smoothing frets ?

[timmyinpajamas]

how do you do it .. my new studio frets arent all that smooth .. anything i can do about it ?

[Ricochet]

Mask the frets with tape and polish it with some 0000 steelwool.

Alternatively you can mask the frets with a metal fret protector available from StewMac I believe.

[timmyinpajamas]

mask off the rosewood and leave the frets exposed to polish it with steel wool ?

[TWANG]

here's a quick hint.. use a magic marker and put a line down the middle of each fret..

this will tell you, as you wear through it, how good a job you're doing at being uniform. And how much you're taking off..

mask the board so you don't scratch the wood..

mask the edges of the frets so you don't scratch the finish at the edge of the board.

mask your pickups off so that tiny particles of metal don't get in or on it.

 

mark it.. smooth it.. judge your pressure and evenness as you go.. by feel and eyeballing it..

 

you can get polishes at stew mac for swirls and such.. and it works nice to really buff the frets out, too..

either the steel wool or the polish, esp. with an electric buffer CAN take off too much.

so, don't.

 

TWANG

[jcwillow777]

Here's a link on how to from another forum with pics, I need to do it to a couple of my guitars too.

 

http://www.agileguitarforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=5453

[Ron G]

I've read in several places that it's safe to use 0000 steel wool to clean/polish the fingerboard,

so is it necessary to mask if using that grade? I've used 0000 steel on lots of things and

it's difficult if not impossibe to do damage with it, except maybe your eyeglasses or a

plexiglass window (you can clean glass with it, however).

[Billybob Dylan]

I've read in several places that it's safe to use 0000 steel wool to clean/polish the fingerboard

I rubbed down the fretboard (and the back of the neck) on my LP Jr. with 0000 steel wool. It was like coating it with Teflon. HUGE difference.

 

Since trying this, I've treated the fretboards on all my guitars with steel wool.

[RotcanX]

You don't have to mask the fretboard before applying steel wool; in fact that's how you get rid of all the black dead skin smegma that builds up eventually on the rosewood. However if the frets are particularly rough you may find it better to start with 320-grit sandpaper before following up with steel wool in which case it's a good idea to mask the fretboard first. Depends on how nice a job you want to do.

[Ron G]

...smegma that builds up eventually on the rosewood

 

What playing technique would one use to cause that???

[timmyinpajamas]

thanks for everyones input

[ef_in_fla]

If you're talking about the fret ends, then a small file is the way to go. That work just takes a lot of patience.

 

If you're talking about the entire fret, then I use some metal polish (blue magic in my case) and a rag and lots of rubbing. Makes them nice and shiny and smooth. Then I oil the rosewood with Dunlop 65 and voila...nice! I try to polish the frets about once a year and treat the fretboard at every string change.

 

If you use steel wool be sure to mask the pickups or you'll get steel bits in them.

[Dave]

I like the magic marker method. It ensures that you only sand off the minimum needed and gives you a visual of where you are in the process. It's paramount that you properly flatten the neck prior to doing the job or you will create a symptom of bow or warp when it's really that the frets were leveled on a fingerboard that wasn't flat to start with. Stewmac sells a tool for that process that is basically a long ruler that has cutouts where the frets are and the straightedge touches only the fingerboard. I guess it would be easy to make one of those out of a common Stanley 24" if you have a grinder and the skill to mark the fret area and grind away the area that you marked 22 times.