Official Luthiers Forum!

My dad,when he passed away,left his electric guitar to me,it needs a complete refret now.Can you please tell me what other tools will I need apart all these:1.fret puller.2.fretting hammer 3.fret leveling file 4.fret end dressing file. 5.fret rocker 6. Fret cutter 7. Double edge fret file wide jumbo,This is an Ltd ESP guitar with a bound fretboard,jumbo frets(the biggest ones).A guy who pretends to be a luthier ruined my friends guitar neck before and is asking 500$ to refret mine.refretting tools+ new pre radiused frets will cost me much much less.Time is no problem to refret this nice guitar on my own.Thank you for your help in advance.

If this guitar is precious to you, I'd advise you to take it to an experienced and competent luthier for a refret. This is not a job for a newbie looking to learn.

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

Welcome to the forum.
I agree with Chris Pile, this is not a job for a nube. Lots of ways to muck it up, especially on a bound neck.

You will need a long (maybe 18") straight sanding beam (or a very straight jointed block of hard wood) to smooth the frets after leveling, working through the grits, before you polish the frets.

An exacto to score down each side of the old fret is optional. A soldering iron with broad tip to heat up the old fret along its length is also optional. THese two tools/ processes are valuable when the frets have been glued in.

You need a tool to clean out the fret slot, exacto could work, a fret saw for bound necks would be better.

You will need a fret nipper tool/ method to nip the tang from both ends where they travel over the binding of the neck, and a means to smooth off the removed tang.

You will want a very small, jewelers triangle file to relieve the sharp edges of the fret slot (lengthwise) so the frets enter the slot easier , and straight.

You will need a method (or tool + tool fixture) to bevel the ends of the frets ~30 degrees inward, toward the center of the fretboard, prior to rounding the ends. You can use your "fret file" if its the kind that is attached to a block. You will have to very careful not to over bevel the ends, or to file away neck finish.

I bet you could remove the neck and send it off to have it refretted by someone more competent.

You might consider buying a bound Ebay neck from China and refretting IT before working on a keepsake.

_________________
Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Not to pile on here but I would strongly recommend against doing your first refret job on a guitar that has value to you. There are a lot of things that go into this that are not inherently obvious without experience. We all fall into the trap of not knowing what we don't know that we don't know. . .

Unless you intend to do a lot of fret jobs in your future, I would recommend spending your tool budget to offset the cost of an experience luthier who will do a good job.

If you do intend to do a lot of fret jobs. Get plenty of practice on less valuable guitars and start to build the feel for what you will need to know and the skills with the tools you aquire.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Can I practice on an old acoustic guitar which I'll never use?

What's the point if you're not going to play it? One guitar is not enough practice.

When I was coming up, I worked on my own guitars for 2 years before I even dared to touch a clients guitar.

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

This is a shredder guitar often with a Floyd and played with 9's (or less...) and as such it's one of the most difficult guitars to fret well. There will be an action expectation for an instrument like this as lower than low and that requires someone with a lot of fretting experience to fret it well.

Additionally the board will need to be leveled very well too first prior to any fretting and it's even advisable on a guitar that will be played as these guitars are to impart relief and fall-away in the board before you even ever get out the fret wire.

Further the inlays on these are very thin (I've refretted them before) and it's advisable if the board leveling requires much material removal to remove the inlays first and then have the ability to remill the inlay pockets for reinstallation.

One more tool, an expensive one that you will need is the ability to undercut the tang for the fret ends since this guitar has a bound board. Also do you have a good guitar vice, fret work requires that the instrument be held rock steady. Vices cost money and the bench screw to make a leg vice (what I use and recommend) cost big bucks too.

Tool wise the expense for a one time attempt at an operation I don't see a lot of difference once you purchase abrasive papers as they are sold and all the other tools and a vice. In fact my quick math has this costing more than $500 for tools worth using and a vice.

With all this said I would advise against it too. This is not a guitar that you can bang em in, use a fret rocker and call it a day. These instruments are played, typically with drop tunings or slack tunings if you will making uber precise fretwork necessary. It's also a guitar that should have stainless frets for two reasons, first shredders are all about speed playing and stainless is glassy smooth and fast and second you don't want to ever have to refret it again....

With all this said $500 is a going rate kind of sort of for quality fret work and perhaps $50 more for stainless. We charge about the same, do not want the job, do not accept shipped in work and are booked on fretwork for most of the year.

If there was ever a guitar and application that benefits from imparting a compound radius in the board and frets this is the one. Are you knowledgable of compound radiuses, relief, precision set-ups with nut slot cutting, setting up for someone who tunes the low E to Low C, using uber light strings (9's) that have less inertia and lash out further making lower action more difficult to obtain rattle free?

All these things and more are required to fret these well and have the fret work enable the guitar to be played to it's potential.

