Now the guitar plays like butter and I can barely put it down.
Lastly, I went to play my Wulffson last night and remembered it had just a few buzzy notes (I don't play it often), and the E and B farted out on bends around the 19th fret. I took that neck off too, made sure it was flat and it had SEVERAL frets that were coming up in the middle. I don't know if the frets weren't quite radiused properly, or maybe they've just given up the ghost somewhat on holding. I hammered them several times and it only fixed 1 or 2. I would've used the superglue, but I still don't have an arbor fret clamp to hold them in place....one day. Anyways, I went ahead and taped up the neck, leveled and crowned the frets and polished them and now it plays much smoother with no farty notes.
I'd love to have an arbor fret press to really reclamp/reseat frets like this in the future, as well as a buffer so I can REALLY polish the frets. I still haven't figured out a great way to polish the sides of the frets to get the scratches out the s file puts into them. I get the tops smooth and shiny with what I've got, but I'd like to have an actual bench one day I can bolt those two tools to. I wouldn't want to do a fret job for a friend or relative and them get it back with some scratches on the sides of the frets.
If I had to take 3 guitars to a shop for fret work, I would've likely paid just a little more by now than what I invested in the tools to do it myself.
