Worn frets, pitted fretboard - HERE WE GO!

Leveling is not possible because the pits are too low

She's in pretty bad shape, but there is hope!

Checking the nut's fit

Scoring the area around the nut

A few careful taps and she's free

A 20 watt iron with a concave tip heats the fret...

The fret puller walks it out carefully...

This tool is designed to reach under the fret without chipping the board

Yuck! Sanding and cleaning to come...

The fret board radius is 14" all the way

Checking the fretboard for straightness with a feeler gauge

Resurfacing the fretboard starting with a heavy paper

Back and forth, applying even pressure

Keeping the block parallel is vital at this stage

Notice the low spots from years of wear

Down to the lighter paper now

Every few strokes the board and paper are cleaned up

Feels good? Sure does!

We can work with this.

The Stewart MacDonald Fret Bender

It allows an accurate radius to be bent into the fret wire

The cam can be set against the bearings to create any radius

Overbending to a smaller radius will help the fret tangs grab

A great tool and a real timesaver!!

Clipping the pre-bent wire to length

The over bent radius will seat the frets better

About 1/8" overhang is left on both sides

Careful measurement in advance prevents problems later

All the frets, prepared & stored in order

The fret slots are checked with a feeler gauge

And cleared of glue residue & debris

Lots of grut in there!

This tool is specially designed to scrape out the slots

Care must be taken to avoid running up on the board

This is a scraper, not a knife. We want clean slots - NOT larger ones.

A camfer is added to each slot with a small triangle file

This bevel will help the fret seat flush

The two slots on the left are ready

Before introducing the fret to the board...

The slot is lubricated with distilled water to aid insertion

The ends of the fret are tapped down

Ready to press

The brass insert matches the radius of the board

The fret press allows constant even pressure...

Which seats the fret firmly and evenly

A quick "pull test" to make sure the fret is in solid

On to the next one

A hammer is used over the neck joint, but the press is used for most of the frets

Every fret is clipped off even with the edge

Every 3 frets a precision level is used to find high frets...

And tap them down...

Perfect!

Frets installed - on to finishing

The fret ends were filled and will be filed flush

Knocking down the fret ends

Looking better

Nice little silver mushrooms!

Looking newer all the time.

A notched straightedge is used to check the board

This will sit OVER the frets and measure the board only

Time to clean up the nut slot

The glue residue is removed from the end of the board

This will work fine

Nice and square

Time to level and dress

The fretboard is taped off...

And the frets marked

The radius block and a light paper are used

The blue remains on the low spots

Once the blue is gone, the frets are re-checked

Facets are filed into the fret ends to eliminate sharp edges

A total of four facets on each fret. These will be buffed round later.

This small file gets the tiny barbs at the bottom

The frets are re-crowned with a diamond file

A crowned fret, a crown in progress & a level fret

Notice the facets on the fret end

Another view of the fret end

All done & ready for the nut and strings!

A very pleased Owner! (Mr. Dave Dodge)