SS refret tutorial....Warning-- Lots of pics.

[Bowen]

I've been working on a strat project and it's neck needed a bit of help. http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?p=38685570

 

The neck is from a Squier affinity. I like the profile and it is good and stable but the medium nickel fretwire is irritating. I spent the morning doing a refret using jumbo stainless fretwire from LMII.com.

 

The tools that I used are all home depot stuff. I modded a couple of them though.

 

 

Here is the neck with the tuners and string trees removed.

 

Pulled the nut (it came out in pieces) and started pulling the fretwire. Don't yank the fretwire out, that will pull massive chips from the fingerboard. The fretwire needs to be slowly wiggled out with the fret being pulled up parallel with the fingerboard. This tool is a end nipper with the jaws ground flush. As the frets are pulled out you'll want to save them in order. That will make cutting the new wire easier later on.

 

Sometimes the end nipper cannot get under the fretwire. I use a chisel to gently pry the fretwire up a little.

 

All the frets are pulled with lots of minor chips but no major ones.

 

Adjust the truss rod so that the fingerboard is as straight as you can get it. This can be tricky with a rough fingerboard.

 

I'm putting a compound radius on the fingerboard. To do this I use 80 grit PSA sandpaper stuck to the cast iron wing of the tablesaw. As I rock the fingerboard while sanding, I'll make sure to keep the sanding direction in line with the (imaginary) strings, not the centerline of the neck. I sand with pressure at the heel and the middle of the neck. The fretboard radius magically comes out compound.

 

Fingerboard is radius-ed and leveled. I'll use a flat sanding block to sand the fingerboard to 400 grit afterward.

 

Fingerboard is fine sanded, some chips popped out when I cleaned the fret slots.

 

Gluing the chips using thin CA.

 

Chips are glued and the fretboard is sanded back to 400 then again with 1200 micro-mesh.

 

 

Continued as soon as I type it out.

[EADGBE]

Let us know if you notice any tone changes after you play it again.

[Bowen]

Time to get the new frets in.

 

First, use alcohol to wipe the new fretwire down. That removes any oil from the manufacturing process.

 

These are the cutters I use for SS wire. They are ground to have a flush cut.

 

When cutting fretwire, cut it straight with the tang. If it is cut at an angle it will twist the tang and not seat correctly. When the fretwire is cut it will have one square end and one pointy end from the cutter. Cut of the pointy end to square it up before cutting the next piece of fretwire.

 

Using the old fretwire, cut the new fretwire to size. Make sure that the new fretwire is slightly longer than the old stuff.

 

I almost forgot. The fretwire from LMII comes is a roll with about a 12" radius. Make sure that this is a smaller radius than your fingerboard otherwise you'll never get the fret ends to seat without re-radiusing the fretwire.

 

I like to cut back the ends of the fretwire even on necks with no binding. This leaves a cleaner look when it is done. A dremel and a cut-off wheel work great for this. I use a block of scrap wood with a groove cut in it to rest the fretwire on to avoid burning my fingers too much.

 

After all the fretwire is cut to length and notched the fret slots will need a slight bevel. This allows for the radius on the fretwire where the tang meets the top.

 

Clean crap out of the fret slots. You don't want sawdust sucking up your tone.

 

Continued soon.

[nuke_diver]

I'm really interested to hear the difference in tone as well. I want to get SS on my strat since I seem to be heavy handed .

 

You won't happen to have before and after clips would you..when you are done of course :poke:

[Doctor Morbius]

I love this kind of stuff. Please continue.

[Bowen]

Now we start pounding the fret in. Start by wiggling the fretwire into the slot as far as it will go.

 

 

 

Now gently tap one end in a little bit with the hammer. (with SS wire I use a steel hammer. This does not dent the fretwire but it work hardens it some.) With a finger on the end I just tapped in, tap the other end in a bit. Then using a bit more force tap both ends almost all the way down, then lightly start tapping the center of the fretwire down.

 

After the fret is almost all the way down, use sharp (but not heavy) hammer strikes working back and forth on the fretwire. This will seat it correctly with no chance of the fret ends springing up. You'll hear it when the fret if fully seated.

 

After all the frets are in check them with a quality ruler or something that you know is very straight. If the straightedge rocks anywhere then a fret needs to be driven in a bit more.

 

On a refret I like to run some thin CA glue in the fret slots. It will wick along the tang and hold the fret very securely.

 

 

Using a coarse file bevel the fret ends almost to the wood. Be careful, everything is very sharp and thirsty for your blood.

 

When you are almost happy with your bevel, switch to a fine flat file to finish it off. Stainless frets are hard on files. The fine file is almost worn out.

 

Use some color matched wood filler to hide the fret tangs. Then bevel the other side of the neck while the filler dries.

 

Both sides beveled, now I'll level the frets. I use 400 grit on a dead flat sanding block. First I fallow the string paths then I follow the fretwire. That will remove any cross-fret scratches that are hard to get out.

 

 

Frets are leveled with just a tiny flat spot, there is no need to crown them.

[Bowen]

Time to start polishing the frets and dressing the fret ends. I don't mask off the fingerboard for this.

A few different grits of micro-mesh, the finest is 12000. The frets are very shiny now.

