Repair And Restoration
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Fretwork Processes…
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Fretwork Processes…
Hey everyone,
I could use some advice as far as the fretting process is concerned. I’ve been doing guitar repair since around 2008, I opened my business doing guitar repair in September of 2021, and I’ve always felt that fretwork has been the most challenging part of this job. I’m getting to the point now where I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of it, but I’m not where I want to be yet. I should mention that I use the Erlewine Neck Jig which has made things a lot easier for me in general. There are a few areas that I still feel like I’m still struggling with and I’d like to break down the process into three parts: Levelling, crowning, and polishing.
Levelling:
During this process I tend to prefer using a 24” aluminum sanding beam (the StewMac kind) and I typically begin with 220 grit paper. I feel like this is a course enough grit to take down material without really hogging it off. I’m wondering however if this is an advisable first step? I know others tend to use a file to knock down the high spots and then switch over to a beam once things are more closely in line. With my current style, I feel like I tend to take off a lot of material on some frets and not a lot on others, and I’m concerned that I get an uneven playing surface where the overall fret heights are “high” in some places, and “medium” in others. I may be overthinking it but it’s crossed my mind.
Once I get things level, I typically leave the frets at 220 and move onto the next step which is…
Crowning:
For crowning I tend to prefer using the large 9” 3 corner dressing file from StewMac. I feel like whenever I level the frets there are always a few that become kind of short, wide, rectangles and this file helps me add a new crown. I don’t feel like any traditional or modern crowning files would allow me to work on frets of this shape and that’s a big hang up for me. I find it rare when a sub $2000 guitar has frets that need just a glancing pass. I usually find them to be way out for a variety of reasons.
One problem with the 3 corner file is that it tends to leave fairly aggressive tooling marks. At this point I tend to use 180 sand paper on a sanding stick to eliminate these marks. This leads into the next section which is…
Polishing:
Here’s how I go through the grits. I alternate between polishing the fret tops, and then the fret crowns. I’ll go from 220 on the tops and 180 on the crowns, then 220 on the crowns. From here I’ll go to 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 3000, 5000, 7000, and then a buffing compound and a foam polishing pad on an orbital sander. I’m not quite pleased with this process however. I’m not getting the shine that I’m looking for and I’m not sure why. I’ll include a picture of what my frets look like when they’re done. I feel like there’s a dullness and just a kind of rough presentation to the frets.
I’ve also noticed that when I restring the guitar and play on the frets for the first time, I get some “cross grain” scratches, particularly from the bottom strings when bending. I find this troubling so soon after going through this process and I’d like to know if this is normal, or if I’m doing something wrong.
One question I had in relation to this which may sound odd, but I’m wondering if frets such as nickel silver or stainless steel, have a “grain direction” to them? And if rubbing the strings across the frets by bending them causes “cross grain scratches”, similar to wood. If I use my beam sander and sand in parallel with the strings and perpendicular to the frets, would this account for anything?
Anyway, I know this is a lot but any insights you all could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Looth Group!
-David
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6 Replies
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It sounds to me like you’re not getting your initial scratches out. I don’t totally understand what you mean by “tops” and “crowns” but personally I use 220 on a beam to start with and as soon as I remove all my marker I know they are level and I put the 220 away. I think 180 is too course for frets and if you are using 220 or 180 in your polishing regimen, you’re probably messing up what you did with the sanding beam. We have varying grits on multiple beams and will get the fret tops to around 600 before crowning…trying to get most of those 220 marks out. If you like the way the 3 corner file works, but aren’t seasoned in using it, try the Original Z file. It achieves a similar result. We also have a 600 grit crowning file we like from Philadelphia Luthier. Sometimes we follow the z file with that.
when polishing, you’ll just have to figure out your own process, but I recommend wearing a magnifier so you can see that you’re removing all the scratches at least on the first few steps. polish the length of the fret. I like to start with 400/600/800/1000 using norton soft-touch sponge, then all the way to 12000 micromesh (skipping the first two grits).
