Fret Polishing

jcm51

jcm51

New member
So I'm going to be changing the strings on my MIM Tele in a few days and I was wondering what I could do to polish the frets up a bit? They play nicely but they're pretty dull looking. The frets on my Ibanez even after more than a year of owning it are still mirror bright and this is a low level MIK Ibanez too. I looked at some more MIM's to see if maybe it was just mine but it seems that they all have fairly unpolished frets. Anyone care to help?
 
Re: Fret Polishing

go get you some 0000 steel wool from walmart. Tear you off a little piece. Polish the frets by balling it up and running it along the length of the fret. That should polish them up nicely. But it's going to leave marks on the fretboard. You can either tape off the fretboard with painters tape, or when your done polishing, get another ball the same size and run longways on the fretboard untill the "scratches" are gone.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

If its Rosewood or Ebony, you do not need to mask off the board at all. Just take 0000 steel wool and go crazy with it. If its maple and its laquered, mask off the board with blue painters tape then polish the frets with Steal wool.

BTW, any hardware store has this steel wool!
 
Re: Fret Polishing

I polish my frets with Brasso. You know, the metal cleaner.

Just be careful not to drop it on the fretboard and there you go. Your frets will look like mirrors. :fingersx:
 
Re: Fret Polishing

I was wondering about this too. I played the Eric Johnson signature strat in 2 tone burst, an absolutely stunning guitar with great playability and felt real solid in my hands and sounded pretty sweet too (that classic 50s feel). I never did much research on this guitar but after I played it, I looked at the unique specs of it and remembered that the frets were really shiny and smooth. I looked at some pics on the internet and they were the shiniest frets I've ever seen and I looked at the specs of the guitar and it said, "highly polished frets." Does this mean that they just used a buffer or something to make them real shiny, or did they just use the steel wool?
 
Re: Fret Polishing

There's no way it's just steel wool. The true mirror shine has to come from a milder abrasive, like brasso. But knowing EJ and his meticulousness, I wouldn't be surprised if they meant that the fretwire was also work hardened.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

frankfalbo said:
There's no way it's just steel wool. The true mirror shine has to come from a milder abrasive, like brasso. But knowing EJ and his meticulousness, I wouldn't be surprised if they meant that the fretwire was also work hardened.
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Steelwool will get them polished enough. If you are very anal I suggest masking off the board after the steel wool and using metal polish! Brasso should be OK but, make sure the board is masked off.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

theodie said:
Steelwool will get them polished enough. If you are very anal I suggest masking off the board after the steel wool and using metal polish! Brasso should be OK but, make sure the board is masked off.
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I always used the mild compound from dremel on a buffing wheel. You wanna talk about a mirror shine. Get the polishing kit. It's great for after recrowning. After the 600 grit, I start with the compounds and work my way up. It's so much faster, and gets the job done better. It's a nice little investment
 
Re: Fret Polishing

Awesome, thanks for all the responses guys.

This is something I've been meaning to do for a loooong time. And I'm glad I can do it now.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

beandip said:
I always used the mild compound from dremel on a buffing wheel. You wanna talk about a mirror shine. Get the polishing kit. It's great for after recrowning. After the 600 grit, I start with the compounds and work my way up. It's so much faster, and gets the job done better. It's a nice little investment
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LOL! You forget what I do on the side as a business. :chairfall :chairfall :chairfall

After crowning with the 300 grit diamond file, I will go through papers all the way up to 2000 grit then I will use 00 steel wool then 0000 steel wool. At that point just a bit of metal polish does the trick if its even needed at all.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

theodie said:
LOL! You forget what I do on the side as a business. :chairfall :chairfall :chairfall

After crowning with the 300 grit diamond file, I will go through papers all the way up to 2000 grit then I will use 00 steel wool then 0000 steel wool. At that point just a bit of metal polish does the trick if its even needed at all.
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I know what you do, I just didnt know if you had tried it. I came upon it by accident. My mom had some jewelry that needed to be polished, so I decided to use the kit on frets. I'm trying to decide new shirts from tshirthell.com or new fret files.
 
Re: Fret Polishing

FWIW you'll be much happier if you take the neck OFF THE GUITAR before you start playing around with steel wool. Either that, or tape some paper over the pickups...

It took more than a month to get rid of all of those little pieces of steel wool that the pickups grabbed hold of after I polished the frets on my MIM Strat the first time :barf:

Chip
 
Re: Fret Polishing

Fresh_Start said:
FWIW you'll be much happier if you take the neck OFF THE GUITAR before you start playing around with steel wool. Either that, or tape some paper over the pickups...

It took more than a month to get rid of all of those little pieces of steel wool that the pickups grabbed hold of after I polished the frets on my MIM Strat the first time :barf:

Chip
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The best way to do it is to take a peice of paper and use blue painters tape to mask off the entire pickup area. If this was not done, the only way to get the steel out of the pickups is to take the magnet out of them!
 
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