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I managed to make another mistake—this time on the fretboard. I’m using a fret press caul to hammer the frets in, and it generally works really well. However, on one of the frets, I struck it twice quickly and between those two strikes, the caul shifted off the fret without me noticing and ended up marking the fretboard beside it. It really sucks.

At this point, I’m almost ready to just accept it as is, since I can’t see a good way to fix it. I suppose I could remove all the frets and sand the board down, but it’s already on the thin side as it is.

So I’m looking for any smart advice—if anyone thinks this is fixable, I’d really appreciate your input.

you might try to steam it out and finish with with a razor blade. You can make it way better. I do not under stand hammering with a fret caul. Just use a dead blow hammer. I use one with a plastic head I got at a hardware store. Each blow is on a small part of the fret as opposed to spreading the force across the whole fret. Use a press with a caul, otherwise just use the hammer.

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Yes, steaming it will make it much shallower and require much less scraping to make it disappear. Get what you can with the first steam session and let it set for a day, then, do it again. Let it set again for a day before you scrape. If you don’t understand the steaming process, ask again here for details.

Generate the steam with a soldering iron and a wet cloth that you keep re-wetting as needed. That helps you put the steam where it is needed.

Ok thanks, I'll give that a try.


I'm hammering with a fret caul because I didn't have much success in the past by hammering the frets directly even though I have the same kind of plastic head hammer that you have. The fret tends to pop out when hammering at one spot at a time. So I start by hammering both ends with the small hammer to set it in place and then I use the fret caul. This might not be the standard technique but it works well for me. Until I mess it up...

You might want to think about purchasing one of Robbie Obriens online fretting classes. Lots of info. They are both really good and well worth the money if you're in the learning stage of fretting.

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Hard plastic faces tend to locally distort nickel silver fret wire and stretch it. Too-tight/too-loose slots are an issue as well. This can lead to the sort of inability to seat the fret you describe. A few ideas:

- Make sure the slot is correct width and depth... if the barbs on the fretwork does not get a good grip in a too-wide slot slot, the fretwire will just bounce around and distort. If the slot is too tight, the force required to seat can be significant (compression fretting work is an example) and either a press or good hammer work is needed.

- Try a light (5 ounce) dead blow hammer... the discontinued Stanley model was ideal, but McMaster Carr carries a similar, Taiwanese made 5 ounce model (6073A21) for about US$ 27. StewMac also sells a light dead blow hammer with an insert brass face, but at almost $70, it is an expensive option when the soft face is used 99% of the time, with the brass face needed only where severe encouragement is needed. The older model with the brass and hard urethane face is pretty good as well, but wants care due to bounce-back. A three pound bag of lead shot set in an old cotton crew sock provides just the right amount of cushion.

- Setting in 192g hot hide for nickel silver does a decent job of both lubricating the slot and locking in the fret once dry, but really wants well-fitted slots.

Hammering frets is indeed a bit tricky to learn.

I can’t even imagine how many people I’ve trained to do fretting. I won’t even try to do it by text, but…

The hammer is indeed a hammer, but the fret is not a nail. The idea is not to smash the fret into the slot, but to slowly ease it where it needs to go by walking the hammer back and forth along the face of the fret, always making sure the ends are below the center, being very careful not to distort the shape of the fret. So you’re never whacking the fret full force…until it looks fully seated, then you smack it like it owes you money.

Definitely having a bag of birdshot as a backstop is very good.

My favourite hammer, and the only one I seem to be able to use, is an acrylic auto body hammer that I put a crown on with a belt sander.

That said, your current fix is steam and scraping as has been said…

I agree, pull the fret, steam/sand/scrape. I bet you'll be OK.

Just an aside, as a sucker for gadgets I bought an Edwards Fractal fret press a while back. I've used it on several fret jobs. From one to ten it is great, I usually hammer the rest with one of those orange dead blow hammers and shot bag support. I just use bottled hide glue laid in the slot with a 22G hypodermic needle. Never got good with JawsII

I level the fretboard in line with the string runs with the neck on the guitar and the extension bolted down so it compounds the board a little and the Fractal fret press does seem to do a slightly better job than a fixed radius caul.

IMG_1312 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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