fret leveling D.I.Y.(photo bomb)

[robert(original)]

i did one of these a long ass time ago, and i know at least one person benefitted from it(mezz and his mando)
so.. this is the guitar i got bro dealio stylee free from pens.
its an old teisco del ray tulip.
the frets had a decent amount of wear and i had some of my hand tools/files sent up so i could do the jobby wobby.
so, first off, relax the truss rod completely so the neck is straight, if you have a dual way rod you will need to make it straight, and if the neck is warped, you will have to rip out the frets, re-radius, then refret.
anywho, the neck was straight enough so i colored the frets with black sharpie.

then with my trusty stumac file i started running the file along the frets, WITH EVEN PRESSURE!!!! i cannot stress this enough, if you dig into one spot then you are fucking yourself and the guitar. after a min the low spots will appear as the spots that are still black, you will need to file them all EVENLY until all the black, or at least 90% is gone.

a few of these frets were rather fucked and i really wasn't sure if they were worth saving at one point. but one thing i noticed is that the originaly fretting on this was superb, they did blind fret ends and crowned them really really well. i was suprised. very good stuff.

once they were all leveled i got my trusty stemac grooved medium.jumbo fret file for re-crowning, sometimes this is an uneeded step, but in this case i felt it was most deffinitly needed since i had filed them SOOO LLLOOOWWW.

once they have all been crowned again, it was time to break out the 1,000 grit sandpaper and start polishing those bitches back up. this is needed if you are bending alot and shite. otherwise the frets will have a raw feel and will sometimes get "caught" on a string if there is any sort of burring going on from the file.

about an hour later i had them all leveled, crowned, and polished.

im sorry for the crap pics. my phone isn't the best camera in the world.
i would honestly recommend this to any "main" guitar you have after about a year or so of regular use. most techs/luthiers will charge 20-60 bucks depending on how much is really needed, and some cocksuckers that think they are the bees knees will charge more than 100 bucks, they are fucks and aren't doing anything more special.
i also encourage anyone and everyone to try this out on thier own, try a shitty neck first and PAY ATTENTION to detail. any fucker with 2 hours to kill and some common sense should be able to figure it out.
if this wasn't helpful, fuck you. if it was. fuck you.

[Pens]

Damn, looks nice. I will need to do some of this myself soon so thanks for the post, I am a moron and didn't change the strings on my Martin for a while, and there are some fucking grooves in the first two frets from the high E and B strings. It's a MARTIN so it's actually worth doing the work on, but I can't mail it off anywhere so I'm stuck doing it myself.

What file from Stewmac? Do I have to worry about radius or anything with a fret level?

[robert(original)]

generally with an older guitar like this, or after a couple levelings i will run the radius block with some low grit paper one it(100 or so ) to make sure the radius is still somewhat there, plus the radius block is like 8 inches, and the file i have is only 5, so its a bit more.... exact.
which stewmac file do you speak of? the grooved re-crowning file? or the fret level file?

[71Smallbox]

How would you do this on a maple fretboard?

[robert(original)]

exactly the same. maple, rosewood, ebony, plastic. whatever.
if its a super high end nice guitar you may want to lay masking tape over the fretboard to ensure you don't accidently cut into it or bang it up somehow, but as long as your not drunk it shouldn't be a problem. with a wood like rosewood usually i will clean it up with mineral spirits and then re-oil it after im completely done with the frets.

[71Smallbox]

Thanks, that sounds like a great idea with the tape.

[robert(original)]

this is a 57 maple neck i did a few years ago, the pics are of better quality and you can see the radius block i have.










and this is when a novice tries to do level thier own frets and turns a 20 dollar job into a 260 dollar job.

[71Smallbox]

That maple neck looks great! What tools are you using exactly? How much do they cost from Stew-Mac?

[robert(original)]

obviously the last pic is of the re-fret i did. dude loved it, and paid me with a smile when i told him the price, altho i did explain beforehand that he could just buy another guitar for cheaper, but he really liked that piece of shit. sooooo.

[61fury]

thanks for that, I'm bookmarking the page.
I'm starting in on old crappy necks. Though I just got a 30 dollar "Marigold" guitar, a nasty little thing, inch thick sunburst body, mile high action , probably destroyed many a budding young guitarists dreams. But I love the head stock and as far as I can tell the neck has few , if any issues with fret buzz/low spots.

[robert(original)]

not much man, really. i just use like three files.
this is the fret leveler, its a beast,
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... Files.html
i got the 6" version
these are the crown files, at 38 bucks a pop they may seem pricey but they have lasted me 7-8 years and i have done probly 200 jobs with each file and they still kick ass.
def paid for themselves after the second job was done.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... _File.html
they have this lil kit that is totally worth the money if you are an entusiest or you are doing a lil shop yourself.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... g_Kit.html
i ended up getting mine in pieces and parts, and a couple of things i modified to mimic the stew mac version. like the fret end clips, i found a pair on sale at menards for like 4 bucks a long ass fucking time ago, and they still work just fine.
and the fret rocker is nice, but in reality its not hard to find something that is mechanically straight to detect low frets n what not.