How can you teach yourself fret dressing & setup?

blakejcan

Well-known member
I've been making my own guitar bodies and buying Warmoth necks. I can make the bodies, do the electronics and most of the heavy lifting except the last little bits of fine tuning. It kind of kills me cause I take it to my local guitar shop and they do great work........but it's about $200 plus bucks for this last little bit. All the other things I was able to teach myself through online research, youtube and a bit of trial & error.

Anyone know of any amazing resources for fret dressing & setup?
 
I started by getting the tools I needed, watching a few videos from different sources to see their techniques, then went to work on a cheap guitar I have here. I recently leveled, crowned and polished my recent Warmoth build and it plays so much smoother. With patience and taking my time, I was able to get those frets mirror shiny and smooth. I wouldn’t say I’m a pro at it but I feel better about being able to do it now.
 
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I agree, watch some vids, esp Dan Erlwine. The key is patience and a soft hand. It is so easy to do too much with a file in your hand when just a little bit will do. The main element in fretwork is just experience...do it, then do it some more. It's not hard and it's not mysterious, just take it a small step at a time. You can become a pro in no time. And saving $200 a pop could mean that even if you screw up really, really badly to the point of ruining your first go at it and need to replace a neck (which will probably NOT happen), you're still ahead of the game.
 
Honestly, the best way is to have someone you trust teach you. But both of Dan's books 'How to Make an Electric Guitar Play Great' and 'Guitar Player Repair Guide' are must-haves for every player.
 
Agree with what has been said so far – I did the same kind of thing: beater guitar which needed a level/recrown, brought it back to good form. Taking it slow and constantly checking progress will ensure a good outcome. Using finer sandpaper which takes off less material in a pass is also good when starting out, especially for the initial level if you're worried about taking off too much.
 
Good stuff here. Thank you.

I have the books. I can watch videos. I got the basic tools from Stewmac. I just need a patient to operate on at this point.
 
The mechanics of it isn't hard.....I mean you are just making the fret tops level all the way along. Its a fairly straightforward process that just needs a little patience and some practice.
There are some fairly specialist tools required though. And ones that it is important not to skimp on in terms of quality....as you really are trying for micron accuracy.

After that the setup issues are all about knowing what adjustment does what effect, and knowing how to get to a desired result (as well as knowing what that is for you). This comes through experience. Sometimes that experience also tells you when not to go to extremes of low action for certain guitars.
 
You *really* need to understand truss rod adjustment.

I have done all of my guitars at least once, and the guitars with straight necks that don't have any problems, are really easy to turn great results. If a neck has an "issue", usually best thing would be to plane and refret, but if the frets have enough meat you can make an educated guess about how to address it.

The mechanics of the job are really easy, but the analysis can be more challenging, especially if its a problem neck. For instance, I have one guitar that had a bit of twist below fifth fret, causing fret buzzing on treble strings when truss/action set how I expect. Guitar played well everywhere except for those lower frets. To address this, I had to take more material than I wanted from those lower frets. A process of measuring, leveling, testing (repeat)

Guitar plays great now without any buzz, but those lower frets are closer to medium in height (which is not an issue because I dont bend/vibrato there often). Best practice would have been to remove frets, plane board and refret, but I was able to make some educated decisions to work around the problem. I figured the guitar already had a problem, if I totally screwed it up, nothing lost as I would plane and refret. A plek machine would have been able to do what I did without taking as much material.

The point is that the job is actually quite easy and reproducable IF there aren't any problems with the neck. Unfortunately the howto videos don't speak much to the analysis of a neck and how to address issues. You have to use your powers of intellect to figure out what to do, and you won't know that until you have previously planed some "no problem" necks.
 
this feels right. I think the work itself seems do-able with practice but being able to do diagnose what needs to be done when & how much would be a bit harder
 
I bias my own amps but glad to pay a Pro to do the heavy lifting. I do alot of other work on my guitars / amps / gear as well.
Same with fretwork im sure over time i could do it but gladly pay a seasoned Pro
 
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