Official Luthiers Forum!

New ELEVATE Tool!

Introducing the ELEVATE Fret Press System. This system easily adapts to 3/4" and 1" ram arbor presses without the need for modification. The wide brass cauls transition between two radii- making it perfect for compound radius fretboards, boards with an unusual radius, and boards with rolled edges.

Get yours today! http://www.ElevateLutherie.com/product/fret-press-system

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
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http://ensorguitars.com

Will "non-transitioning" cauls be available for a single radius? If my all of boards are always accurately machined at 16", I want a caul that doesn't have to be precisely positioned from left to right in order to hit the 16" area on a 14" to 18" caul. I want to know that I will get consistent pressure from one end of the fret to the other, every time.

Chris, can you explain how the cauls transition in radii? Is it a thin section of a cone?

I'd be happy to make you a set of custom, wide, single radius press cauls. You can send me a message on my website if you'd like to explore this more.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Yes, that's a good way to think of it.

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Hey Chris I hope that you are doing great.

Cool offering and I watched the video and have a question or two. Also so that's what you look like

1). First for rolled edges and thanks for bringing this up it rarely has been mentioned on the OLF over the years and rolled edges are an issue, a common issue on older, Kalamazoo Gibsons. I see how the transition from one radius to another will add pressure to the fret ends on a rolled edge but in Gibson land a few degrees of difference is not enough to deal with some of the rolled edges which can be over 10 degrees different than in the middle of the board. With all this said your cool system will work in my world for Gibson rolled edges if I use an over radiused caul and leave a gap in the middle. Now we do this now with our custom caul sets and it works great, pressure is not required in the middle of the fret if the slot has been properly prepared and the slot and wire are a good fit. For the rest of my question to make sense you have read number 2 next:

2). Any plans to offer this as an augmentation to Stew-Mac's Jaws II fret press system. That's what we and many others in the repair world use to press loose frets down and glue them on existing guitars and for refrets of existing guitars? If so what is the ETA?

Lastly and more a commiseration than anything else. We've flirted for years with a continuously variable fret press caul. I suspect that you have too and that's why I'm bringing this up. We have some ideas and Dave has made some prototypes but we could not make it work reliably. I've had a vision of a continuously variable fret press caul that simply conforms to the radius of what it's being pressed into and there is a fluid component to my idea much like hydraulics and the incompressibility of liquid. Might be fun to have a conversation with you and Dave Collins on this subject I see some real genius in what you have done here. Good going!

I've often wondered if one could make a 'sprung' caul that could flex across its length to match whatever the radius of the fretboard is. It would simply flatten as it was pressed to match the fretboard.

Yep that's what I am referring to as a continuously variable radius caul. How nice that would be never having to change it and one size fits all.

No, I don’t have any plans to make that style of fret press system.



I’d be happy to discuss this with you and Dave. Feel free to reach out to me through my website.

_________________
ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com