I was going to put the old frets back but they are rather worn so I thought I may as well put new ones in.
Clean out the fret slots, although they are already a little deep for the tangs on the new wire.
Bend the fret wire into a curve…
and tap it into place….
and snip the ends off.
The ends are a rough and uneven so they need to be filed off square and level.
and then the edges to a 45 degree angle.
Of course that’s only a rough finish so each fret needs to be finished off individually.
Unfortunately putting frets in by hand it’s impossible to get the tops completely even, so they need to be dressed.
Once they are level, they need to be rounded off again.
and then re-polished with micro-mesh.
There we go ready to bolt back on.
Unfortunately I’ve just realized I’m missing another vital part, the neck plate! I guess I wont finish this today then!
Never mind, keep watching, once the last piece of the jigsaw arrives it should be quite simple.