I don’t like to use anything mechanical on the frets, no dremels or buffers. I just think it’s too easy to mess up the crowning you did with power tools.
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I still use a fairly basic approach that only uses 600, 1000, 2000 and a buff on a drill at a low, very low speed.
First I wrap 600 over firm but thin and flexible backer. Like the squeegy that comes with bondo. This goes back and forth over the length of the fingerboard with the frets acting like little speed bumps. The squeegy allows the sandpaper to get right up next to the fret, but still maintain the sanding motion in the driection of the grain orientation.
The next move is to use some kind of fret mask and then go backyforthy with the 600 taking out all of the leveling marks. This can be quite laborious and it is really easy to miss the scragglers. If you miss any leveling marks at this point and move on to the other grits, it will be for naught and you will have to slum it back with the 600. On a side note, since I got some really nice DMT diamond sharpening stones, somethimes I use those to do some fine leveling before polish, but I apply them to the fret going against the grain of the fingerboard to have the marks left go with the string bend.
I repeat for 1000 and 2000. Then I use a buff on a drill at a very low speed to apply polishing compund. I use the menzerna fine wax compound, but anything will work. #7 Maguires will actually work quite nicely. The key is low speed, generating no heat and not hogging off any metal, which posishing will do. .001 isn’t that much, easy enough to take of with polishing and can throw frets out of whack.
Hope this helps. I agree the 180 is probably too much for frets.
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Here’s a thought. Use some good magnification and a good light to look for scratches after every grit. Age and astigmatism is a funny thing; as you get older, the surface may look very good to the naked eye (almost as if it was air-brushed), but when magnified, you immediately see what you are missing. This happened to me at the age of 30 (I’m a retired dentist) and I was shocked at my loss of acuity. Magnification was the solution. The common phrase among my colleagues was, “You can’t fix what you can’t see.”
Harbor Freight has some very inexpensive visor loupes available. You might want to puck up a small 10x jeweler’ loupe too.
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Hi David,
I’ll throw my two cents in here. Rather than go through my thoughts on the entire fret level and crowning process, I’ll toss some of my observations in.
Firstly, if you haven’t watched it, I would recommend you go back to two episodes of the Dan and Doug Show. We did a couple episodes affectionately called Fret-O-Rama. There is a great deal of information in there about the subject. In episode 2, I break down my fret level and crowning process to a fairly granular level, so I won’t try and repeat that here.
As far as the three corner file leaving what you described as fairly aggressive tooling marks in the fret. If that is the case, you need a better file or you need to prepare that one better. I go through my preferred files on the Fret-O-Rama episodes as well. In fact, our good pal Paul Lampley from Stewmac did a great job running through all the choices of fret crowning files and their respective pros and cons.
I will say this, I think people spend waaaaay too much time polishing frets. I can almost guarantee that most folks are knocking their frets out of level by over polishing. If you are going through, as you described, 13 different grits of sandpaper and then rubbing compound – that’s way too much effort.
It is easy to get caught up in your fret L&C “process” and lose sight of the most important factor – the results.
I use one grit to level frets with using a series of different length beams, then after crowning I use 600 grit on a sanding stick, hollowed out to match the curvature of the fretwire. Then a micromesh polishing stick with just a few strokes on each of three successive grit – 2400. 4000 & 12000. My frets are as shiny and polished as the best of them out there. My process however has evolved (in a reductive fashion) for the last 40 years.
If you want some help after viewing the D&D Fret-O-Rama episodes, give me a shout and we can do some online 1-0n-1 loothing. Better yet, since you are only a few hours north of us in NY, you could take a trip down sometime and we could do some elbow to elbow fretwork.
I hope this was of some use.
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Hey Doug, I’ll definitely check out the videos and see how I can improve my process. I haven’t yet gotten too deep into the video content here on TLG but it looks like there’s a lot of good content. As far as meeting up, I’d be glad to! My brother lives in Queens and I usually try and make a trip down at least once a year. I may be heading down your way in the spring so I’ll keep you in mind if and when I do!
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Thanks everyone for the responses and sharing the info, it’s very much appreciated!
-David
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