Fret Bending

[luthier1206]

This is probably a dumb question, but is it necessary to bend frets before hammering them in? Im sure it makes things easier but I need to know if its necessary to purchase/make a fret bender

[FireFly]

When you hammer a straight fret into a radiused board, the fret still wants to be straight. So, somewhere along the road, it'll probably end up lifting up. Bending the fret eliminates this risk for the most part.

If your fretboard is flat, then you don't need to worry about it.

Building a fret bender isn't expensive. There's a tutorial in the forum that shows you how to build one for under $15

Good luck!

[Southpa]

Actually, the frets should be slightly overbent to ensure they seat properly.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Southpa

[WezV]

Actually, the frets should be slightly overbent to ensure they seat properly.

over bent or bent to matching radius depends on a few things for me... i went through a stage of overbending too much so the middle always popped up. Then getting it much closer to the actual radius was much better but i have still had some guitars that were not happy till it was near perfect radius so i tend to judge how much of a radius it needs in the first 1 to 3 frets, even leaving for a day if unsure, and then remove (if needed) and adjust from there. tbh i think its mainly refrets where the slight over-radius was causing me problems and i think that may be down to slot wear

but in answer to the op - yes, definately need to be pre-bent to some degree. experiment on a scrap fretboard and see how much works for you. it will either be bang or the radius or slightly over