Repair of Rough Fret Ends
Source: Fret Repair
Rough Fret End Repair:

Tools and Materials Required:
Fret Dressing Tool
Set of Needle Files
Fret File
400 Wet Dry Sand Paper (Silicone Carbide)
0000 Steel Wool

If you have a guitar or are brought a guitar that has rough fret ends – or more likely sharp ends on the frets, the probable cause is the guitar was subjected to a very dry environment.

Run your hand carefully down the ends of the frets. Is it just the crown edges that are sharp, or is the tang of the fret actually sticking out of the fretboard? If the guitar has really severely dried out then both conditions will exist.

Methods of Repair:
If just the crowns are sharp – (and believe me they can get really sharp – enough to slice through your callouses), then it is quite an easy task. Follow these steps:

Remove the strings from the instrument.

Place a cardboard template over the top plate to protect the finish.

Take your Fret End Dressing Tool and run it down each side of the fingerboard using long even pressure strokes.

Test the fret ends. If they are still rough continue to file down the crowns. You can tell if you have done a good job by inspecting the very edge of the fingerboard. You should see a very small chamfer on the edge of the wood, indicating that you have filed past the top surface of the fingerboard with the tool, and this is what we want.

Take a 1/4 sheet of #400 wet/dry sandpaper and fold it over twice. Run that carefully down the entire surface of the fret ends. Try and curl the ends of the paper up so it does not catch of the fret ends. Do this several passes and feel the fret ends with your fingers. This will take the sharpness of the file job and it will smooth things up nicely too.

Finish up with a small wad of 0000 steel wood and buff the fret ends. While you are at it, butt the entire fretboard – it could probably use it. Just buff across grain and parallel with the frets. Give the frets a good buffing too. Finish by making long even strokes up and down the length of the fingerboard. With fine steel wood you can get a really nice shine on the fingerboard

If Fret Tangs Are Sticking Out:
Follow all the above steps to finish up the fret ends. Also, if this is an instrument in which you don’t want to get into a neck refinish job, do the following:

Take a small Flat Needle file and carefully file down the tang. Watch out that you don’t file past the finish on the fingerboard and that you do not tip the file as the edge of the file could dig into the finish. If the neck has a satin finish, a bit of finish coming off won’t be all that noticeable. If this is a very expensive guitar with a glossy lacquer neck finish – be very careful.

Usually there is enough finish on the neck to run the 400 wet/dry sandpaper down the tangs and finish up with the 0000 steel wool. Again if the neck is satin, which most are, you can finish up with some paste wax, buff it out and you are done.

Fret End Dressing File:
This is different than the Fret Dressing File that you can make that we talked about earlier in this article. This would be just a fine small file that you would use to dress up the very edges of the fret where it meets the fingerboard.

I would use this file on a fingerboard with a binding. Because the fret crown cantilevers over the binding without the tang, these little edges can get really sharp. Just take the small needle file and give each corner a few strokes to take off that point.

The other instructions for dressing up the crowns of the frets on an unbound fingerboard can be applied to a fingerboard with binding.

Tip: Some repairmen place a small piece of masking tape on either side of the fret tang to protect the neck finish. This is fine, but it will be hard to file the frets down enough the eliminate the sharpness.

Tags: Fret Repair, guitar repair, how to repair frets, repair of rough frets, rough fret end repair

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Email (required) (not shown)

Website