Some of the early fretwork I did, especially the first two guitars, turned out to be not quite as good as I thought. I decided to redo them. Worked tonight on the second fret job I did. Several of the online resources including some fairly well respected online luthiers recommend using fretwire that is slightly over radiused. Say 7.5 inch radius if you are going to end up with a 9.5 inch. That did not work so well with me, perhaps because I did not use a fret press to seat them. So, I decided to spend a bit more on tools and bought a cheap Chinese .5 ton arbor press and a good fret wire radius tool. Using bulk fret wire and the tool to cut down on cost and to be able to get the frets to be perfectly radiused before pressing. Set everything up tonight and pressed in all the frets on this Japanese Kingston Telecaster. Worked a charm and all the frets are fully seated. The previous frets were a bit proud in the middle and just would not fully seat. I did sand the fretboard again and chased the slots with a fret slot saw to make sure there was clearance. Sometime over the next 3 days I will dress the edges, level, crown, and polish. Also planning on replacing the original saddles with brass intonating versions. The originals were not the greatest.
Learning new stuff all the time, and the guitar practice has been exposing weaknesses in my early work, which is good. Can't get better until you learn what mistakes you made and find ways to do better. This arbor press is most definitely better. Once I finish this one I will turn to the first guitar I bought and worked on, my Squier Mustang HH. Going to do the frets again and replace the ceramic humbuckers with more traditional Gibson style. I want to add it to the rotation of guitars I am using for my practice learning to play.
Pics of the guitar being worked on tonight and the press setup.
Learning new stuff all the time, and the guitar practice has been exposing weaknesses in my early work, which is good. Can't get better until you learn what mistakes you made and find ways to do better. This arbor press is most definitely better. Once I finish this one I will turn to the first guitar I bought and worked on, my Squier Mustang HH. Going to do the frets again and replace the ceramic humbuckers with more traditional Gibson style. I want to add it to the rotation of guitars I am using for my practice learning to play.
Pics of the guitar being worked on tonight and the press setup.
Yes, I have fret nippers that cut them off very close to the wood and then a fret file that can be setup for different angles to file them flush with the wood. Then you dress, crown and polish them.
