Acme Guitar Works - Fender® Options - Fret Level

Explanation of the fret-leveling process as performed by Acme Guitar Works

Category:

Music

Tags:

• frets
• fret
• level
• acme
• guitar
• works

[matt301273]

Hi. Great information. Thanks. Presumably though, if one fret was really low, it would be better to replace rather than rubbing all the others down to that level right? Also, I guess there is a level below which you can't go and in that case the frets must be replaced right? Finally, do you recommend doing this on brand new budget guitars like my Epiphone Dot?

[AcmeGuitarWorks]

@matt301273 You're correct, though it would be very unusual to have one fret that was significantly lower than all the rest. But certainly sometimes there's enough fret wear to warrant replacing the frets, which will then need to be leveled (you'll nearly always benefit from leveling newly-installed frets). We shy away from individual fret replacement; we feel it's better to replace them all so that the foundation (fretboard) can be properly prepped. YES YES YES to the Epiphone. Essential!

[AcmeGuitarWorks]

You cannot increase their height, you need to have them replaced.

[SANDS78]

thanks for the info, one addition question-- Is it better to use a flat bar like you have or a sanding level that matches the radius of the neck? I see you have a flat bar with a strat neck which is probably 9.5 or so, correct?

[AcmeGuitarWorks]

@SANDS78 Radiused bar would be great, but A) it needs to be level, meaning accurately machined; and B) you'd need one for each radius you'll encounter, which would be expensive. There are wood and plastic radiused blocks on the market, but wood isn't to be trusted as temp/humidity fluctuations will affect its straightness as surely as they affect a guitar neck's straightness.

If you have a source for accurately-machined, dimensionally-stable blocks, 24" or longer, then this would be ideal.

[SingleCoilVoodoo]

Great video...is there a video showing the crowning and polishing?

[AcmeGuitarWorks]

@SingleCoilVoodoo Thanks! No, we didn't do one on crowning/polishing. This one was unplanned, it was spur of the moment, so no thought or planning put into it. Maybe someday we'll do a complete video that covers it all, but this has been done numerous times before by people like Dan Erlewine.

[AcmeGuitarWorks]

@komoru Frankly, we're less concerned with whether people like our production levels, and more concerned with whether they find the information useful.

There was no intention to shoot this video, I was just in the middle of this job and thought "this would be good information to share", so the video was impromptu. It was 6 AM, I was the only one in the shop, so I was cameraman and narrator.

[lidesnowi]

Why not use a radiused fret leveler?

[frogjim]

great video.

[conjering]

Would this method work on a neck with compound radius?

[matt301273]

@AcmeGuitarWorks Hey. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my query there.

[race1717]

ALL my frets are dead. They are all downhill-sloped towards the top strings. I also noticed they are TOO LOW. Any tips on INCREASING the height back again?

[wpeka]

Thanks for sharing that. Much Appreciated.

[gwelliso]

@suroj No, this was a brand new guitar, fresh out of the box.

[suroj]

Looks like a blues player who likes to play in A and E and solos a lot