What do you use for leveling frets?
- Thread starter Matt300ZXT
- Start date
It's not the kind of thing you have to do often. I would say once in a guitars lifetime, then you would probably refret.
Bardagh
Well-known member
Refret? Sure, but fret leveling/dressing?? That has to be done many times over an instrument’s life, depending on various factors. To me one of the most important reasons to learn this is that oftentimes when you even buy a new guitar, you can discover some unlevel or poorly dressed fret here or there.
Being able to deal with it yourself saves money (in the long run anyway), and to me more importantly time and travel. Yes you have to spend your time doing it, but it doesn’t take that long.
I have to drive almost an hour to the closest truly good dedicated luthier, and they can take anywhere from 2-5 days depending on their workload. I can level, crown, and polish in less time than it would take me to drive there and back once.
I only recently started learning to do this and I started by deciding to put together a relatively cheap partscaster so I wouldn’t be worried about screwing up a more expensive guitar. This also has got me hooked on doing partscasters so you can look at that as a bonus or a liability, depending.
Every time you level frets, you are taking life out of them. Sure you could level every week, if you are a homicidal maniac.Refret? Sure, but fret leveling/dressing?? That has to be done many times over an instrument’s life, depending on various factors. To me one of the most important reasons to learn this is that oftentimes when you even buy a new guitar, you can discover some unlevel or poorly dressed fret here or there.
Being able to deal with it yourself saves money (in the long run anyway), and to me more importantly time and travel. Yes you have to spend your time doing it, but it doesn’t take that long.
I have to drive almost an hour to the closest truly good dedicated luthier, and they can take anywhere from 2-5 days depending on their workload. I can level, crown, and polish in less time than it would take me to drive there and back once.
I only recently started learning to do this and I started by deciding to put together a relatively cheap partscaster so I wouldn’t be worried about screwing up a more expensive guitar. This also has got me hooked on doing partscasters so you can look at that as a bonus or a liability, depending.
But most mortals, don't level that often and the guitar works just fine.
Bardagh
Well-known member
Yes, but it really depends. If you have a guitar or two you play A LOT, depending on your playing style and such you can easily start having some buzzing and intonation issues from wearing out certain frets within a few years or so. If you like lower action with less relief, you will probably run into this more than someone who is fine with just raising action at the bridge and loosening the truss and carrying on. It depends how sensitive you are to these things. Either way, especially on something like jumbo frets, you will be able to level them multiple times with no issue.
I can only imagine needing a refret on a really old guitar that has had the frets leveled to just about nothing or a favorite guitar played by a real musician that sees lots of serious practice and performing hours so they've worn them down and had to have them re-leveled a lot in a relatively short time.
PBGas
Well-known member
The first thing you should do before any levelling is to check to see if the fret has lifted. 8 out 10 times this is the issue. Get a small piece of hardwood and tap the area of the fret that is high with a hammer. Check and recheck with a fret level tool. Make sure you have the strings separated in this area and a good neck support underneath. The less fret material you have to take off the better.
