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Frettin over frets...

I've been searching for a while now for a good item to use for frets (besides fret wire...duh) I've used toothpicks and copper wire, both of which worked ok. The problem was making a groove to seat the fret in, my miter saw makes a groove that was smaller than the copper and the toothpicks so they both kinda sat on top of the fret board. My attempts at widening the grooves with a small file resulted in even less accuracy for fret placement.

I do this for fun, so the idea of using non-guitar parts and not having a million dollar wood shop, is a large part of the attraction. So anyway, while I stomped around the shop because my frets were not cooperating, I found a whole brick (2000) of finishing nails for my air nailer. I have tried these before but the 18ga. nails were a lil on the small side for what I was after. As luck would have it, some dummy bought the wrong size nails...these are 16ga!

A few light taps to seat 'em and I may not even need to use glue. I aint been this stoked since I found these cursed home-made instruments...now every one is gonna get frets. I knew I saved all this junk for a reason...:)

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Permalink Reply by Diane in Chicago on September 13, 2009 at 2:49pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9_pr7ntwk

Jkevn said:

I keep thinking about that "T" shape, if you saw 1/2 -way through the neck, the fret wire will still sit at the same height. I've made a mark on my miter saw that I thought would be the trick, but depth (levelness) is still a problem.

How are y'all seating the fret wire? If you say a special tool I'm gonna just cry or something...

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Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on September 13, 2009 at 3:27pm

Diane said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9_pr7ntwk

That video was really helpful -- I just "rescued" my earlier first attempts at fretting by starting a new fingerboard and using stock fret wire, following Big Daddy's directions. Amazingly better than the earlier attempts, although I still need to get the nack of smoothing out the edges better.

Before:

After:

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Permalink Reply by StarGeezers on September 14, 2009 at 1:15am

For smoothing the edges , we take a small CHEAP 3 cornered file from the Hdwe. and round /smooth the corners , so there are only teeth' on the flat areas... That way when you're rounding the fret ends , the smooth part of the file rides on the fretboard and does no damage to the wood... tedious work , but really improves the Comfort factor , when you're playing ...
You can buy them from stewmac , but much cheaper to make your own ... http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Shaping_and_crowning/...

for seating frets a cheap dead blow hammer works fine ... plastic face please ...