Half of a Les Paul refret (part 1)

Jason from The Musician's Den in Evansville, IN demonstrates part of a refret on a '78 Gibson Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty". In part 1, we look at the guitar and talk about what's happened on the job up to this point including dealing with a slightly twisted neck, a loose fingerboard extension, fingerboard leveling, replacing an inlay, and prepping the fret slots for new Dunlop 6100 jumbo fretwire.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Gibson
• Les
• Paul
• Dunlop
• fret
• fretwire
• router
• inlay
• refret
• guitar
• repair
• luthier
• lutherie
• custom
• black
• beauty
• EMG
• The
• Musician's
• Den

[DownSouthable]

Whydo you sand the fret board?

[smbstressfest]

@DownSouthable You typically level a fingerboard during a refret because they're rarely true, and it's much easy to take any high or low spots out of the wood instead of taking it out of the metal after you've fretted the guitar. This guitar had a horrible twisty neck, so the leveling was absolutely required.

[smbstressfest]

@WieselVindiesel Oh I'm sorry, would you like a refund sir?

[smbstressfest]

@MrHeavysteel Most likely the owner of the guitar I'd say, although I don't think would automatically earn somebody the title of "dumbass". Some really dig EMG pickups, others don't. Obviously you're in the second camp.

[DownSouthable]

Haha. I looked up this vidoe becausw im refretting my 1978 Gibson Les Paul as well.

[Haparelli]

Hi Jason.

I've watched your refret series with great interest and appreciation. Thank you for your efforts- it is very refreshing to see the attention to detail that you bring to your work. I'm about to refret my Les Paul and was hoping you might answer a question for me.Should I still apply soldering iron heat to the frets when removing them from a bound fingerboard? If so, are there any precautions I should take to avoid melting the binding? Thanks in anticipation and kind regards.

[smbstressfest]

And to be clear, I'm not saying the guitar definitively IS or IS NOT a real Gibson. I even worked on the guitar and I'll freely admit that I'm not qualified to make that kind of determination. I'm not a historian, or an authenticator, I meerly make guitars play better. My point is that it's foolish to assume that it's even possible you can sit at your computer chair and watch a YouTube video made with a crappy video camera and determine with arbitrary accuracy the authenticity of an old guitar.

[smbstressfest]

@AllThatsRock That is correct on most of the transparent and burst finished models yes. However on opaque finishes and even some of the dark transparents (all the ones I've ever worked on) the pickup routs and cavities are typically sprayed in the same color as the body.

[AllThatsRock]

@smbstressfest im not doubting that you're are good at what you do. the pant thing is bc gibson doesn't tend to paint inside cavities.

[smbstressfest]

@AllThatsRock Ok, now you're in total non sequitur territory. First off, the "hole where the neck pick up goes" is called routing. Secondly, the guitar is painted black. Follow me? So in what way does black paint in the pickup routing cause you to further question the authenticity of the instrument? And more to my point, WHOGAS!? The guitar played horribly when I got it, it played great when the owner got it back. That's all I care about.

[smbstressfest]

@wyldbehel I was a pipefitter until '02.

[AllThatsRock]

@smbstressfest it looks as is the hole where the neck pick up goes is painted black, if so ( unless for some odd reason the owner wanted to make it seem like a fake) that is another indacation that its not a real gibson.