Good fret work takes time to learn and it's not just the physical actions of installation it's knowledge of many of the topics I mentioned such as compound radi, relief, inertia and of course physics to some degree.

Regarding your question about using an acoustic guitar as a mule. There is learning to be had here if you also level the board, impart compound radi but the precision required to fret an acoustic guitar is MUCH less than a shredder guitar acoustic guitars have much higher action typically.

With all this said I would take it to a pro in your area and you may find that the tools AND fret wire do cost nearly as much (or more...) but that nothing costs as much as a ruined instrument.

So look I'm not trying to be negative or unhelpful I'm offering you a realistic view from the Lutherie shop from a professional Luthier who has refretted these guitars prior and knows what the specific and special goals for this kind of instrument are and need to be. It's a hard one, not one to learn on (good for you for wanting to).

Advice here is well intentioned but not always correct. This is largely an acoustic guitar forum if you asked about this guitar on a shredder forum you may find people brining up all the considerations that I brought up. Acoustic guitars are much easier and less demanding to fret and pretty tolerant of unlevel fret planes because of the higher action. Shredders on the other hand separate the pros from everyone else when you need to meet an action spec lower than low with no rattling.

And one last thing, sorry about your loss of your Dad.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

I immigrated to this poop country against my will many years ago.Firstly this is not my country here.I’m not from US btw.Someone who calls himself a luthier and said he did many fret jobs with no proof or confirmation,nor pictures of his ‘refretting ’ results on his Facebook page,I’m asking who will trust a guy like this?services are very limited here.

First, denigrating this country won't win you many friend here.
Second, there are many qualified luthiers in the country. Unfortunately, there are many who overestimate their abilities. Tell us where you're located and I'm sure there are qualified people who would be recommended here.
Third, after Hesh mentioned the unique issues with how this particular neck must be treated, I can't imagine why you would want to take a chance with your treasured axe. Take the time to find someone who is qualified and be prepared to have to wait to have it done. Time that results from being busy would surely indicate that there are a number of clients who think the luthier in question is the only one near who is qualified to touch their instrument.

Sorry all of the respondents so far are in the US and have assumed that you are too, even though it clearly says Mauritius under your name.

If you're telling us that experienced luthiers are not available there, then there are lots of great posts and threads in this forum from which to learn about re-fretting.

I concur with what everyone else has recommended so far: that you get as much practice as you can before attempting to refret any instrument that is precious to you.

For Christ sake! No one has answered my question so far till the beginning,what other tools will I need to order apart what I’ve mentioned ??I set up my own guitar always,someone maybe a genius on refretting but when you play the guitar,you hear fret buzz and choking string bends.is that a luthier?there are many many countries where there are no luthiers in this world,think about it.and I’m living in mauritius,f**k!

Okay - the only tool I suggest you get (besides the ones you mentioned) is a 3 cornered file for radiusing the fret ends. Good luck.

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

Here are the tools I use

Removal - fret puller, pencil soldering iron
Board prep - radius sanding block, modified 0.020 saw for cleaning slot (StewMac tool), slot checking tool made out of a piece of fret wire
Fret prep - radius to slightly smaller than the radius of the board (I made my first radiuser, then bought the SM tool), prepare the ends to fit you binding (I made a simple jig)
Install - plastic faced hammer, arbor press (optional), CA glue, thin feeler blade to make sure the crown is tight on the board
Level - 18 inch beam with 220 and 400 grit sticky back sand paper, shorter beam for spot leveling, magic marker for crowns, some sort of rocker
Crown and dress - 6 inch bastard file, correct sized crowning file, jewelers file or three sided file made safe, draftsman's eraser shield, 400 800, 1200 wet and dry,
Polish - your choice of 0000 steel wool, various compounds and applicators, (I do not use a dremel, I think it gets the fret too hot)

I'm still a newbe at all of this, I've only built 30 guitars and refretted maybe than many more. Most of my boards are bound, I don't do nibs or lacquered fretboards. I have done a little thread that talks about refretting for a different forum, look down to post 20 on the first page

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/basic-setup.952636/

Youtube is your friend or not.

Climb down mate. That kind of rant won’t win you any friends here.

You were given a fairly exhaustive list of tools in the third response to your question. Other responses gave further ideas to think about.

Go do it and let us know how you make out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As an amateur myself, I feel your pain with these responses. My first fret job was done with tools I had in my shop. I used a Dremel with a cut-off wheel and a little homemade jig to undercut the frets. The instruments were my own, banjo ,mandolins and acoustic guitars. I freehand the ends with a regular smooth file without a guide and that works fine for me.i still have less than 10 refrets under my belt but I've done work for friends including a Fender Strat. None of my work would satisfy a shredder but who cares, I don't know any. Worst case, you may have to redo the work. Just ask questions at every step and you should be fine. Unless this guitar is some rare super expensive guitar, I say, get started, it's fun.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!