Fretwork in my opinion is an art !!! It takes time, a good eye, patience and skill.
In the sample pics below you can see how a really damaged fretboard can look and how it can be repaired to new. At
Rocket we can do everything from checking individual frets for height differences (thus fixing buzzing), fret levelling and
crowning, removing old frets that are too far gone and replacing with nice new ones. We always check the size and
replace with the same (or slightly bigger if required). It also depends on what your preference is. Fretwork is a technical
process that should only be done by a Guitar tech who has experience.
Many guitars come to me that have been re-fretted
but by the wrong people with some with frets like train tracks.
Remember fret conditions are an important part
of a guitar, it can be the difference from an average / poor guitar to being the most comfortable with great playablilty
and tone.
This 1956 Guitar was basically ruined because not only the frets were shot, someone
had routed down into the rosewood to lay the frets in.
this is the pic of fingerboard once the frets were removed.
| Damaged Fretboard |
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| these frets were routed in below the wood |
| The Levelling of the rosewood, dots to be removed |
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| New Frets are in and are being levelled |
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| The last of the levelling before being Crowned |
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| New Frets !!! Big Difference from the first pic. |
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Yamaha Finger board and frets ? before
Yamaha Fingerboard and Frets after !!
This beautiful Gretsch even though an expensive guitar had some major highpoints
and irregular levels throughout the fretboard.
Thus needing a fairly heavy level. Strings are removed and the truss
rod adjusted to ensure the neck is dead straight. Then on to the process.
| Measuring and marking the highpoints on the frets |
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| Ready to level with the correct radius block |
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| Rechecking levels after first sanding |
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| Rechecked & marked, ready for the second level. |
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| Sanding down for the third time, |
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| Once level and checked, time for crowning |
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| Polishing, the final stage |
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| Perfect levelling, crowning and polishing |
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This Rickenbacker 4001v63 Bass was refretted as part of a renovation, however the rebuild
started because of a nasty hump at the 2/3 fret. So the bass was taken back to wood, strip and rebuilt including
a full radius sand and level of the fingerboard, Re-fretted and finished. ( this guitar also features in the renovation section
of this website)
| Zero Fret added with extra wood |
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| Frets finished (Zero to go) then the satin finish |
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Just another Refret this time a Maton
| Frets removed and ready for the new ones |
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| Finished and ready to play |
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Just one more example
| Nearly finished just 2 or 3 frets to go |
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| Filing the angle to a nice bevel |
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| Finished with a new custom bone Nut |
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| Fret pressing a maple Fender Neck |
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