Fret leveling and crowning

[rgorke]

Thanks and I now get what you're saying about the sand paper. I have a maple fret board so I am gonna tape the sucker off for the first go round.

[Coot Boy]

Thanks and I now get what you're saying about the sand paper. I have a maple fret board so I am gonna tape the sucker off for the first go round.

Cool, let's here how you go.

[Doug H]

My partscaster is already pretty beat up, sometimes I just wrench the strings out of the way to get the files in there amd fix up a spot lol.

It's worth learning to do yourself. Can take a bit to figure out what you want to be doing, read up on it. Be as careful as the situation demands. I do all my own guitars. I had some toungue rise on a strat that I couldn't get anyone to fix so I had to figure it out to add some drop off to the top bunch of fretts.

[vanhalen5150]

I have the StewMac crown files and the 6 inch leveling file. Take a sharpie and draw a line across the crowns of your frets. A light slide of the leveling file will instantly show you all the high and low points. Same with the crown files. Take a sharpie and put a line across the top. Your see exactly where the crown comes to a point after you've leveled and started to crown. Works perfect evey time and you won't wear your frets down like a rented mules new shoes.

[dirtycooter]

What about Compund radius necks????? I am stumped here. 10.5 at the nut-16 in the top radius. i read some stew-mac on it and Erlewine stuff but still-eeek! makes me weak in the knees to think about F'n it up

[Coot Boy]

What about Compund radius necks????? I am stumped here. 10.5 at the nut-16 in the top radius. i read some stew-mac on it and Erlewine stuff but still-eeek! makes me weak in the knees to think about F'n it up

Not a problem, you just run the file over the frets as usual and keep and eye on the fret tops and keep the black marker ink coming off evenly, you'll be fine. Same with the papers. You don't take much off, it's not like you're running an electric planer over the side of a board.

[dretot]

Mate, you won't need to crown a brand new fret that has just been leveled.

Yes you do. You need to crown after leveling, unless you like a flat top on your frets.

dre

[stef]

Which do you all like the best?

THis one

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... _File.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

or this one?

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... _File.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm leaning toward the first.

I'd try a Double-edge_Fret_File
and yes, crowning after leveling is a must. If it's not possible to crown the frets after leveling (frets are to low for the crowning file) they need to be changed

[rgorke]

Wow, wow, wow

So, I did some dumpster diving at the local kitchen counter place and came up with several options for my "leveler". I used a piece of nice black with sparkles granite 2" x 16" long. I did the leveling and some crowning. The crowning isn't perfect but I think I need to order a good file for that.

I also taped off the whole fret board because I am an amateur.

I was amazed to see how many of the frets were actually lower than the should be. I thought I was just gonna take down a couple of high frets and be done. No, no, no. The whole process is important. I suppose this is why I do things, to learn...

I even lowered the action a significant amount when done.

Thanks for all your help.