usually a couple of sizes bigger than what you’re using on the rest of the fretboard If everything was done properly the bar will lightly kiss the top of all the frets. Once the neck has been removed, we make sure that the neck is as perfectly straight as possible. Now that the height of all the frets is uneven due to the frets being worn down, the player will start to notice his guitar buzzing excessively, poor tone from the guitar, and the intonation of their playing will be off. The frets are re-crowned using a fret crowning file and then polished to a mirror-smooth surface. Each and every fret has to be accurately crowned for the best playability. You can use it with the strings on or off, and the precision-ground surface is dead flat to quickly and accurately to get frets level. Now this guitar plays, feels, and sounds better than it has in years. I have applied black marker to the tops of the frets to demonstrate the leveling process. If any of these problems sound familiar, you may be a candidate for a fret dress, which is the process of leveling and reshaping the frets on a guitar so they have an even height and shape all the way up and down the fretboard. Smooth, non-marring edges glide on the fingerboard while the fine-toothed sides deburr and round the fret. A fret dress won't make your frets feel any taller. The fret dress was a little heavier than I first expected due to the fret wear string marks being so deep. Fret Dress. Proceed with normal fret dress procedure starting with 220 grit paper. As you play your guitar, the strings wear down the frets because the strings are made out a harder metal than the frets. For rounding, shaping and deburring. Each side of the tool has a groove with diamond-grit abrasive to shave down the sides of each fret to get the proper crown. Treat yourself and your guitar to the finest craftsmanship available and bring your guitar down to N Stuff Music in Blawnox for all of your guitar maintenance, setup, and repair needs! Joking aside, a fret dress is a process of leveling frets with some type of flat, straight abrasive surface in order to eliminate string buzzing. If you have any questions about fret dresses or any other aspect of guitar repair, give us a call down at the store anytime. This is no place for power tools. Phone Hours | On most modern western fretted instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard.On some historical instruments and non-European instruments, frets are made of pieces of string tied around the neck. Over time, a well played guitar will start to form dents in the frets. This happens because the metal that string manufacturers use to make guitar strings is made from a harder material than what the frets are made out of. The fret on the right still has the flat plateau on the top of the fret. Cosmetic repair options may be available for an additional charge; ask the technician for an estimate. Once the frets have been crowned and the fret edges touched up with the three-corner file, now its time to polish the frets to a smooth, mirror shine. but ive just had a fret dress done on mine with a full setup and it plays much better and keeps in tune longer.it is a much more playable guitar now. Do some notes on your fretboard choke out and go silent immediately after hitting the string? Also, for those gigging musicians that play their guitar alot it means the first seven frets will take much longer to wear down, reducing the frequency of refretting. The whole process is kind of like a manicure for the frets, and every bit worth it. How to File Sharp Fret Ends I can always tell when we’ve had a cold winter by the guitars that come into my shop. Fret Dress Because the intonation of your guitar is based upon the crown of your frets, flat spots and divots can cause your guitar to play out of tune. The steel will get worn down over time from the file. Unfortunately, there were many dead notes. 3 Ways to Make Your Acoustic Guitar Sound Better, PRS Private Stock Wants to Build Your Dream Guitar, What Is Tube Amp Biasing? Low humidity can cause fret sprout. This will allow the player to get the best tone, comfortable playability, and dead-on intonation. Worn frets often look worse than they really are, as the fret tends to squash out sideways rather than wear away. Happy customers, one piece of gear at a time! The term “fret dress” refers to leveling and reshaping the frets. Wake Up Digital Guitars with Plug-ins – Take a Listen. This software tool makes it possible to set the amount of fret height to be cut as well as adjusting the radius (making it possible to obtain a compound radius within the frets) as well as the amount of “fall-off” on the uppper frets. 1 reply 0. potatojesus JArmandB. A rising tongue at the end of the fretboard. The reason is that my fret crowning file will round off the edges of the fret so that string wear to the side of the fret will disappear leaving just the levelled centre of the fret. Then use small needle files to dress the fret ends. From the tweakiest techniques to the biggest ideas, our experts work hard to constantly supply inSync with a steady stream of helpful, in-depth demos, reviews, how-tos, news, and interviews. Sweetwater Sound This website uses cookies to improve your experience. How It Works, Why You Should Care. With over 28,000 articles and counting, inSync is your FREE resource for breaking news, reviews, demos, interviews, and more. Bevel fret ends with a bevel file or straight file. As you can see, there is a flat plateau area on the top which needs to be ground down to achieve a smooth, round frets with a single point of contact for the string to touch. so my question is : are they really that strong and durable? Each fret must be worked individually with special tools. Fret leveling and refret work requires a setup; refrets include leveling of the fingerboard. When crowning frets we also dress fret ends to provide the best possible feel. I then wick a small amount of water thin superglue underneath the fret to ensure that it stays in place. Guitar fret crowing is the process that shapes a rounded top on your frets. Wondering if people think a good luthier could do a fret dress, if I should pay for a re-fret, or just sell the guitar as is. That is a fretdress. It’s not only well used guitars that can benefit from a fret dress. In the case of newly installed frets (or a fretboard with uneven frets), this means removing