*how to* fret level

[robert(original)]

this is a squire affin p-bass, property of a good friend of mine, im doing it for free cuz i owe him for a favour and the bass needs it done.
anywho.
first thing is first, you need to have a good cup of cold black coffee and some 10 year old menthols that you found at the farm.
those two things will wake you up and keep you alert and focused.
first thing is to take off the strings and make sure the neck is straight as an arrow with not tension on it.
i do this by eyeballing and then taking a ruler and pulling it in the center of the neck to make sure that there is no an insane weeble or wobble.

then i do the same thing but i follow the endge of the fretboard, and the veneer of rosewood.

making sure the neck is a straight is an absolute must, if its arched or bowed and you preform a fret level, the next thing you will be doing is a re-fret.
once i have completed this part i color the frets with a blue sharpie, just the tops(on a higher end guitar i tape off the fretboard)

then i use my handy dandy fret file and i apply an even pressure as i take long strokes up and down the fret tops.
you will start to notice the low spots and the high spots immediatly,
the low spots will still have blue on them and the high points get taken down a bit.

then i use a fret crown to give them back the normal shape, i work them until the raw parts of the top are almost gone, but still visible.
this pic is crap but its the best i could do,
i did the last 3 frets and the rest are untouched.

once i have sufficiently done ALL of the frets i take out my 600 grit sandpaper and begin polishing them up a bit and making them "perty"
generally it is easier to attach this piece of sand paper to radius block and do it that way, but that does flatten them a bit and does not let the fret get the individual atten it needs.

after about an hour of that, i take a dollar bill and do the final polishing.
but now, there is all sorts of metal flakes floating about and the roswood looks dirty as hell.

thats an easy fix tho.
use some mineral spirits to clean it up and once that has evaporated use some good oils or some sort of finish for it(maple does not need this)

put the strings on, and continue with the normal setup, and revert back to the ruler method so that way to can get the right amount of relief.

and presto, a 60 dollar fret job for a 50 dollar bass.
keep in mind this is just a crash course, for different guitar types, wood types and job types this will differ slighty.

[analogsystem]

Thanks! Super helpful for those of us that are slowly progressing beyond the simple "set-up" for our guitars.

[Mike]

Great thread!

[matte30is]

Hey Robert. When you say use the ruler you mean put the strings on and tune it then lay the ruler across the frets to make sure the neck is straight? Not bowed in or out?

[robert(original)]

yeah, since i konw that the frets are level without the tension on the neck when i do put the strings on and the tension increases i basically want to ajust it to the point where it touches ALL of the frets equally, and then give it the right amount of relief.
and i have found that to get it just about perfect, it is best to play it and feel out the instrument.
different truss rods and different scales mean the relief will be met at different points.

[filtercap]

Awesome!! This has always been a mystery.

Almost all my guitars need their frets done. Some of the frets have notches so deep they look like the Grand Canyon, with tiny people river-rafting way down inside, and little Evel Knievels jumping across.

[robert(original)]

well follow your brain and these guidelines, try it out on a crappy one first.
make sure that every step has been completed tho, like i said, if you miss something you could be looking at doing a complete re-fret.
i forgot to mention that in some cases the radius is compromised but not by that much.

[Sloan]

I love these how-to / tutorial threads. They are GREAT!

[filtercap]

Question: In the case of Axblaster McCanyonfrets, if most of the wear is in the first five or seven frets from the nut, and is especially deep in the first three frets from the nut, does it make sense to dress all the frets down to the level of the worst ones .... Or is it best to replace the worst few frets entirely, and then level them in with the others?

[robert(original)]

depends on the frets size.
if they were gibson wide n flats i would level em all.
if they were some insanley tall skinny frets then i may try and replace the affected frets, but the wear would have to so signicant that the guitar is unplayable due to fretbuzz and the only way you can get it to chord is if the action is 1 1/2 inches off the neck at the 12th fret.
it would have to be a severe case indeed.

[More Cowbell]

Awesome Thread. Will READ AGAIN!