Refretting - Again

[LaXu]

Early this year I refretted one of my guitars, an old Yamaha semihollowbody with a bound ebony fretboard. I hammered the frets in but in the end I had to glue almost all fret ends, some frets were bent due to too much hammering and some frets weren't tight against the fretboard in the middle. I think the reason was that the original fretwire had bigger barbs than any current fretwire..the fretwire with biggest tangs and right size I could find was the Dunlop 6120.

So now I'm doing it again, this time I intend to press the frets in. I've built a DIY version of the new Stewmac "Jaws 2" press (fancy name for a block of wood, C-clamp and special cauls...). Using 6120 fretwire again.

Anyway, how much should I overbend the frets? I've never found a clear explanation of how they should be overradiused - the Stewmac tutorial pictures show a very big radius and recommends hammering them in with one blow while others show much less radius and tapping them in..

What about tools to bend them? I don't fancy building a Stewmac style bending machine. Last time I used two pliers but if someone can think of a better tool, I'm all ears.

Also, if I have to widen the tang, what's the best way to do this? Preferably using common tools, since I don't have access to Stewmac tools because I'm on the other side of the world.

[Guitarfrenzy]

I know it's a bad picture, but you just want to slightly overbend the fretwire.

There is a tutorial on PG that shows how to build a homemade fret bender, not sure how it works because I bought one. I know that Brian has a tutorial for a homemade bender also on the main site that you might want to try. Do a search on the subject and you should find more than you need.

[unclej]

i personally don't use a roller type fret bender but i purchased several specialized tools from stewmac that i use constantly. one is their fret bending plyers and the other is a tang tool that takes the fret wire and crimps the tang to make them fit tighter..for someone who isn't doing a lot of fret jobs they're a fairly economical solution to the problems that you had.

[soapbarstrat]

Hand bent frets and a press- not a great combination.

Hand bent frets and a hammer- at least the neck acts a bit like an "anvil" to get the hand bent frets to conform to the fret-board radius.

Wondering why you are willing to make your own press but haven't made a roller bender.

Fret-crimper. LOL you should see mine, but I've been told I should get a patent on it, so I won't show it. But, I think it would be too hard to mass-produce. Worked great on the last fret-job, where I wanted all the fret-wire to have the tang "expanded" by .002" (no more, no less)

[LaXu]

Hand bent frets and a press- not a great combination.

Hand bent frets and a hammer- at least the neck acts a bit like an "anvil" to get the hand bent frets to conform to the fret-board radius.

Wondering why you are willing to make your own press but haven't made a roller bender.

What's wrong with hand bent frets and press? I imagine when I press the fret to fretboard it should conform to the shape of the board.

Why I don't want to make a roller bender is because it's a lot more work - the hardware stores near me really suck if you want to find something like the parts used for the Stewmac style fret bender and I don't have access to a router to make the one on the main PG site.

[unclej]

Hand bent frets and a press- not a great combination.

i've had nothing but success using my various fretting plyers and the stewmac's hand held press. seems like i remember that they call it "jaws". the point of bending the fret is to get the ends to seat properly..the press with the proper caul seats the entire fret.

you can do a proper job with the bending plyers and just a fretting hammer..in fact dan e. suggests that you learn to do that before you move on to a press.

anywa laxu, clean all of that glue out of the fret slots, bend your wire like guitarfrenzy's picture, lightly tap the ends of the frets into place and then apply pressure with your press..should work just fine.

like my old granny used to say..there's lots of ways to skin your neighbor's cat.

good luck

[soapbarstrat]

I find that fret-wire has quite a bit of "spring" to it. At least the wire I use, especially if I "work harden" it first. That means if I press in a piece that doesn't match the radius exactly, there will probably be areas that will want to pop back up after the press is taken off. Not saying it's really bad or impossible, just not the best way, *in my opinion* (keep in mind most of my experience is with boards that had already been fretted, so I'm dealing with fret-slots full of " barb trails" from previous frets, which doesn't provide as much grip for the new frets).

I do use glue to help hold the frets down, but I prefer that any tendency for the fret to want to pop up, be consistanty "spread" across the whole fret, rather than some concentrated areas wanting to pop up with more force (from originally not being bent to the exact radius or very close to it).

If I can get a .001 feeler-gauge between the bottom of the fret crown and top of the fret-board, that is unacceptable for me .

I also like to keep re-crowning the frets to a minimum, plus I want all the fret-tops to be dead level down the whole board. So, when everything goes right, I can usually level all of the tops with a 19" leveling bar with 400 grit on it, and take off less that .002" of fret-height.

No neighbors get harmed in the process, that I know of