Setting Up an Electric Guitar : How to Re-Crown Guitar Frets

[guitarslim56]

Steel wool???!!! You should never let that stuff get close to your guitar!

[azfryguy]

HaHa at

0:46

0:58

1:03

1:07

He puts these nicks into the fingerboard

[WreckSauce1]

what kind of money do shops or luthiers charge for refretting?

[guitarslim56]

@WreckSauce1 Lots. More than what your guitar is worth.

[WreckSauce1]

hmm



[RafaelMelo74]

masking the fretboard does not mean a correct fret job as not doing don't points to a poor job. maybe the neck will be sprayed after the fret job as warmoth does.

[REX05011]

i wonder if not recrowning a fret will lead to more fret buzz

[marycockburn1]

WHAT I DONT UNDERSTAND IS WHY YOUTUBE ALOW IDIOTS LIKE THIS LOON TO BE ALOWD TO SHOW US HOW TO DISTROY OUR GUITARS.

THANK GOD US GUITARS WHO HAVE A BRAIN KNOW THAT THIS GUY IS A COMPLETE MORON. SADLY FOR SOMEONE WHOS NEVER TOUCHED A GUITAR WOULD FALL FOR HIS COMPLETE BULLSHIT AND FUCK UP THERE  GUITAR

[MrMemag]

@marycockburn1 Hey it's called freedom! Don't like it , skip it.

Learn to write. 

[marycockburn1]

@MrMemag hahaha great you take your guitar to this idiot and then see how it plays once its returned  lol

[MrMemag]

@marycockburn1 Not nice to call people you don't know idiots.Fell free to make your own fret video.

Frets don't make much of a difference when you suck at playing, eh? Aye.

Also, it's disheartening to see an old man use modern illiterate approach to speak his mind.

LOL = gullible idiot

[marycockburn1]

look let me ask you this one question do you play guitar?

enough with the name calling  and insults i will hold my hands up to you and apologise ok but just tell me do you play??

[MrMemag]

@marycockburn1 Yes, I do.

The guy might not be the best (nor the worst) luthier, but after reading several comments

I figured this man doesn't deserve such bashing.

I know he would do better fret job than most of you know-it-all experts.

After all, no one forces you to do your work with this man.

[marycockburn1]

@MrMemag faire coment but fact is mate he is giving false info . i agree  people shouldnt attack so badly ive played guitar 27 years i ad mit im not the best and dont claim i am . this guy is not doing the job correctly i showed this video and many of his other to my gtr tech and he was shocked at what he saw if you play you will know that setting up a guitar is not done this way

[Benjiinsanity]

@MrMemag Well said far to many head up own arse know it all twats commenting on this vid. I'm sure the guy in this vid wouldn't tell these people how to cook fries at McCdonalds so I don't know why they're telling this guy how to do his job.

[natfunk71]

I wish I could BLOCK all videos by Asshat Village.

[MalchikBlue]

0:56 scratch number one. Tape, you asshole, tape.

[19army56]

A little tape goes a long way!!!!!!

[MrKennethcochrane]

does expert village purposely make horrible videos?

[Harthual]

I just created a youtube account to type this message. This guy is brutal. I hope nobody ever damages their instrument with his poorly executed techniques. Brutal. I am upset that I saw this.

[woodyj888]

How many times does this guy knock the fretboard with the file!!!!!? No way in hell i'd send my guitar to you, sir! Bugger that. Just go to StewMac and buy your own fret crowning file!

[melconw]

In all the videos this guy posts he bashes the heck out of them. Thank God he uses tape on occasion. I would never EVER put any of my guitars in his hands.

[joelbyrne]

He keeps hitting the board every time he begins filing

[super0spaz]

He does instruct taping of board in another video, not sure why he is not doing it here. He is certainly not an idiot though...

[melconw]

@super0spaz I think anyone who bashes a guitar as carelessly as he does is certainly absent of consideration.

[bianchiniman]

im not trying to argue this is a ligit question, wouldnt masking tape leave your fretboard sticky?

[melconw]

@bianchiniman Most paper masking tape leves very little if any residue. However, its good practice to clean up with a solvent just to be certain.

[fattirevsbud]

How much do you pay for a Lev/crown fret+set up? I got charged $80 was wondering if it's a good price

thanx

[melconw]

@fattirevsbud The fret crowning file this guy uses costs under $40 and you can get one at stewmac.com. They are every pro's source when it comes to guitar building tools. I prefer the fret dressing files that stew mac sells and they cost under $20. Its not that I'm cheap as much as I prefer to have more control when I'm crowning my frets.

