Fret Removal – Glued In Frets
Source: Fret Repair
Tools and Materials Required:
Reworked Soldering Iron:
Reworked End Nippers:
Guitar Top Protector:
Fret Removal – Glued-In Frets:
There will be many occasions when you will yank on the frets with your fret removal tool and you may wonder how the frets were driven in so tightly? It is more likely that you are looking at a fret repair job where the repair shop used the glued-in fret method of fret repair.
There is not anything wrong with this as I have used this technique many times over the years and have had a great deal of success with it.
The reason that the frets were glued it is probably because this may not be the first fret job this guitar has been through. It also can be the result of the repair shop did not want to run the risk of using slightly heaver tangs on the frets because that can have it’s own set of problems such as backward neck bow or frets that become dislodged over time, causing sharp edges or string buzzing.
If you have determined that the frets are glued in (hopefully not after you removed a fret along with a big chunk of the fretboard 
, Follow the steps below to easily remove them.
Types of Glue:
The type of glue the repair shop used does not really matter here because most any type of glue used for this purpose is heat sensitive and that is the method we will use to remove the frets.
Reworked Soldering Iron:
You should have a soldering iron with a wide tip. This tip is usually made from copper so it is rather soft. You should file a small semi-circular fret groove with a needle file into the center of the tip of the soldering iron. This way the soldering iron will stay on the fret and will not keep sliding off onto the wood fretboard. Here is a good Soldering Iron you could use.
Guitar Preparation:
Fire up your soldering iron and while that is heating up, remove the strings, the nut and possibly the machine heads, if they protrude above the fretboard surface. The reason for this is as you level the fretboard you do not want the tuning machines in the way.
Also, tape the top protector into place to prevent any damage to the guitar top.
Heat Up The Fret:
Start with the soldering iron at one end of the fret and gently work it toward the opposite end of the fret. When you are about half-way down the fret with the soldering iron, slip the reworked end nippers into the already heated fret end. When you squeeze the end nippers together the jaws will be forced beneath the frets, lifting it up slightly above the fretboard surface.
Do NOT lift the fret with the nipper just yet! Slide the nipper over and work it under the next fret section and so on until you are at the end of the fret. By this time, the fret should be rather loose and should come out with little effort.
If you get some chips dislodged (and you will almost always get this), immediately glue them back into their proper places and move on to the next fret.
Next we will discuss the preparation of the fretboard for the fret gluing operation.
Tags: fret job, fret removal glued in frets, Fret Repair, guitar fret job, how to remove frets
