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Every guitar or bass that is being played needs to be refretted sooner or later. This can be a complicated job that needs experience. Every guitar has it own specific points to take care of during a refret job.
I have many types of Dunlop and Jescar fretwire in stock. I can work with standard nickel-silver fretwire, or I can use modern stainless steel frets. The advantage of stainless is that is will last almost forever and it has a comfortable feel when doing string bends. For stainless frets I have special tools in use. In case a size or material of fretwire is not in stock, I can order many types, so there will always be a solution for your instrument.
At first sight, there is nothing wrong with this almost new guitar. Still the owner decides to let me change the fretwire. The neck of the guitar feels good for him. The standard nickel-silver frets need to be replaced by long-lasting stainless steel frets. Also, the fretboard radius needs to be changed; the round 7,25" radius needs to become flatter 10". With a 7,25" round fretboard, typically the high E string needs a higher action than usual to keep ringing when doing double bends at the higher positions. The owner did not realise this when buying the guitar.
The original frets are carefully removed from the wood. Specially grinded tools are used for this. A soldering iron heats up the fretwire, to let the wood shrink and to break any excisting glue bond. This all is done to damage the fretboard wood as less as possible.
How much the wood damages or how clean the fretslot is after removing the fret depends on each guitar. Sometimes you find nasty surprises, but all is relatively good with this new guitar, as expected.
The owner finds the old fretboard radius too round for his taste. This can be compensated to a flatter radius. Often, the fretboard needs sanding or levelling after removing the frets. Sometimes the wood deforms in time, or the surface is just very rough. A good moment to pay some attention to the wood.
The new fretboard radius. The wood is sanded further untill it is almost polished to get a nice satin like feel.
The frets are first bend to the right radius and then roughly cut to size. The part that sits in the wood, is being cut back a little at the fretboard ends. This is done for guitars with and without fretboard binding. If the fretboard shrinks a bit in time, working the sharp fret ends become much easier.
For stainless steel frets, a fret press is the ideal tool. Using a hammer can be difficult, but needs to be used in some occasions. Not every guitar has a removable neck that fits under the press. I have succesfully placed stainless frets in acoustic instruments for example, by a combination of pressing and hammering. Frets are placed with a dab of hot hide glue. The glue fills up any empty space and protects the end grain of the slots during a future refret. The glue is easily broken with some heath.
After drying for one night, the frets can be finished. The sides and fretends are cut and filed, and the top of the frets are levelled, so all frets are in line with each other. After, the frets are being crowned (get the round profile back) with a special diamond file.
The frets are being further finished by sandpaper in different grits and micro-mesh polish paper.
The new, freshly finished frets in the fretboard. The fretboard is now ready to be finished with some nice wood oil.
