Changing Frets On Maple Neck

[VesQ]

Well, I have this mex strat with maple neck which needs a fretjob.

I think I´m able to put new frets in and level fret tops.

But, I haven´t found any solution to file fret ends without harming lacquer.

Any ideas ?

[low end fuzz]

usually refretting a finished board requires a refinishing aswell, just from the pulling of the frets causes delamination;

just protect your board as well as possible, use tape or a guard; stewmac sells something like that but id just make one;

it looks like a rectangle razor with a slot in the middle for the fret to stick out of, so the file will hit it instead of the fb.

[soapbarstrat]

Treat it like the fret-board edges have a super thin binding. It's actually more tedious than doing an actual bound board, at least the way I do it.

If you file off finish on the edges, it's not too big of a deal to replace finish there. The big problem is when you knock off the tint of the original finish and then try to match that. I've worked on Fenders where the "shader coat" was in between clear coats, so if you would just file off a little finish you could lose the tint real fast.