Official Luthiers Forum!

So I just pulled the frets from an old MIJ Squier Bullet (Tele) Neck that I had laying around and the neck seems to be a little warped. Theres a tutorial that I found that online and someone had the same issue and they said they put the neck under simulated string tension and then sanded the fretboard flat. How do I do this? I assume I need some kind of tool to do this?

Also, what is normal for chipping on fretboard? There are a few chips from the tangs but nothing that goes passed where the fret would cover. Is this normal/okay? Should I fill it?

On another note......the squier is just for practice and the real one I need to work on is a 72' tele and the same tutorial said that the frets were put in from the side and they could pushed out the side. The tutorial was on a 70's strat neck so I'm wondering if I have to do the same to my tele neck or can I just pull them.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

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The 72 neck will need to have the frets pushed out from the side. If you pull them from the top they will chip out the FB really really bad.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I use a form with hooks to tie the body firmly in place then put shims under the head to reach the correct amount of warp before sanding flat. Since it's a solid body you could just clamp the body to your bench and add the neck shims.

It's a good idea when working on guitars with Fender style, removable necks to remove the neck and put the body aside to prevent any accidents. The body is not needed to do great fret work on these style guitars.

I would Suggest Dan E's excellent fretting book from Stew-mac. Fretting is an art to do it well and when you understand the nuances you also have the ability to counter and/or eliminate existing defects.

One example is a guitar with too much relief on the treble side of the neck and too little on the bass side. Exactly what we don't want. A talented Luthier can reverse this defect and make it right during the refretting operation and functionally reverse this during a fret dress although the board will remain off from what we would want.

Consider getting Dan's book? There is a LOT to learn.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

People have varying methods of flattening a fretboard, there is not one right way to do it. My approach (and Paul Reed Smith's) is to loosen the truss rod and aim for making each string path dead level on the neck. Then the tension of the strings should be able to bend the neck to a little needed relief and the truss rod should be able to keep it from having too much relief. The Stewmac approach is interesting and valid also but the string tension simulator gadget is a major investment. To sand the board flat you need a seriously flat tool. I used to use a long plane but I am much happier now with taking a long aluminum level and gluing sandpaper to the flat edge with spray contact cement. As I sandpaper the board I try to only be sanding the board in paths that follow the string paths (don't let the tool wander). How are you going to refinish the board? Putting in frets is a gentle operation on which people have many conflicting ideas. Just don't bang them in with a hammer. I push them in firmly but nonviolently with a hammer that has all the scratches ground off its face. I use glue now, though for years I didn't. The flat sanding tool is what you use for filing the top surface of the frets level once they are installed, though for years I did this with a fine file that was known to be not bent.
You are smart to do this first on a less valuable guitar. After you do it you will be able to make sense out of the great books and forum discussions on the subject. You might even want to get a real piece of junk five dollar guitar to learn what it is you will be dealing with.
Go to the stewmac sight and try to comprehend what the different fretting tools are for. You don't need all (or any) of them to do a good job, but you will start to comprehend what the challenges are. Don't be afraid, even a crummy refretting job will improve the playing of your average factory guitar with five or more years of playing and wood-warping.

It is good that you are going to do your first refret on a Squire, but planning on doing your second on a '72 Tele is really risky.

I agree especially if it belongs to someone else and is an original.
The value of those things has increased greatly.
It may be helpful to look into some research on different techniques between maple or rosewood may help as well.
On a job like that a rosewood board can be much different than the lacquered maple one.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious