Be careful when you wick the super glue under the fret. I've done it a million times and 1 out of 10 times it will run out the sides of the fret slot if you don't have binding. Then you have a royal mess! Super glue on the back of the neck....you usually don't see it until it's dry unless you are aware.....TAPE OFF THE ENDS OF THE SLOT SO THE GLUE DOESN'T RUN OUT THE END OF THE SLOT.
Super glue will run EVERYWHERE.....thats for sure.The upside for me is that i finish my necks in superglue too so it doesnt really matter but if i get a finished neck and wanna preserve the finish without much issues superglue would not be an option cause you cant reall control it.
One tip I have to add (if anyone actually reads these comments lol), is this: with thick glue like titebond on bound fretboards, don't completely fill the slot or you will be fighting hydraulic pressure to get the fret in, as there's nowhere for the glue to escape. I press 3 blobs in the slot to leave two air gaps.
I kinda disagree. You actually want no voids or air gaps. When you press the fret in, any excess will absolutely come out of the sides of a fret. You can just wipe it off and clamp it down until it sets. Titebond has a great liquid hide glue that works very well to fill in any pockets. Even better about it is that runout is stupid easy to clean off, even if you don't see it for several hours. Warm water will liquify it again and make it easy to wipe away.
@@LeviBulger I was only talking about bound fretboards. I've seen too much glue push off bindings. Also, water based glues will shrink a great deal as they dry, so even a full slot will likely have some small voids. I know a few luthiers who use epoxy to avoid this, and also to avoid moisture going into the fretboard via the endgrain of the slot sides. I've never bothered and find titebond just fine, and much easier for the poor guy down the track who's doing the next fret job!
Worth mentioning I think: Hot hide glue (shown as ‘ground hide glue), though slow and fiddly to work with has two outstanding advantages. Unlike all the others, it contracts as it cools, pulling the joint together, thus improving the contact for transmission of sound. Also, should you ever want to remove the fret, the glue is ‘heat liable’, so it can se softened with the simple application of heat, as with a soldering iron to the top of the fret, for easier fret removal. This will save damage to the fingerboard in a partial or total refret.
This is a very professional tip and worth filing away for future reference, Thanks! It makes sense and it saves future headache. It also fits the motto of the USNAVY SEALS. The 7 P's! Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance! Nice tip!!!😎🎸
thats what i was thinking. Hide glue seems to be the best for fretboard integrity in terms of installing and removing (very important) frets. CA glue seems more efficient for the manufacter but i will prefer to protect my instrument
Your intro music has been bugging me until I finally found what song it reminded me of. It was Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well". I probably haven't heard the song in 40 years but once I remembered the first line Google saved the day. Keep up the great work.
a well presented, informative compilation - thanks! One slight 'nit-pick': the main reason that the CA glue (or other thin glues) flows into the slot is not gravity (although gravity certainly helps a bit) - it is 'capillary action'. Just sayin'...
I'm glad I saw this. I have been using super glue to glue in stainless steel and evo-gold frets, and it just felt good that stew mac does it the same way.
I use ca glue when required by the fret board . A new board has some spring to it while a hundred year old one doesn't. I find it useful to glue and wipe off before removing frets to stabilize wood and prevent chip out. Also I use teflon fret dam material with ca glue and dust to repair damaged fret slots.
good video. gluing frets is Very Important, just pick a method and get it done. it's not about "tone", it's about the stabilized integrity of every fret.
@@obfuscationstation Literally, absolute nonsense. At gigging and recording venues, guitar "tone" is first and foremost and for the very most part, in yer brain and fingers. If it's an acoustic box, it's the wood and its build. If an electric, it's the engines and what they feed onboard and offboard. At low volume levels and with clean playing, a flat amp and no modulation, yes, the electric guitar wood *might* have an effect, but even that can be suspect. Too many good folks have drunk the guitar koolaid about guitar "tone". Some are SURE that nitro finishes add to "good tone" and jumbo frets and big strings enhance "output". What rubbish. But, it's easy to see why people can be easily fooled, not their fault at all.
@@rfdsrd You’re talking about an issue which is subjective. You can’t ‘prove’ tone. Somebody else’s opinion and experience is not ignorance. But your insistence that only your answer is correct is arrogance. And your attitude compounds that. When it comes to the creative part of guitar playing, which is the realm you are in when you talk about gigs and recording, the sound, tone, feel of the guitar and amp is part of the feedback loop that either inspires the player or stops him getting in the zone. Every player has their own set of collective experiences which form their opinion about tone. I can assure you that you are not ‘right’. There is no ‘right’. It’s subjective. With all the variables that make up ‘tone’, you think you have the one and only answer? Try developing a bit of humility.
I've used all of these methods but the epoxy and for me titebond works the best, I've never had to clamp the frets overnight but everyones experiences are different, also it could be that I'm a builder not a repair guy so maybe on frets that are being replaced the slot is a little bigger so they need to be clamped. I don't use that much glue either just enough to help guid the frets in and fill any voids.
