I found myself watching a YouTube video on fret levelling about a week ago, and realised that I knew what needed to be done, in what order, and why - from flicking through Dan Erlewine books, reading posts on here, and watching videos. I’ve often thought of investing in the tools and trying it on a couple of cheap Squiers off Gumtree one day. Then I realised that the tools aren’t that expensive… £150 got me a Crimson fret levelling kit and a radiused fret crowning file from Tonetech. I have a few mid-level (MIM Fender, Epiphone) guitars with less than ideal fretwork, so decided to give it a go.
My recently aquired (from ebay) Roadworn Telecaster played well initially but some buzz and rattling had become apparent. I wasn’t convinced about fret rockers but a few minutes with the Crimson fret rocker confirmed that there was a couple of high frets, so off came the neck. There was still a little backbow with the truss rod loosened, but I thought that’s as good as I’m going to get, and some relief will be added once it’s strung up again.
https://i.imgur.com/MICwFrG.jpgI used 320 grit sandpaper on the levelling beam, which seemed quite fine, but ok as I was a bit worried about taking too much off on my first attempt (the Tele had quite tall frets anyway). I stopped when the last of the blue marker pen spots disappeared. The frets looked very flat at this stage. I started crowning with the radiused/grooved fret file but soon felt confident enough to do a bit with the triangular file. They still looked a bit flat but decided to stop in case I took much off. Polished the frets with some wet & dry paper, 3 grades of Crimsom fret rubbers, and finally a polish with Autosol and a Dremel. After taking the tape off, the crowning looked much better - very pleased for a first attempt.
https://i.imgur.com/zIyUgRL.jpg
Comments
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Nice work though, congrats!
(formerly customkits)
My skills only extend to fitting nuts and setups and dowelling holes........
Looks real nice.
I have a Chinese guitar which need a little love.
It has a couple of frets around the 12th -17th frets which make the same note.