How Many Of You Glue Your Frets In?

[soapbarstrat]

I'm pretty sure If you took the same number of glue and non glued frets you'd find a fairly even number of fret issues!

Is that your experience ? Not mine. See necks all the time, with no glue and every fret not fully seated, or several frets not fully seated. On a *refret*, that's a plus for me. My fret pullers fit easily under those gaps. Never heard of frets popped up on any of them after I was done with them (well, with super-glue. There was a bass I used epoxy on and one fret popped up later).

[joshvegas]

Sounds to me like quality control issues with mass produced guitars. Again I'm not saying you shouldn't use glue I'm just saying that if its done poperly it DOES work perfectly well!

[Prostheta]

I've never had fret problems on any instrument i've owned or played so far. Whether it's because I take care of my instruments differently to other people, or i've had a run of good luck i'm not sure. That and I don't go through a lot of instruments as I don't go through them like water, and when I do I go for quality every time. Probably a combination of all of these.

I cringe when I see teenagers carrying an uncased instrument around the city centre hangouts (for show I might add) in all kinds of weather. Then techs wonder why they get moderately new instruments in with fret problems and neck alignments out of whack (no sure if these kids even know what those are....). I'm sure a lot of manufacturers don't deserve all the stick by blaming it on QC (although i'm seen some shockers on the pegs) as a lot of people don't know how to care for instruments, and some downright abuse them.

As far glue filling gaps in slots - I agree 100% although setting the depth stop on your fret saw to the depth of the tang means there should be less gap in the first place. I think the jury will stay out on this for/against discussion because as usual it comes down to circumstance. Sometimes it's better to break out of the glue, and sometimes it's not necessary. Everyone has their own ways of working.

I think you're well justified in using glue for refrets SBS, and I would do the same - just pulling a fret from a slot can weaken it for the next wire that goes in. For fresh board, it's a different game I guess. Still - can't complain if the bad seating makes your job easier and involving less repolishing of the surface! :-D

[soapbarstrat]

Just to clarify, the gaps I'm more concerned with filling are between the fret tang and slot walls. Such as a fret tang being .021" wide sitting in a slot .022" wide (or wider, but then I have to use that crazy crimper thing- wish high quality fret-wire had more tang width options).

[Nicko_Lps]

Erlewine did some kind of "sound transmission" test which showed that non-glued frets tended to have a poorer transmission than glued frets.

I always use glue. I spend way too much time going the extra mile to get the frets seated and leveled as perfectly as I can, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let humidity (or an increased lack of humidity) go into that end grain on both sides of the frets and change things.

I think you also get better seated frets if they remained clamped down for a while, instead of pressing them down and then releasing the clamp right away (as in a typical arbor press fretting). Those barbs on the fret tangs push/compress end grain wood and if given a little time, some if it will spring back, helping to keep those barbs from raising back up. But I still like super-glue added to really freeze everything up in there.

Plus 1 vote to soapbarstrat reply.

Yeap, i've seen that as well,i did that as well.

I filled the fret-channel with super glue then place the fret,hammer it and press tight and fast because it dryes fast...Super glue its messy to clean at the end if you fill the channel with it,but if you have a cloth with acetone and clean at the time you press down the fret its easyer after to remove excess glue.

Peace

[guitar2005]

My rule of thumb is don't glue the frets in, unless you have a problematic one. On new necks, I seem to only have to glue in frets where there's inlay material spanning multiple fret positions and the fret doesn't have wood to hold on to.

For refrets, I find that a bit of glue will help for some slots but it doesn't really help in terms of getting more re-frets for that board in my experience. It doesn't really seem to help with chip outs on fret removal either, but that could be a problem with my technique I guess.

[Acousticraft]

Having the frets slightly over radiused makes sure the ends seat home well without glue.

I used glue for the first time when I built my 335 (guitar 4) that has a 3mm wide maple bound fingerboard. Then I only used superglue on the ends with no tang where they overlap the binding to hold them tight down.

I had to superglue in one fret on my Bass Im building at present as somehow the saw jumped out of the slot and made one edge too wide and the fret wouldn't seat on one side. The others all seated nice and snug so I haven't glued them.

I like to mask the face of the fingerboard and then spray the edges of the fingerboard and neck with lacquer so the fret ends are sealed and locked in place. I only give it a couple of light coats directly to the edge.