Refretting Musical Instruments

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Installing New Frets

Now that our fingerboard is ready to go it's time start refretting. Because I use the compression method I will either be tapping or pressing the new frets into the fingerboard. For this purpose I will use either an arbor press or a fretting hammer.

I sometimes use a small amount of white glue beaded along each fret slot more as a lubricant than an adhesive when pressing frets in. On brittle boards that chipped easily upon fret removal I must show the same amount of care when seating the new frets. A dehydrated board can chip when the fret comes out and when the fret goes it, argh. While there are certainly fingerboards that I think benefit from the use of glue, it is the tangs responsibility to hold the fret down. Unfortunately, far too many fingerboards have been left in less than perfect condition and a little extra aid is sometimes needed to help secure the fret.

Here I'm using an arbor press to press frets in. It is fitted with a caul which holds a brass foot that matches the fingerboards radius.

After all the preparation and shaping that's taken place it is important that the fret fit firmly in it's slot with no slop or excess "air space". I have seen some poorly fretted boards where I could actually rock the frets fore and aft in their slot or raise the ends. Loose frets can not only cause buzzing when a fret springs up and out of it's slot, but they also weaken the stiffness of the neck.  I can't help but believe that's a tone and sustain killer. Good coupling is important throughout the instrument whether it be from fret to fingerboard, from neck to body or from bridge to saddle.

On unbound fingerboards the frets are simply installed oversized and cut flush with the fingerboards edge.

This time I use larger end nippers and nip the excess fret wire close to the fingerboard. I've ground the face of these nippers flat to get as close as possible.
This board is unbound, (no plastic binding along the sides) so the frets were simply cut oversize in length and trimmed back flush with the sides of the fingerboard. Had it of been a bound board, only the top crown of the fret would be left oversized as the tang must be carefully cut to sit tightly within the binding.

While some electric guitar necks can be completely fretted with the aid of the fret press (arbor press), frets over the heel and soundboard of most instruments must be tapped in with a hammer. Experience with a fretting hammer allows consistent compression without over driving the fret and smashing it into the board.
After years of tapping in frets I find I can tap them in with the same consistent pressure that an arbor press provides.

Leveling the Frets
 (a.k.a. L&D, level and dress)

Now that the frets are in I've got to make sure they are level with one another and feel good. Ouch, those sharp edges gotta go too!
After years of pressing and hammering frets in I find that many come out nearly level when I'm done, but,  I still perform a fret leveling to insure that they are perfect. Overly compressed frets can sink into a fingerboard rendering them lower than others and leveling all frets as a whole eliminates any height discrepancies which can cause buzzing. 
The first few passes of the leveling file will show me just how level the frets are with one another. If I'm lucky, the fret file will come in contact with all the frets immediately and I can move onto crowning them. But in order to insure the frets are level I must file until contact is made with each fret across it's entire crown.

Here you can see the flatness of the crown after the frets have been leveled.

When it comes to leveling frets I have several tools appropriate for the job. But generally, I like to use the longest file or bar suitable to contact as many frets at the same time as possible.

Pictured above is my shorty collection : square bar covered with sandpaper, a fret beveling file (which bevels the ends of the frets) and a small bastard file epoxied to a wooden handle. I use several different lengths of each file pictured.

Before beginning to level the frets we must once again insure that the neck is still as close to perfectly flat as possible. The use of a straight edge allows me to determine whether more or less relief should be added prior to leveling.
After leveling the frets I normally like to follow up by making a few passes with a sandpaper covered radius caul. Again starting at the nut and moving towards the heel. I'm using the same radius caul I used when sanding the fingerboard radius. My purpose is not to lower the frets further but avoid and eliminate any flat surface caused by a flat file being passed over arched frets.

Beveling The Fret Ends

 
Beveled Fret Ends

If you look closely at the ends of these newly installed frets you will see they have a nice little bevel to them. Manufacturers vary a bit on how they bevel and round the fret ends, but the object is the same....no sharp edges!

Can someone over bevel the fret ends? Yes, one of the pitfalls often besetting a beginner is to over bevel the fret ends. An over beveled fret has ends that are angled too far inward and will affect the outer strings.  In severe cases the outer E strings may lie over or terribly close to this bevel and cause the string to roll off the frets edge when playing. How do you fix that? Refret it , you can't put back what has been filed off.
I've seen some try and disguise the problem by making a new nut which pulled the strings in closer, away from the bevel and obviously changing their spacing.

