Refret and reraius of my Dot

[Clint 55]

I did my first refret on my Dot, I probably should have practiced on a wack neck first but the Dot was the only one that really needed it. I changed out the nickel nubs for jumbo stainless steel and redid the radius from 12" to 11". I like the 11, it feels more comfy like a Fender. The hardest part was sanding the fret ends without nicking the finish. It came out pretty well tho and I'll do better next time. I made a new nut also out of corian, which I feel gives the smoothest tone out of the materials I've tried.

 

[ken361]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Love stainless thats great for your first time! so you had all the needed tools huh did it wreck them? total in cost? Did they all level out good when you put them in and no buzzing or nothing?

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

You don't SAND the nubs, you FILE them. StewMac makes a great tool to do this.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

I am a big stainless fan, too. Did you notice any tonal difference when you put it back together?

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

I redid the radius from 12" to 11". I like the 11, it feels more comfy like a Fender.

An 11" radius in a guitar is quite an unusual measure. My old '68 LPC was 10", and I thought that was weird.

What tool/s did you use to accomplish this ungrateful task?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

You don't SAND the nubs, you FILE them. StewMac makes a great tool to do this.

When he says "nubs" he's referring to the old nickel silver frets. "Nubs" meaning they're worn down. "Worn down to nubs" is a common phrase. Aside from that, I know lots of people who use sandpaper on a flat block to treat fret ends. You can't go from file to buff, there's always progressively finer grits of sandpaper involved.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Love stainless thats great for your first time! so you had all the needed tools huh did it wreck them? total in cost? Did they all level out good when you put them in and no buzzing or nothing?

Thanks! The tools and materials totaled about $300. I like accumulating all the tools, and no they're still in good condition. They leveled out just fine, I have gotten good at levels so far. There's one note in the upper register that has less sustain because the fret isn't pressed down fully, but that's about it as far as everything functioning. So I'll be wary next time in pre radiusing the frets correctly and making sure they're flush with the board after I press them in.

You don't SAND the nubs, you FILE them. StewMac makes a great tool to do this.

Yep, I got several files from Stewmac.

I am a big stainless fan, too. Did you notice any tonal difference when you put it back together?

Yes! Stainless sounds more precise and crisp, while nickel sounds more supple. Here's a phone clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CfLZXSBMxE&feature=youtu.be

An 11" radius in a guitar is quite an unusual measure. My old '68 LPC was 10", and I thought that was weird.

What tool/s did you use to accomplish this ungrateful task?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Yes, 11" is unusual. I have tried several 12"s and that's a little too flat for me. My Warmoth neck is 10" and I like that. I chose 11" because it wouldn't take off too much material and because I haven't tried it before and I thought it would work well. I used: fret puller/cutter, 11" radius block, several files including a 30 degree angle file block and a fret leveling file which I used for the fret ends, a fret saw, a fret bending tool, and a fretting hammer.

When he says "nubs" he's referring to the old nickel silver frets. "Nubs" meaning they're worn down. "Worn down to nubs" is a common phrase. Aside from that, I know lots of people who use sandpaper on a flat block to treat fret ends. You can't go from file to buff, there's always progressively finer grits of sandpaper involved.

Yes, this is one thing I learned. To tape off the frets meticulously, and then file them down and then use sandpaper on the files to get them to be smooth, similar to a fret level.

 

[ken361]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

How did you learn to do it? beats paying someone once you have it down and you can do as a side job

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

First I had experience sanding years ago, then my guitar teacher showed me how to level frets in early 2016 and I did several fret jobs on Squiers until I had the system down, then recently I watched a bunch of youtube videos on refretting and thought I could handle it so I went for it.

Yeah it does beat paying someone to do the work, and it's fun. I'd like to be able to tech as a side job.

Edit: cutting off some of the fret tang would have saved me some filing. I'll get em next time!

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

An 11" radius in a guitar is quite an unusual measure. My old '68 LPC was 10", and I thought that was weird.

What tool/s did you use to accomplish this ungrateful task?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

I scratch-built a guitar a couple years ago and I also gave it an 11 inch radius. I bought a fretboard with a 12 inch radius but it felt too flat to me so I just sanded it to 11. It feels awfully nice. I now know I like a 10 inch best, can live with 12, and absolutely hate 14 or flatter.
I used a foam block and a homemade radius gauge.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Very cool. 10 and 11 are my favorite too.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

I find I am not that sensitive to radius as I am to other aspects of the guitar. I grew up playing an old Fender, and now use a flatter radius on Ernie Ball's and a compound one on the Warmoth. It all feels comfortable to me. The neck shape is something I am a lot more sensitive about.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

I find I am not that sensitive to radius as I am to other aspects of the guitar. I grew up playing an old Fender, and now use a flatter radius on Ernie Ball's and a compound one on the Warmoth. It all feels comfortable to me. The neck shape is something I am a lot more sensitive about.

Really? I don't mind different widths or shapes but my fingers hate anything flatter than 12. It just took me until lately to figure out the specific radii that feel "right" to me. I would be curious to try a 7.5 but don't know anybody who has one. (Vintage Fenders, i believe?)

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

I don't even like 12. I would be enraged with 15.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Good on you and great job!

This is next on my hit list.

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Man, in almost fifty years as a guitar player, I simply can not think a single instance where I even thought about the neck radius while playing something.

The only time I look after those things is when I do the setup, as I need to match the bridge's radius with the neck's to allow all notes ring freely all over the fretboard.

The only time something bothered me enough to notice while playing, was on a Yamaha Pacifica. The reason was the neck's width being only 40mm (standard strat is 43mm), so I suddenly found my fingers feeling a bit "claustrophobic", playing some chords on the first position.

HTH,

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Good on you and great job!

This is next on my hit list.

Thanks a lot!

The 3 areas that I can improve on next time on and that I can pass on to you are: using the nippers to get under the whole length of the fret instead of just using the tool for the edge in order to avoid taking chunks out of the wood; using a fret bender to get the radius to match the fretboard so it won't want to come up; and nipping off some of the tang so it doesn't protrude from the side and that way you only have to file the top part of the fret itself with the 30° fret beveler and not have to worry about hitting the wood.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Yeah I hear you Kojack. I play mostly Squier and 9.5 on those is just fine. I got my first custom Warmoth recently and thought may as well get something different so I got 10 and liked it.

I agree on the nut width. One of my affinities is 1 9/16 nut width and that's a lil narrow, but anything wider is good.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

Another refret. This one came out pretty well. No big blemishes, and you can't really tell that it's been taken apart. Redid it to a 10" radius. I would have finished it, but my Graph Tech preslotted nut arrived, and it's hollow. Dag blast it. I knew I should have gotten a slab.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Refret and reraius of my Dot

slaying!