Been working on the '60s Sorrento Japanese starter guitar off and on lately. It is the one with a steel reinforced non-adjustable neck that has excessive relief and action height. My first attempt at compression fretting to try and straighten the neck failed since I could not find frets with a tang any wider than the fret slots. So I decided to come at it from a different angle. Ordered some pretty tall frets and redid the fret job. Was not much different in the relief when I finished but it gave me plenty of fret height to work with when leveling them. Once I got the frets leveled, dressed and polished I ended up with 3 thousandths relief without strings instead of 16 thousandths. I am hoping that this combined with some lightweight strings will keep the relief around 10 thousandths when I get it finished.
This has given me the confidence to go back to my original plan of resto-modding it. I will put in the intonation adjustable bridge(located in the right spot, unlike the original), classic string tuners, and a P90 pickup. Turn it into a Japanese Junior, so to speak. The neck is waiting for round 2 of Lemon Oil, and I expect several applications as it is soaking it up like a sponge. More updates later.
This has given me the confidence to go back to my original plan of resto-modding it. I will put in the intonation adjustable bridge(located in the right spot, unlike the original), classic string tuners, and a P90 pickup. Turn it into a Japanese Junior, so to speak. The neck is waiting for round 2 of Lemon Oil, and I expect several applications as it is soaking it up like a sponge. More updates later.
