Does your Guitar not play well? Can’t get the low action you want without the strings buzzing? It could be that you have some uneven frets. It’s a far more common problem than you would think! Likewise if your frets are badly worn then I can file them all down to the lowest point
Before (badly worn)….
The same neck after a fret dress….
So how do I do that…..
The first thing is to make sure the fingerboard is level and tape it up to protect it.
To grind the frets I use a straight beam with sticky back sandpaper. I also mark the fret tops with a marker pen so I can see where the beam is touching and therefore, where the low points are..
This is about half way through the process. You can see the where some frets have had more removed than others (the higher ones) and where the frets are so low they’ve not been touched.
Once everything is reduced to the lowest common point I now need to re-shape the fret tops.
In the diagram above, on the left is the fret before dressing and the middle is after. What I then have to do is to file the squared off shoulders to the red shape on the right.
I do that with a fret crowning file..
This is about half way through the first fret, you can still see the flat top in the middle.
and this is almost done, just a little more to go….
and that’s finished..
Once all the frets have been re-crowned they all need polishing with 4 grades of micromesh cloth to bring back the shine.
All that’s needed is to remove the protective tape, add a little lemon oil, refit a set of strings and carry out a standard 5 point setup..
