Smoothing out the divots in the frets

[DarkHorseJ27]

Due to an extreme amount of time of my guitars getting played several of the frets on my guitars have formed divots. I was under the impression that you should smooth out the divots before they are too severe in order to prolong fret life. However, the tech at the local guitar shop advised me against this. He said if I smooth out one fret its height will be too different from the others, and if I want to smooth out the divots I will have to get a fret leveling done. And he isn't saying it so I'll bring in my guitars for fret levelings, as they don't do fret work. What is your guys' take on this?

[Terry Allan Hall]

Tough to get right, first try...practice on cheapies before trying it on a favorite!

[Steadfastly]

He is right. I would take it to someone that knows what they are doing.

[FretFiend.]

I have smoothed out mild divots in frets and leveled them with a piece of a bastard file with the handle broken off. You really have to crown them after you do this... which means buying a set of expensive fret crowning files. You can do it. It's not really that hard, but it's tedious... and easy to screw up and ruin frets... and you can only go so far with this, before you need new frets anyway.

 

Unless the divots are causing you problems, leave them alone... or let the tech do it.

[jandrew]

 

Unless the divots are causing you problems, leave them alone... or let the tech do it.

 

^^This. I've some serious fret divots on my larrivee after 20+ years, but right now I am not suffering playability issues. It'll need a refret soon, but it's all right at the moment.

 

cheers,

andrew

[DeepEnd]

You can carefully polish the surface of the fret with 0000 steel wool so that the divot is less prominent (the edges are smoother) but that's about all I'd try doing.

[kimona]

As DeepEnd suggests, clean the frets (and fretboard) very well with 0000 steel wool. Next, I'd polish the frets with a silicone-free product and treat the fretboard with a drop of lemon oil.

[Freeman Keller]

If the divots are too deep, the fret needs to be replaced. This usually occurs on the first five or so. If not too deep the proceedure is

 

1 - take all the relief out of the f/b (make it flat)

2 - file all of the frets flat. I use a 10 inch mill bastard file that I know is dead flat. Take off just enough to insure that they are on the same level plane.

3 - level the frets. I use a big huck of steel that I know is dead flat and put 80, 100, 120 grit emery cloth on it with double sticky tape.

4 - the frets now look like hell. They will all have some degree of flatness on the tops. Recrown them with the correct sized fret file (usually a medium but some might be small). A diamond file is best, StewMac and others sell decent ones, I have heard of people using lanolium (spelling, that stuff they put on kitchen counters) files from a hardware store. I'd get the right one from a luthier house.

5 - polish the tops of the frets - I use 0000 steel wool and wet and dry sandpaper to about 1200 grit. If you really want to do a nice job use a polishing wheel in a Dremel with a little jewelers rouge.

 

I've got some pictures somewhere but I can't access them from this computer

 

Here is what Bryan Kimsey says about fret work - btw, when he reset my D18 he replaced the first five and crowned the rest, on my D12-28 he just crowned them all

 

I don't "dress" frets, but prefer to remove worn frets and install new to keep all the frets at full height. I will re-crown and polish frets if I can do this w/out losing much height. I typically only re-fret out to the 15th fret, to save time and effort, and because frets past that are rarely worn, but if you want all the frets replaced, we'll do that, too. $195 to the 15th fret, $225 for a complete refret. $15/fret for partial, $40 for a crown and polish (included in full re-fret price, of course).