Tolerance for loose frets

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

I haven’t glued a fret down in ages. Most frets are up due to having the fret with a different radius than the fingerboard. If there are only a few loose frets, sometimes I will pull them, re-radius them and put them back in. If there are more than 3 or 4 I just refret.

edit: I also wouldn’t perform any work, but a refret on a guitar with loose frets.

[Jean-Marie Prual Super Real Guitar Works]

Thanks Ian ! Why would you choose to refret rather to reglue ? Doing stuff more cleanly ?

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

It comes down to the amount of time spent and the guarantee of results. I found over time that I spent a lot of time on glueing down frets and then leveling them. Almost always, after glue down, the frets would be so unlevel that I would have to do a shit ton of leveling and crowning. Leveling and crowning produces heat, so if the fret is being held down under tension by glue, chances are that the heat from crowning is going to change its level. Anyway, the time I spent got so close to the time I would spend refretting and the results were so crappy, I just quit doing it.

[Marco Polo]

I second this! Especially on jumbo frets.

I just had a custom Jackson “strat” come in for a setup and upon checking out the ugly looking frets, I noticed 70% of them were sticking out .01” in the middle.

After repressing them, I would’ve had to level them down to nothing and then ATTEMPT to recrown em from there. Instead I called the customer and told him he needed a refret. I can’t set it up until the frets are level.

Hope this helps!

[Doug Proper Guitar Specialist]

I agree with Ian wholeheartedly on this one! From my perspective, however, it is purely a mathematical issue as it relates to cost.

Generally, the two ways i see frets loose on a board is as follows:

Either they are peeking up in the center as you have described, or they are springing up at the ends. In some cases, it is due to what Ian has described – the mismatch of the radius to the fingerboard. However, there are many times I have seen frets coming up out of the board because the frets slot is poorly matched to the size of the tang. There is a lack of good compression and as such, the fret can spring out of the slot.

If I am only dealing with one or two frets, I have no issue with gluing and clamping down the single fret – especially if I am already doing a level and a crown on the guitar. One or two frets is no big deal. BTW – The jaws fret press is my favorite tool for doing that (thank you Dan Erlewine!)

If you have a guitar on which many of the frets are all loosening and coming up and out of the fingerboard (for whatever reason) then you are going to lose your shirt on a level and crown job. Whenever I have run the numbers – charging a per fret price for reseating (and gluing) frets always comes dangerously close to what I would charge for a re-fret. In my book – I’ll always suggest the refret to the customer. They’ll wind up with a better playing guitar and I’ll have more confidence in the results, not to mention the future serviceability of that guitar for the customer.

[Bryan Parris Parris Guitars]

I had a strat come in yesterday that had been refretted by another shop. He brought it for a Plek job because he said it’s not played right since it was refretted. I took a .020″ feeler gauge and could put it under the end of a fret. Found another and another. Stopped counting at six and told the guy it really needs another refret.

I’ve changed my method in the past couple of years after starting to use a lot of stainless frets. I was taught to over-radius frets before pressing them in and that the sideways motion of the fret seating will help hold the ends. You can’t do that with stainless. After a couple dozen stainless refrets, I started radiusing every fret to the same radius as the board. I think that’s a better method. I learned two things here in the looth group that have helped me get frets seated cleanly…one is doug’s double hammer method. Second is finding the Birkonium fret caul set (https://birkonium.com/shop/tools-misc/ultimate-fretting-caul-set/).

in your situation, I would want to seat those frets, but you’ll have to do a fret dress. I think that’s ideal if the customer has that in their budget.

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