more metal from the tops of any high frets in order to bring them to the level of their neighbours. This is when sharp fret ends stick out past your fingerboard and make your guitar uncomfortable to play. Sophie’s aunt wanted to do something to further her niece’s continuing education and eventual career in music therapy. Otherwise, up to now, you are spot on. Today, we are going to “undress” the ever mysterious process of a fret dress or more commonly referred to as a fret level and recrown. The Fret Level + Dress Tool Set includes: Stewmac 9" Fretbar + 2 String Jacks Also sold separately The Fretbar is one of our favorite all-around fret leveling tools. I’ll have to do a significant amount of shaping, sanding, and polishing during the fret dress, so laying down a layer of masking tape over the wood in between each fret ensures that the wood will not accidentally be marred or dented. The first thing a player feels is the fret ends, so always shape them with this file. To learn more about our cookie policy, please visit our Privacy Policy. To get the smoothest, cleanest, mirror-like polish on the frets, we take the neck over to our buffing wheel to take the playability of your guitar neck from good to excellent. I have once again applied black marker to the tops of each fret to clearly show the crowning process. This Suhr electric guitar is on my bench today for a fret dress. A level is the filing of the top of all the frets to a uniform height. Do some notes sound just not quite in tune? A real guru eg his book ‘How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great’ is well worth having for the set up tips alone. Then it will process the frets … This results in the death of a note as the string hits the frets on the upper register and bends. After each fret has been properly and accurately crowned, I use a fine three-corner file with the corners ground down to gently round of the edges of each fret so it feels as comfortable as possible for the player. I use this precision-ground leveling bar with adhesive-backed 220 grit sandpaper on one side of it and carefully proceed to use it to the sand the tops of the frets down evenly, going back and forth and side to side to maintain the proper radius of the fingerboard without sanding any flat spots into the frets. All prices are for non-cosmetic repairs. To start, ask yourself a few questions about your guitar: Is your guitar starting to make unusual buzzing noises when you play it? Exclusive deals, delivered straight to your inbox. #electric #acoustic #beginner. Being music makers ourselves, we love geeking out on all things gear. Can you see dents in the frets underneath where the string hits them when you press down on the string? Having the slight backbow means that we can run a low action whilst also being able to eliminate all buzz. It is basically like taking a file to a chunk of steel. They then “dress” the fret ends using other specialized files, and polish them for smoothly level and uniform feel and a clean, professional look. The Dremmel was a form of laziness on my part. not that im thinking of selling any time soon. Too often guitars (and basses) are re-fretted, when a fret dress would be more appropriate. 5501 U.S. Hwy 30 W, Fort Wayne, IN 46818 This nice Luna ukulele was a thoughtful gift. A guitar’s fretboard can actually shrink in a low-humidity environment, causing the fret ends to protrude slightly on either side of the neck. The strings are slacked and tucked around the back of the neck. When folks crank up the heat during cold weather, it removes moisture from the air. Guitar Fret Polishing. That's just a rule of thumb but at that point, it's harder for me to make a clean note (less "bite" over the fret) and the fretted note starts to hit the taller downstream fret I never "dress" or level frets but I replace worn frets in a partial refret. A fret dress can also be used to correct minor defects in a guitar neck that might otherwise be prohibitively expensive to repair. , Everything you love about Sweetwater in the palm of your hand. A fret dress takes care of these issues. A fret is a raised element on the neck of a stringed instrument.Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. So i bought a new 2018 gibson les paul traditional. To do this, I use a notched straightedge which sits on the fretboard itself so I can accurately adjust the truss rod to the perfect straightness instead of using a standard straightedge and using the uneven frets themselves as a reference for how straight the neck is. How to know if your guitar needs a fret dress/re-crown and how to do it yourself if that answer is yes. Once the virtual fret dress is complete, the instrument is prepped in the cradle for processing. 3, it will cause string rattle and intonation issues. This is a very common problem that is bound to happen during the life of any guitar that gets played regularly. Coil Splitting and Coil Tapping: Is There a Difference? Also, over time and during seasonal changes, the humidity in the environment where a guitar lives may also cause the fretboard wood to swell and contract, which could push frets up and out of the slots that they are seated in. If the frets are tall … Gibson used Plek, a computer-based fret-dressing system invented by a company of the same name. To start, ask yourself a few questions about your guitar: Is your guitar starting to make unusual buzzing noises when fret dress New Luna Ukulele Is Bent Out Of Shape. Fret edge dress $50 Full fret level … With all the frets accurately leveled, precisely crowned, and beautifully polished, we then assemble the guitar, put new strings on, and set her up for the best playability. If the crown is flat, as in Fig. Much like dents and pits, if the fret has a flat crown and is too short, it will need to be replaced. File the sharp corner of the fret ends with a safe-edged flat file or 3-corner file. Frets are cut from fret wire, which is manufactured in lengthy rolls and is usually made of nickel silver, an alloy that doesn’t actually contain any silver. This is a picture of the specialty tool that I use to achieve the right crown on the tops of each frets. In this article I hope to explain the basics of what a fret dress is, the work that goes into completing a good fret dress, and why you may want an experienced guitar technician to perform one on your guitar. 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