The Job
This is a fine-looking used Fender® Japan Telecaster a client brought in. He wasn't the original owner and got it from a second hand store overseas. Upon inspection, we noticed pretty heavy fret wear at the lower few frets, so we decided to refret instead of redressing. A typical full refret job would be followed by a nut job and a proper set-up. However a full refret would be a rather costly solution at this point as the fret wires we had weren't the same width as the originals and we would have to order a matching set of frets from Stewart-MacDonald®. This would probably delay the job by about another week, so in the end our client opted for a partial refret with the slightly wider frets we had.
Very deep grooves into the fret wire as opposed to more uniformed fret wear can be seen in the picture above. The previous owner must have heavily relied on the use of a capo, or played a lot of barred chords. The "groovy" frets stop at the fifth to sixth position. We decided to refret the first seven frets.
The strings are removed and neck separated from the body. The neck is then placed on a Stewart-MacDonald® neck support caul. Frankly we love all the Stewart-MacDonald® stuff. Where else can we find something like that?
The fretboard needs to be heavily masked to protect it from scratches and potential dings that may occur when working with the fret puller. Lots of care needs to be taken at this point as you need quite a bit of force to pull the frets out but you have to be gentle at the same time.
Here's a fret slowly lifting off the fretboard.
All seven old frets are out and on the table. Lot of algae and grime have built up in the crevices. This is partly why we recommend a full refret as they can only be cleaned out during a refret.
The frets slots are all cleared up. The real reason why we recommend full refrets over partials is because these fret slots widen slightly with every refret. Therefore repeated partial refrets will result in two different set of fret slots, one becoming wider than the other.
Replacement frets cut to fit, lined up and ready for fretting.
A very noisy affair; hammering in the frets.
Ear plugs were really helpful here!
Leveling of the edges. Great care must be taken to stop filing before reaching the wood surface.
The fret ends are given the 35° bevel, well not exactly 35°... There's no way to tell precisely. The ends need to be dressed again later anyway. For now we'll just follow the profile of the existing frets to create a more uniform feel and look.
Dressing the fret ends with a needle file (yes you guessed it, it's
from Stewart-MacDonald®) so there will be no sharp edges after!
from Stewart-MacDonald®) so there will be no sharp edges after!
Although not shown, the neck was first measured with a notched straightedge for straightness and its truss rod
was adjusted prior to leveling. The frets were then levelled with a fingerboard leveling file as shown above.
was adjusted prior to leveling. The frets were then levelled with a fingerboard leveling file as shown above.
Crowning the leveled frets.
The crowned frets look rather dull and scratched but don't worry, we'll take care of them in the next few steps!
The crowning file really left its mark on the frets. To remove the scratches, we started off with coarse sand paper.
The frets are looking slightly better but a few more passes with finer sand paper is required.
Tedious work but the end result is always rewarding!
Shiny frets make or break a guitar! (at least in the aesthetics department)
Shiny frets make or break a guitar! (at least in the aesthetics department)
Final step; polishing with "000" fine steel wool for that winning shine!
Beautiful new frets!
All done up, ready for restringing and set-up.
Do check out our other pictorials in the Media section!
Do check out our other pictorials in the Media section!