In this video I'm re-fretting Larry's lovely old 'Crafted in Japan' Strat. As always I keep any screw-ups IN the video - and in this one I slightly under-radiused the fret wire and discovered this halfway through the process of pressing the frets. I'd got about 8" radius rather than 'tighter than 7.25" which is what would have been ideal - and this was because I did the comparison against the radius gauge while standing up. I should have done it with the wire and the gauge placed on the workbench; OK lesson learned. This video is a good 'live' example of how to change tack when something isn't working out. In this case, I pulled all the frets out that I'd put in and replaced them all with re-bent wire (tighter than 7.25") which suited the fingerboard far, far better. This guitar was also interesting in that the original frets (although the same height and width as the replacement wire I chose) turned out to have had wider fret tangs. This meant that I had to 'nibble' the tangs on my frets to get them to hold properly. By 'nibbles' I mean a small twisting 'bite' on the tang that pulls a tiny burr into it. This increases the width slightly at that part and provides more grip.
The second 'brain off' mistake was funny - the day after the fret pressing I assessed the frets and found one that I didn't like (wasn't seated properly). So I immediately made the decision to a) pull it and replace it and b) to glue it this time with CA glue for immediate grip. You'll enjoy watching me clearly mark up the fret to be pulled with green Frog tape wither side... and then pull out the next fret along :D No time for tears, I just went ahead and replaced both of them!
By the time I'd finished the re-fret I'd come to the conclusion that this fingerboard was in fact finished in a 'fret first and spray over' process which they evidently use at Fender USA and Mexico. But the Japanese use of that process is much tidier and with zero tinted poly running up the sides of the frets. But sure enough, a small area of finish flaked off during the process of applying and removing masking tape while re-crowning, sanding and polishing the new frets.
For this reason, the video ends on me touching up the poly finish on the edge of the fingerboard (including that one flaked patch) and doesn't show me re-stringing the guitar or setting the intonation / tremolo.
14 окт 2024
