First Time Fretting, Tips Or Tricks?

[jessejames]

Going to be bending the wire and installing the fret wire on my board soon. I bought a slotted and 12" radiused board from stew-mac, and then cleaned up the roughness with 150 up to 400 grit sandpaper and a 12" radius block.

I dont have a fret press, or cauls, or anything, I was wondering if I should put super glue in there, and what kind? Also, how do you put your superglue in there? I have read to bend the wire just above your radius and, tap the fret in with a radiused caul and a hammer, then tape around the frets while leaving a small space around the frets and put 2 drops on one side and 1 drop on the other, and the glue gets "sucked up" somehow. This doesn't seem right to me somehow so I was wondering how you did it and if you might be willing to give me some good info.

[jessejames]

Okay, so, I tried to fret the telecaster today. Didn't do so well. I used my fret bender, tapped them in just like I was supposed to, but the edges of the fret wont stay down, I tried super glue, but the tang just isn't catching, I did notice that the fret slots seemed too deep for the tang, usually I see the fret tang flush against the bottom of the fret. I used a stewmac radiused board with stewmac fretwire, but it was a disaster all the way down the line, so I just took all the frets out, got the usual little tearout places, so I got the radius block out and sanded the fretboard back down.

Anyone have any advice? Or should I just send this to someone and pay them to fret it for me?

[Ripthorn]

If you are hammering in frets, here are a couple tips that I have found come in handy. When you tap, don't let the hammer bounce, just bring it straight down and don't let it bounce back up. Put some good support behind the neck, I have used a bag full of rice before and it works great. I push the fret in with my fingers to the ends are partly in, then start hammering from the middle out. Before putting in the frets, I use a triangle file through the fret slot to bevel the edge so that the fret seats completely. I find that if a board is properly done, it (usually) doesn't need glue, but that's just me. Usually the slots in pre-slotted boards are deeper than the tang.

[MiKro]

So Jesse, or JimmySux whatever your login is at various forums. You have had many replies at the OLF on this and still you are looking for an answer?

So First off, What fret saw did you use? 0.023" slot? That is what stewmac wire tangs are. Next what radius did you bend your wire? 12", If so then it was not a tight enough radius for hammering , should be bent around 10 / 10.5" . Next how did you hammer them in? Did you start in the middle or from one end? HMMM!! I would bet you started in the middle. did you relieve the fret slot edges? Most likely not from reading your posts elsewhere. (there is a small radius in the transition of the tang to the fret and it will not set flush unless relieved)

My first thought for you, would be to practice on scrap. This is always preferable on most steps of woodworking including guitars. Once experience has been established on a new skill, then proceed to the project.

If you are still having a problem, look into Dan Erlewins book on fretting.

MK

[jessejames]

I didn't use a fretsaw, I bought a pre-slotted fretboard from stewmac. But it does measure out to .023, I tried to keep the radius above the 12" radius just slightly, and I hammered them in on one side, then hammered in the other, then hammered the middle. I did not relieve the fret slot edge, and you are right, I knew nothing about relieving the fret slot edge. I still know nothing about relieving the fret slot edge.

I messed up, plain and simple. I can freely admit it, and yes, I asked on another forum, but since everyone here doesn't frequent the same forums as me, I like to get a wide variety of answers. Just like you telling me about relieving a fret slot edge, no one else said anything like that, so asking in two different forums generated two different sets of advice/answers for me. Thanks for your answer though, I now have something else to google!

[FireFly]

Measure twice, cut once!

[MiKro]

I didn't use a fretsaw, I bought a pre-slotted fretboard from stewmac. But it does measure out to .023, I tried to keep the radius above the 12" radius just slightly, and I hammered them in on one side, then hammered in the other, then hammered the middle. I did not relieve the fret slot edge, and you are right, I knew nothing about relieving the fret slot edge. I still know nothing about relieving the fret slot edge.

I messed up, plain and simple. I can freely admit it, and yes, I asked on another forum, but since everyone here doesn't frequent the same forums as me, I like to get a wide variety of answers. Just like you telling me about relieving a fret slot edge, no one else said anything like that, so asking in two different forums generated two different sets of advice/answers for me. Thanks for your answer though, I now have something else to google!

Not a problem.

Now as far as relieving the fret slots. It is a simple matter of taking an angled file and dressing the edges to a bevel. very so slightly.

