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I know - 'take it to a good luthier', but one has to learn at some time, right?

This is my first refret. I'm collecting tools and learning steps to refret the classical fingerboard. (I know to use extreme care at the upper register.) I plan to refret my cheap guitar first, then a mid-80s 664-scale Yairi Alvarez.

The Yairi has very petite frets - 0.75" width, I think they are. They seem to be worn (or filed) so flat over the years that the high E string will barely seat in some places. Which frets to use? I'm thinking - keep to the same as Yairi used unless playability can be improved with a different fret but I don't want to sacrifice too much intonation for playability. I plan to keep the same tang size to prevent any back-bow of the neck. I don't want stainless and I prefer a gold color alloy. (I read that softer alloy gives a warmer tone.) I thought I'd mail a fret to a supplier for them to correctly match the size. Hide glue OK?


Does fret dressing and levelling differ between a rediused, straight (electric) board and the flat, reliefed classical?


Thanks in advance!

If those pictures are your guitar, the frets still have some useful life in them.

What did you mean by "the high E string will barely seat"?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The advantage of refretting is it allows you to level the fingerboard. I'd buy a fret saw and medium frets from Stew-Mac and forge ahead. Use the fret saw to clean out the slots and size if necessary. No need for glue although it helps to put a tiny dot of 5 minute epoxy dyed black on the ends of the fret slots since it locks the fret and fills any gap. Frets tend to come out easier and with less damage if you heat them first (I use a soldering iron). The whole job takes us about an hour.

Meaning the high E will barely fret at some of the higher frets, especially with a lighter guage string. Several fret ends are raised from the board and generally the guitar is hard to play.

Being classical though, it has relief, or bow, not level as with an electric. Should I just fine sand?

Personally I like Stew Mac #152. It's reasonably robust and I've made dozens of classical guitars with it as well as re-fretting others. As mentioned above, the opportunity to level the fret board will enable you to make a huge difference. Here are some hints that may be helpful:

1. Once your fret board is levelled and the slots cleaned out make sure they are deep enough, especially if you had to sand the board a fair bit to get it level.

2. After the slots are completed, bevel the edges of the tops of the slots with a small 3 corner file. This is necessary to ensure that the frets will seat all the way down.

3. When your putting in frets 1 to 13 you can tap in with a good fret hammer. As you install them, make sure they are well seated and check them all the way across with a short straight edge. Check them 3 at a time ( 1-3, 2-4, 3-5 & so on) If you can rock the straight edge the middle one is high. Some times you have to chase the discrepancy up and down the board.

4. I like to take a little off the fret barbs for frets 14 to 19 so that they will go in easier. There is a great tool available from Stew Mac that facilitates this with great accuracy. http://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?search=Fret%20barber

5. I also like to glue the upper frets in. I use Titebond but hide glue, fish glue will work fine. You could also use epoxy. I tap in frets 14 & 15 and clamp with a caul that spans 13 to 15. When dry, I tap in 16 & 17 and clamp across 15 - 17 and so on.

There are other good ways to do the job of course but this always seems to work well for me.

Thanks - very good advice there. Concerning levelling though, my fretboards on both instruments are not flat; they have relief (lower in the middle.) I understand the three fret at a time procedure, but for the board itself, I still need clarity on this point. Would I not just lightly sand it to clean the surface?


About glue, I know many luthiers are divided about glueing frets - some prefering to not glue, some not. My guess is that radiused electrics are better glued as there may be a little spring tension left in a curved fret, and with heat, cold, expansion and contraction, the ends could lift. The flat classical frets I imagine are less prone to this although I've seen it many times. I still feel that a dab of hide glue cannot hurt plus it has the benefit of easily returning to liquid form when heated, so subsequent refrets are made easier. I honestly can't see why superglue is so popular as a fret glue. Are frets under such enormous pressure that they must be cemented into place with superglue? Surely it must increase chances of chip-out when pulling frets.

Regarding frets being under pressure - Nope, not at all..... Fret wire can be radiused to match what it's going in.

Regarding CA increasing chipout when "pulling...." frets - also not at all..... Frets should be "lifted" gently using both heat and the tools as designed relying on the bevel in the jaws of nippers to gently lift the fret when the jaws are closed. "Pulling"... is a great way to chip the board all to hell where lifting and using the tool as engineered need not chip out at all. Water can be helpful too when "lifting" frets especially with chip prone old ebony boards.

Two advantages of CA IME are first there is no waiting with a fret clamped in place for the glue to set as there is with all other glue choices. Some may not clamp but I recommend it. Next with quality thin CA for lack of a better word the thin CA tends to "stratify" the fret slot, not fill it, it wicks into the wood in the slot not only helping to prevent chip out.... the opposite of your suspicion, but IME makes refrets WAY easier then when someone used ep*xy..... A CA glued fret does not result in the slot being filled with old glue, the glue mostly wicks into the wood.

Fret work is an art in and of itself. Prep is super important as with many things.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

If you want a gold colored wire and a very high quality wire Jescar EVO is my preference. Great stuff.

Regarding hearing a difference in fret wire we have been doing experiments with this. Some hear a difference, some don't and some say they do but actually can't.... I'm one of the ones who says I hear a difference but actually can't....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Relief can be added in several ways. Probably the most common is to level the fingerboard then carefully scrape the relief in. Usually there's more relief on the bass side. The amount of relief is up to you as some guitars need more than others. Some people add relief when filing the frets, others let the neck spring (warp) slightly for relief. I like the spring method but it's best done when the guitar is being built rather than on a refret and it requires some experience.

Thanks to all. Out the window goes my 'spring theory'. I see what you mean about CA glue. For nostalgia and other irrational reasons, I'll go with hide glue. Just a crazy 'old-school' luddite kind of thing.

EVO gold does look good. I've always liked the classy look of gold frets - really dresses up a guitar IMO.

As for neck relief, the builder put it there, it works, I'm a newbie, I'll not mess with it.

I forgot to mention another common method of adding relief. You spring the neck backward in a jig putting an arch in the fingerboard and sand it flat. When you release the neck from the jig you have relief. It's a good way to do it but again requires experience.

I did that on one guitar and it worked really slick. Clamped the body down and added about 5 pounds of weight hanging down from the head stock then used my machined straight edge sanding bar to level the fret board. Removed the weight and there was the relief. The beauty is you can then repeat that process if you need to level the frets.

Although that worked well, since then, I've just made the boards dead flat with no relief other than what stringing up provides and I've had no problem with buzzes.

Mike