Official Luthiers Forum!

Okay...so now I know why luthiers hire apprentices.

It's so they don't have to do all that cotton pickin fret leveling and crowning and polishing!!!!

I am looking for tips. Tonight I leveled the frets cuz I had a high one on the 12th. Crowned them all over again with hand tools I got from Stewmac. Then I taped...and taped....and taped...and taped. Then I polished and polished and polished. The only thing I didn't mind was the leveling. I got red sharpie on my fingerboard and the subsequent acetone took some of the color out of the board.....

Sure it looks good...feels great...but geeeeeezzzzz

So...tips on making this process faster and easier..and more enjoyable. I am already planning on figuring a way to make my dremel polish them. There has got to be an easier way to put the crown back on.

_________________
There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I feel your pain and hope your query generates many helpful responses. So far, the only dressing I like is served with turkey.

George :-)

_________________
George :-)

The best solution is more painstaking preparation, and practice pressing or hammering the frets. In time, you'll find that a properly surfaced fretboard, and evenly seated frets, need virtually no levelling, and acordingly, very little crowning.

This is what to shoot for!

As Todd said good fret work does take time even for the pros.

And as mentioned a uniform methodology for pressing frets can greatly minimize the need to level them - see Mario's article in GuitarMaker a couple of years ago.

Fret work is a bit like DNA too in that the maker or repair person leaves a signature in how they do the ends etc. And the spectrum of work, from crap to excellence, is very wide with fret work.

If it is taking you a long time relax, it takes me a long time too. Instead I would be more focused on your results and how well you can set-up a guitar. That's the goal - playability.

It sounds and looks to me like you are doing a fine job!

Practice makes perfect. Offer free fret level/buff jobs to all your friends. Eventually, you will get your techniques and process down to a reasonable extent. Takes me about an hour to go from raw frets to a leveled and buffed fret board. But it used to take more like 4 hours when I was first starting out.