What Are Binding Nubs ?
 

Fingerboard Binding Nubs

Here's a close up of a bound fingerboard with nubs. The nub is a small tab of binding that was not scraped away when the binding was being scraped to match the fingerboard's height.
Basically the builder frets the bare fingerboard first, insures the frets ends are perfectly flush with the fingerboards edge and then adds the binding. Since the binding is taller than the fingerboard it must be scraped level with the board. These small nubs are left behind.

What you will find most often is that when refretting one of these "nub boards" they are refretted in the same manner that a normal, bound neck fingerboard is fretted. The fingerboard is sanded and radiused as usual removing all of the binding nubs, placing the board in the same condition and shape as a normal, bound fingerboard. We then proceed as usual, cutting only the tang back so that it can slip just inside of the binding and leaving the crown extended over the binding for further shaping. 

Recreating Nubs

But for the truly picky I have actually "recreated" those lost binding nubs.  After the frets are installed in the same manner as original (fret ends flush with the fingerboards edge without overlapping the binding) I create a paste/glue/binding/sticky concoction that allows me to dab a bit of goo at the end of each fret where the nub was. After this "stuff" hardens I file and shape it to resemble the lost nub.
But the aggravation and effort required to be this picky equals time and time equals what? Money. So obviously this method is not always used.

Hey, why don't you just replace the binding? Well there is one very big reason. The binding on the neck and the neck itself are finished as one unit. That means removing binding from most necks dictates cutting thru the finish before removal. If that finish is not lacquer, you just stepped into a major headache.
And replacement of binding equals plenty of spray and finish work after all is said and done. When new binding is installed it must be scraped flush to the width of the neck and then to the thickness of the fingerboard after it has been glued in place.  And that's going with the assumption that the binding wanted to come right off to begin with. Ha! Because if it doesn't or if it's one of Gibson ingénues T-bar binding scenarios, you'll have plenty of work just getting it off.
Is it doable? Of course it is, but it does not create an easier scenario than the above method.

Crowning Frets

They're level, now what? Now we go about putting the nice rounded surface (crown) back on the fret wire. Again, there are several file choices available here as well. Most of the time I use a fret crowning file. They are available to match different crown widths and are made for this specific purpose. Other times I may use a 3 corner file or such.  It has more to do with your preferred technique rather than anything else. There are those who hate fret crowning files and those who can't use 3 corner files successfully. It's a matter of technique and experience in my opinion.

When crowning the fret wire one of the most important things to avoid is lowering the fret height while crowning it. A crowning file will pass from side to side of each fret and will leave scratches perpendicular to those left when using the fret leveling file, I use that to my advantage. When crowning it's imperative that no height is removed from the top of the fret, or you can totally scrap all the work you did leveling them. Our only goal here is to knock those sharp right angles of the leveled fret and give it a smooth crown.
So... I watch the scratches carefully and when there is but a tiny untouched center strip I know when to stop.  I leave a very very thin bead of untouched fret crown down the center of each fret when re-crowning them.  This will be removed when I polish the remaining scratches out. If I were to remove all file marks left by the leveling I would have no indication of how much the frets height had been lowered while crowning. With a tiny bead of untouched surface right down the center and I know good and well that I have not lowered the height of the fret, I've only rounded the edges.

Just as over beveling the fret ends causes problems, over filing the ends can create it's own problems. When using a crowning file some have a tendency to over angle their stroke and cut too much material when passing over the end. When this happens you often end up with buzzing on the affected frets, the outer E strings. Since rolling the crowning file off the edges can lower the frets overall height on the end it can create a low spot in the fret and of course that renders the next fret a little higher and fret height inconsistencies lead to buzzing problems.

Polishing Frets

Scratches, scratches everywhere.  I've filed the frets this way and that and now we have to remove those fine scratches left in the fret wire and polish them out.
I use sandpaper which is passed up and down the fingerboard from nut to heel using my palm or foam backing. Again, we must think corporately. Any special attention or sanding of one particular fret can render it lower than the surrounding frets.

After proceeding thru several grits of sandpaper I switch to Micro-Mesh to acquire that polished chrome, scratch less surface. Benders normally appreciate that.

A little fingerboard oil and I'm ready for a test drive!

Click Here for pictures of refrets

FAIR WARNING:

While most of the information contained on this page is written in a step by step fashion it is not intended to teach the art of fretting, so please don't try this on your instrument.
Knowledge is great but experience is indispensable.