Fretting

[John Stephanites]

I have my out door guitar that needs refretting. Do I just pull these out and press back in the same size or will the slot then be to big? Do you use super glue?

[Paul Douglass]

You might check StewMac.com trade secret archives. they have hundreds of tutorial and may have one on re-fretting.

[Chris Fournier]

Pull a fret and measure the tang. Source a fret wire with the same sized tang and try pressing it. If it holds you're good to go, if not you may need to go with a slightly heavier tang but this will cause the neck to bow back and adjustments will need to be made. Careful work removing and installing will make this a flawless job. get quick and sloppy and you'll have a mess on your hands. I hate using glue to hold down frets. It's a nasty method.

[george wilson]

StewMac has these new metal guard strips that you can slip under a loosened fret to help keep from tearing wood out of the fingerboard during fret removal. I got a Channel Lock(don't try Black Diamond brand!) end nipper,and ground it down to flush cutting for ONLY removing frets. StewMac sells this tool already ground. I preferred to make it myself for less.

You don't specify what wood the fingerboard is. Fender used to slide their frets into their maple fingerboards SIDEWAYS into the wood. That means there is no previous track in the wood to aid in pulling the old frets. The StewMac guard would be extra useful in that case.

It is pretty important to NOT put frets with tangs LARGER than the original slots. This WILL cause the neck to bend over backwards. Be sure to measure the thickness of the old fret tangs. If necessary,saw the old slots wider. StewMac sells saws to match their .023" fret tangs.

You can squeeze the teeth narrower in a smooth jawed machinist's vise if necessary. Trouble is,a SMOOTH jawed machinist's vise is hard to find. I grind my jaws smooth and re install them with my belt grinder. Can be tricky if you aren't good at grinding!!

I NEVER glue frets in either. It is a half baked way to do it,and it makes things hard for the next refret.

[Mel Fulks]

George,do they still make Black Diamond? Can't find anything current about them. And did you mean they are too expensive to alter for that purpose? I've got an old BD set that I altered for fret use decades ago.Now they are nail clippers.

[Jim Creech]

A few things not mentioned yet. Always clean the new frets before installing. It's amazing how much grease/oil remains from the manufacturing process. As for glue, if the fingerboard is not in the best condition I will occasionally spread a little shellac in the slot to help hold them in. You may need to make a clamping caul to the F/B radius if this is the case. You may also find that you may need to run a soldering iron across the frets if they appear to be glued (or shellacked) in. I have refretted some entry level guitars as well as some high end items that were previously re fretted with glue. Hope this helps.

[george wilson]

I don't know about Black Diamond. They used to sell that brand in the museum warehouse. Their cutting edge always broke easily. When they did,the fracture looked like a casting. I advised them to go to Channel Locks,which they did. The Channel Locks are infinitely better.

[Mel Fulks]

Thanks, George. Found out I was wrong about my question ,the ones I have are Diamalloy ...or some such.

[george wilson]

Also very good for massive toenails!!!

[Mel Fulks]

Yeah, it's kinda funny . But they are indeed the "nails" I meant. Since the cutters have been altered I wouldn't use them on metal nails . They were expensive.

[John Coloccia]

Just FYI, replacing the frets is the MINOR part of the job. All of the real work and skill is in leveling the fingerboard, and then leveling, crowning the frets, taking care of the fret ends, and polishing everything. If you really want to tackle this yourself, there is an awful lot to learn before you can pull off a decent fret job. It's not hard, but there are a lot of little skills and techniques that you need to develop.