[TheMadMusicMan]

I wouldn't quite say this guy is an idiot, he does know quite a bit about the process of fret dressing. However it is not wise to go without masking tape on the board, you will only risk damaging the fret board with nicks and dents, and also getting peices of metal and steelwool in the wood. In his other video, he does use masking tape however.

[MrRoestie]

This video is about learning how to recrown frets - not about doing it like a pro-

fessional with 30 years of experience. But it's right, I used masking tape, too.

[Ganamaha1]

i have a brand new 3500 $ guitar would anyone reccomend it to me to lower the frets bcause for me they are too high

[randomslagger24]

Yeah cos everyone has a fret recrowning file ..........

[TheMadMusicMan]

If you don't then don't start leveling. They're not very expensive. I bought a good one on eBay for super cheap, cheaper than Stewart McDonald and it works just as good.

[kubotamanju]

Yup, I followed the instructions w/o reading the blogs and did not use masking tape on the fretboard. It got scratched and discolored.

[RobbRR1]

this guy....

[infernaltyrant]

nice inlay(s)

[betteroffshred]

I wouldn't let this guy change the strings on my guitar!!! I saw this entire series and he never adjusts the truss rod on the neck to be sure it's totally flat due to lack of string tension. He just randomly tensions one string and checks for fret buzz. Completely inaccurate and totally inept.

[squeadlieshero]

hopefully he set it up and figured out that the one fret was too high and then made the video like this too cut down on time of the video, so it would be a short video. hopefully!!!!!

[believin13]

he's my dad & i'm tell'em wut u said. heheheee

[mr339]

this guy is an utter idiot. If you don't put masking tape over the wood you will risk damaging fretboard & also tiny metal filings will get into grain of wood.

[murrmac]

I agree that this guy is in fact an utter idiot, but the use of masking tape to protect the fretboard is a bit of a myth which has spread throughout the guitar repair world.

On an electric guitar, you should make certain that you tape off the pickups to prevent contamination from the filings but taping off the fingerboard is a bit of a pointless exercise. If you screw up with a file, masking tape ain't going to protect the wood, what you need to do is use a fret guard at each fret..

[murrmac]

Also, any filings on the fretboard can be totally removed using a vacuum cleaner and a brush.

Spanish luthiers don't ever use masking tape to protect the fretboard when they are working on a classic guitar.

[FletcherHabit]

@murrmac Hey can you tell me if a fret recrowning file is absolutely necessary? If for instance someone is patient and good with tools couldnt a regular flat file work ok?

[murrmac]

@FletcherHabit . absolutely right, you don't need a fret recrowning file, and in fact I class fret recrowning files along with radius sanding blocks as totally unnecessary tools, designed to part luthiers from their hard-earned money.

that said, a regular flat file wouldn't be the best tool for the job (although you could do it at a pinch), what you want is a triangular file (properly called a "three-square" for some unknown reason), with the edges ground smooth.

[Hoopermazing]

@murrmac ...unnecessary for a pro who is like Picasso with a three corner file. A regular Joe would be better off with radiused blocks and a crowning file, IMO.

[ARXHMalakas]

me thinking the same

[thehornypuppy]

@mr339 So what? I do that to my guitar like THAT. And it's not like you can't be careful with your own intrument.

[melconw]

@mr339 Clearly, you can see the scratch he creates on that first blow. Thank God for steel wool. I have slipped before, and that's why I usually tape the whole fretboard or at least the area I'm about to work on prior to filing or any other type of potentially damaging work. It is far better to spend more time and sacrifice a roll of masking tape, than to dent or scratch a fretboard.

[allexcosta]

@mr339: True about the tiny metal filings, but if you make a mistake the file will eat the fretboard, be it masked or not...

[TUUK2006]

@mr339 Masking tape is useless against a file.

[revolutionday1]

I paid something like $45 to have this done on my guitar, and I'm pretty sure that I got hosed :-(

[rudoman22]

$45 is really cheap for this kind of job to be done, did it end up good?

[chakolo]

woah, u don't wanna scratch your delicate fretboard by not putting the tapes on it

[offdtop]

Where can you get a "fret" fil?

[neothomist1275]

You may want to use a 3 corner file instead of a crowning file...they're cheaper.

[Kimoram]

If you're new to this you might want to tape off the fretboard on either side of the fret to avoid any...'mistakes' when handeling the file.

[guitarparty]

definitely. also when using steel wool why would you not use masking tape to protect the fretboard?

[guitarristaeluli]

thanks fo the help expertvillage!

[sweedy212]

awsome