MK

[WezV]

because the bit where the tang meets the head of the fret is usually slightly rounded

[jessejames]

Well that makes good sense. I think my problem was I didn't radius the frets enough, I could get a good seat in the middle, and typically on one edge, just one of the other edges wouldn't seat.

So next time I know better, bevel the edges, radius the frets and check them better, and I will probably buy an arbor press from stewmac to make it easy.

[verhoevenc]

Why from stewmac? They can be had much cheaper from many other sources.

Chris

[jessejames]

When I type in arbor fret press stewmac is the only one that comes up. I was thinking of getting the caul that goes into your drill press.

[verhoevenc]

Yeah, that's the only one that shows up on STEWMAC. I said don't get it fromt hem if you want one. Harbor Freight is gunna be cheaper for SURE.

Chris

[jessejames]

After sanding the fretboard, and consulting with verho, I decided just to try it again, with the right tools this time, and a deeper tang on the fret. Anyone have any advice on how to get superglue out of a slot? Should I scrape it or japanese fretsaw it?

[Our Souls inc.]

I use the fretsaw with a depth stopper on it.some painters tape will eliminate the little rub marks the acrylic leaves otherwise.....

[Prostheta]

Before I started to use semihemi fretwork, I used to leave 5-6mm+ fretwire either side of the neck after installing and looped an elastic band under the neck and over these two overhanging ends. This proved pretty effective in keeping fret ends down whilst the glue dried, plus you can move onto the neck fret without having cumbersome clamps or whatever hindering your work. CA all the way.

[jessejames]

Well, looks like I finally got the trick, no raised edges, and I put a few drops of CA glue on the sides, all perfectly flat, but the frets are going to need a ton of dressing.

[Prostheta]

Looks good. Having correctly radiused wire and clean bevelled slots does 95% of the work for you. Grab some pics in daylight to sharpen 'em up somewhat after you're done! Artificial light always screws up the detail.

[jessejames]

Oh, I can do pics haha. I know the nut looks high and crooked, that's because it is, I just slightly radiused and slotted it, I was waiting to get my frets in and strings on to do the final shaping/slotting so I can get the action just the way I want it. You can see I am going to be spending some time leveling these frets, but I got the highest crown height stew mac offered in a medium wire for just this purpose, I knew I wasn't going to get it even close to perfect my first try.

Here it is in natural light, much better than my first attempts. Glad to have all the help from this forum!

[Musiclogic]

Just remember to do your leveling in a conical fashion, and you will lose less crown, and make recrowning much easier than trying to get the huge flat spots shaped.

[jessejames]

Conical fashion? I'm not sure what you mean.

I did learn a VALUABLE lesson, never fret a guitar with the neck on the body again.

[westhemann]

The harbor freight press is the same thing,but it is not machined to accept the cauls,IIRC

That is what stewmac does,they buy tools and machine them for work specifically on guitars,then they charge for that work.If you can machine steel,then buy the harbor freight.Otherwise buy the stewmac.

Same thing with tang nippers...they are just Klein nibblers,but the face plate has been machined so the fret can seat properly to cut the tang.

So let's be honest,you can not always get the same thing elsewhere cheaper..sometimes the mods Stewmac makes are very necessary and sometimes worth the price.

But like with any tool,it takes practice to get it right.

[westhemann]

I did learn a VALUABLE lesson, never fret a guitar with the neck on the body again.

Sometimes you have to,if it is a refret on a set neck....

Conical fashion? I'm not sure what you mean.

I think he is talking about a "compound radius" (relax Prostheta,just going with the most popular lingo)

But that depends entirely on your desired bridge and nut radius..you don't just "do it"

If your nut is 10" and your bridge is 10",then a conical radius is not going to be desired..

I do not do a conical radius on any of mine.I use a Kahler bridge which has an adjustable radius and I make the bridge radius the same as the nut.I have none of the so called "fretting out" problems while bending,even with my action at 2 mm at the 24th fret and 1.5 mm at the 12th.And since the Kahler rotates over a cam,trem use doesn't make it fret out either.

Straight radius is a set "circular" dimension along the entire board...Conical or "compound" radius is in the shape of a cone..usually around 10" at the nut and smoothly transitioning to about 16" at the bridge...usually needed for a Floyd equipped guitar

[FireFly]

That looks nice and straight! Beautiful fingerboard too!

Good Job!