 

 

This is a fine square file with 2 sides smoothed. To dress the razor sharp fret ends start with the smooth side of the file against the fingerboard and as the file cuts, roll it up to 45 degrees. In about 2 minutes the fret ends are no longer sharp.

 

Micro mesh the fret ends and the edge of the fingerboard. The filler is all dry now. I wipe on a few layers of shellac after this.

 

Time to clean up the fingerboard. Some CA glue has run onto it from the fret ends and there are marks from the small square file. To clean the fingerboard I'll just mask off the fretwire, scrub with OOOO steel wool, and finish off with 6000 grit micro mesh.

 

A bit of oil and it's all done! Well, except for the nut. I need to find some brass for that.

[newbuilder]

Cool thread. My tele neck has SS frets and I love it. Not sure that there is any sound difference, but they feel like glass:thu:

[Bowen]

About stainless frets changing the tone. I have done dozens of stainless refrets and I or my customers have not noticed a difference on tone. There is a huge difference in feel though.

 

I cannot do before/after sound clips on this neck. The only thing that will be the same (refer to the first sentence on the first post) is the neck, tuners, and bridge.

 

I will offer this though: If someone local to me wants to A/B nickel and SS frets I'll walk then though refretting their guitar. I'll even supply the fretwire. It is a 4~5 hour job.

 

I'm a bit of a SS fret proselytizer, me.

[Poster Nutbag]

Great write up, chips and all, it looks great in the end! It also reminds me why refretting is one of those things I'd rather pay someone else to do

 

I'll also second that SS frets don't alter tone, but feel different.. My Carvin with SS frets feels.. "slipperier" - if that's even a word.

[mrbrown49]

Great work man. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.

[marshallnoise]

Sweet thread! I have a maple on maple neck with Stainless Steel frets that are amazing. I do not see why more boards don't come with them.

[mikesr1963]

Awesome Work.

[-Assy-]

those frets definitely need to be crowned, if its for yourself its cool, but I would never send a guitar out of my shop like that. Not a bad tutorial, a fretpress method is much better, on the closeup shots of your fretboard you can see where the frets aren't seated down all of the way, SS frets dont seat well with a hammer unless you radius them perfectly to the fretboard.

[RaVenCAD]

noice

[nuke_diver]

About stainless frets changing the tone. I have done dozens of stainless refrets and I or my customers have not noticed a difference on tone. There is a huge difference in feel though. I cannot do before/after sound clips on this neck. The only thing that will be the same (refer to the first sentence on the first post) is the neck, tuners, and bridge. I will offer this though: If someone local to me wants to A/B nickel and SS frets I'll walk then though refretting their guitar. I'll even supply the fretwire. It is a 4~5 hour job. I'm a bit of a SS fret proselytizer, me.

 

 

I had one luthier tell me that of the re-frets he does only a few are SS and he actually removes more SS to put in nickel His comment was they are not for everyone but they may be for you, I can give you the pros and cons and will do whatever the customer wants. So I wasn't sure if the con was tone or something else. But they are clearly favoured on this board

 

Nice work too btw, if you were local I'd be sending you a PM :-)

[Bowen]

those frets definitely need to be crowned, if its for yourself its cool, but I would never send a guitar out of my shop like that. Not a bad tutorial, a fretpress method is much better, on the closeup shots of your fretboard you can see where the frets aren't seated down all of the way, SS frets dont seat well with a hammer unless you radius them perfectly to the fretboard.

 

The flat spot from levelling the fretwire is actually correct (IMO). The flat areas measure between .01" and .02" wide and is very polished. If there is no (tiny) flat area then the contact pressure between the string and the fretwire is very high and the friction is greatly increased. If the flat spot is (much) wider than it can effect intonation.

 

I believe that your statement about the fretwire not being seated is caused by the profile of the fretwire. Unlike most fretwire, this type has a largish radius where the crown meets the fingerboard. This can cause the illusion that the fretwire is not seated correctly.

You can see it best on the center piece of fretwire on this picture.

 

Now, when clipping the tang on the fret end, I could have done better there. A few of the frets are showing a small bit of tang at the fret ends.

[linusâ„¢]

excellent job on this thread, great close up pics.

[normh]

Do some things a little differently.

 

I use a soldering iron to heat the frets while removing them. This helps to prevent chips and will also loosen a glued fret.

 

I radius SS frets to about the same radius of the fretboard. My experience is that if you do not radius SS frets about the same as the fingerboard, the fret will not seat properly because of the stiffness of SS.

 

After seating SS frets, I wick in CA and use a caul to hold for a few minutes.

 

I always round the fret tops after shaping them.

 

Also a Fender type nut come out easiest if tapped out from the side rather than pulled from the top.

[undergod12]

Excellent tutorial. I've considered attempting a refret at some point after having a lot of luck doing fret levelings. How does one get tools modded the way yours are?

[mrbrown49]

 

Excellent tutorial. I've considered attempting a refret at some point after having a lot of luck doing fret levelings. How does one get tools modded the way yours are?

 

 

I used a bench grinder to make mine. Or you can buy them already ground from stewmac or lmii.

[Roy]

wow. excellent tutorial. I'm not going to ever refret my guitars by myself but i still find it interesting and i appreciate the effort it takes to write a tutorial like this. thank you.