Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on January 26, 2010 at 7:01am

CBGitty is the fret man. See if he's available or I can send him a message.

Here's something else. One more. A cool idea here. I'm gonna try that one.

Fretting isn't rocket science but it is science. First thing I would do is to make sure the fretboard is level as possible. I think others will agree. There are many ways to accomplish this, none the less, make it f-l-a-t. Your saw is great. You spent too much, but a Cadillac is expensive too. Also make sure the fret slots are square [read: square]. As well, the stewmac chart is great. that and wfret. There are others and you can make templates to make this easier.

Also make sure you tap the frets down securely but not embed them to the backside of the fretboard. That is, they should meet the fretboard, not indent into them. Check the level and crown them afterwards.

Good luck

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on January 26, 2010 at 7:13am

Oh and one thing that will help your next build... he he he

I found a youtube vid that talks about making a good fretwire cutter. DON'T go out and buy some God awfully expensive nippers. Get a good offset diagonal cutter and grind the backside down to the blade (flush that is. So the cut won't pull up, rather the cut will be flat). Cut the fret down to the wood without nipping the wood and that will save mucho time!

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Nathan King on January 26, 2010 at 7:58am

Check out this here file. After you flush and bevel the frets to the fretboard, there's still those sharp little points, right? Well, this file might just be your hero. It's ground safe one two sides, so you can take those sharp points off pretty darn easily. There's a video demo on the ebay listing which shows ya.

In all my fretting experience (limited as it may be), I've bought two specialized guitar making tools: the stewmac fret saw, and this file. I do not regret either purchase in the least.

You can get away with using other saws, and you could probably make your own file that would work just as well as this one... but making one is probably not as easy as buying one :-)

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Permalink Reply by RL Mott on January 26, 2010 at 8:08am

What Wes said ^^ (2 or 3 things actually) 8^D , and another spin on the soda can slots is
an old credit card , or my fave for lots of things, a strip of vertical blind plastic .
I've got a piece in the shop that's still 4 feet + long after numerous cutoffs for odd jobs .

For any kind of dicey fine-spot sanding don't overlook fingernail files , and you can
"make your own grit" with popsicle sticks from a craft supplier and sandpaper strips .

If you can ju$tify it all all , ditto Nathan .

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Permalink Reply by Nathan King on January 26, 2010 at 8:44am

Amen, brutha! There are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to get each job done. It all depends on how much money you wanna spend, and/or how resourceful you can be at making your own tools!

RL Mott said:

If you can ju$tify it all all , ditto Nathan .

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Permalink Reply by rick moore on January 26, 2010 at 9:24am

I'm about to try my first time at fretting.
I've looked at tons of you tube vids on how to do it so lets hope this new project goes smooth.

Attachments:

• 12-29-09 015.jpg, 16 KB

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on January 26, 2010 at 9:32am

Now that's doin' it right and tight RL.

RL Mott said:

What Wes said ^^ (2 or 3 things actually) 8^D , and another spin on the soda can slots is
an old credit card , or my fave for lots of things, a strip of vertical blind plastic .
I've got a piece in the shop that's still 4 feet + long after numerous cutoffs for odd jobs .

For any kind of dicey fine-spot sanding don't overlook fingernail files , and you can
"make your own grit" with popsicle sticks from a craft supplier and sandpaper strips .

If you can ju$tify it all all , ditto Nathan .

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on January 26, 2010 at 12:25pm

Thanks, Nathan! That is one of those true "right tool for the job" tools, I just bought one.

Nathan King said:

Check out this here file. After you flush and bevel the frets to the fretboard, there's still those sharp little points, right? Well, this file might just be your hero. It's ground safe one two sides, so you can take those sharp points off pretty darn easily. There's a video demo on the ebay listing which shows ya.

In all my fretting experience (limited as it may be), I've bought two specialized guitar making tools: the stewmac fret saw, and this file. I do not regret either purchase in the least.

You can get away with using other saws, and you could probably make your own file that would work just as well as this one... but making one is probably not as easy as buying one :-)

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Permalink Reply by Doc Caution on February 9, 2010 at 1:54pm

Just wanted to say and overdue thanks to everybody who responded! Great suggestions and advice! I'm truly glad to have joined the NATION!

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on February 9, 2010 at 2:41pm

Hey all, I tried the soda can dressing shield. Worked great. Would have worked better had my implementation been better but overall great.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on February 9, 2010 at 5:50pm

I just got a stewmac fret beveling file the 7 1/2 and have been really happy with it. I first plane the frets with the basterd file then run tape up to the frets along the neck and use the beveling file. The job comes out smooth and pro like no sharp edges. I built my first guitar at a Luthier school and they had one. After doing it by hand with a small file I found the job still was not up to the look and feel I knew could be done with this tool. It is expensive but if you plan on doing this for long it's worth every cent. If you have a table saw you could build one cheaper. Take a peice of hard wood and cut a 35 degree angle into it and slip a file into the groove and snug it in with some wood screws. Look in stewmac's catalog for a picture. With this tool what took me 3 hours the old way to do now takes me 20 min

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Permalink Reply by Converted Stratslinger on February 10, 2010 at 3:39pm

I took a bastard file (I love saying that for some reason) and inserted it, along with a little bit of superglue, into a slot that i cut lengthways at a 45 degree angle on the end of a piece of 1x2. It works great as a fret beveling file, and is certainly a lot cheaper than the Stewart MacDonald tool.

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