I used to glue frets when they didn't seat tight. Then I bought Stewie Macs fret crimpers. What a wonderful tool. Now you tell me I should glue frets to. I have a build coming up, I will try it.
Doing my first stainless steel frets, and I'm setting them with epoxy. Hopefully they will stay put forever and never need to be replaced (well, at least not for many, many years). Even mixed some super fine fretboard dust into the epoxy, to fill out the fret slot gaps in the sides. Looks perfect so far. You can barely see there ever was a slot under the tang. Thank you for making these videos. They are a great resource, and a great inspiration.
With our deep shrink and swell cycles here in New England, glued frets should be mandatory. All builders and repairiers should take into consideration that their fretted instruments may end up in a brutal climate and suffer from some serious shrinkage.
I personally use fish glue for refretting since it’s like hide glue when it hardens it’s like crystal so it transfers tone so well but unlike hide glue fish glue has a longer open time
as a highly skilled cabinetmaker but being relatively new to luthery I would be interested to see the effect each type of glue has on REMOVING frets . I use hot hide glue & drill press caul. Drying time is quite quick. I find the drill press caul gives much more consistant results than hammering & it can be locked in the down position for a few minutes - installing & clamping in one quick operation.
It's easy to remove frets with super glue.....get a good soldering iron (must get very hot)....hold it on the fret....move it back and forth.....when the glue smokes....it's back to liquid....put the fret. Activator on super glue hardens it immediately when installing. You can use a water and baking soda....it will harden super glue right away. I agree with using a caul. Much better seat on the frets. I don't have a press so I seat the frets with a hammer then go back with a brass caul and use it with a hammer.....seats frets very well....almost as good as drill press. I've found after 10 years that I must slightly over radius the frets to seat the ends well (14" radius for 16" fingerboard)...otherwise I have to take off too much fret when leveling.
@@cugir321 This is great advice of course, but when a guitar comes in the shop for a refret you usually don't know that the frets have been glued in until you pulled the first one and parts of the fretboard with it and the boss starts yelling at you. :)
@@gerdpfeil You can heat with a soldiering iron without knowing if it's glued. It will loosen it if it's glued. Then you'll see the glue when you pull it. Super glue smokes when it heats up.
@@cugir321 Thank you, that's something I'd try if a guitar is old enough to have had a refret and an unknown history, but that doesn't change my mind about gluing frets, which I consider cutting corners instead doing of a proper job. :)
@@gerdpfeil I'm interested in your view that it is cutting corners. If the purpose of the glue is to fill space rather than just adhesion, on a refret job you have a wider slot after pulling the frets out... Or are you just referring to when building a new neck?
Would be great to know from a “maintenance” point of view what is best. Like, in case of frets replacement, which one is easier to remove and less likely to chip out the fretboard. Also, how do they effect the sound.
Glue is there not to glue the fret cuz any glue would not hold metal to wood so, what every you use will fill the gaps between the tang and the slot, for a faster method you could use CA or epoxy
A good repair person will go to great lengths to avoid chipping the board. There are lots of "cheap tricks"one can do, re that. Some novices will chip the board severely. There's NO excuse for that. Don't EVER accept that excuse ... Even on a flat-sawn "fretless wonder "dried out ebony board that no one ever cleaned or treated. I do agree that fret slots having glue in them do increase energy transference from string to neck. Sometimes as I write this stuff, it all just seems so obvious. "Oh well".
I am currently using Stewmacs fish glue. I used it on placing frets into an ebony board that someone put on a 72-precision neck, and a refret on a bandmate's warmouth tele neck.
What kind of wax are you using with the super glue? At one point you've got a hard wax in a foil wrapper, and then you've got something on a Q-tip. I did a fret job (my first) with CA glue and tried to wax off with regular old trewax paste wax, and it didn't do a great job at protecting the fretboard; but maybe that's just inexperience?
I've found this is a perfect application for liquid hide glue. No special prep needed, won't affect any finish, easy clean up with a damp cloth, no time crunch as there is with hot hide glue.
Great info. I always use glue when re-fretting. My personal favourite is fish glue, bit of a pig to work with and you have to clamp each fret but it works great. I've used CA with no issues and that's great too. All personal preference I guess! :)
I NEVER have had to clamp a fret with fish glue. In 30 years. Just over bend the fret a hair, before installation. .... Unless someone else has messed up the slot during a previous and bad re-fret. Then, it's time for alternates.
Wow! The expert uses exactly same glues I use: Cianoacrilic superglue for frets or other things such as filling with wood powder, hardening etc, epoxy glue for wood to metal such as wood neck to tin body and alifatic glue such as Titebond for wood to wood with better sound transmission than vinilic or rubbery type of glues. My experience comes from lifetime model building and military standards factories.
I personally prefer not to use glue when installing frets, but I still appreciate the reasons for others doing so. For me it just comes down to personal preference, and enough confidence in my work to trust that the frets won't be coming unseated any time soon if the instrument is properly taken care of.
@@anpleidhceeireannach9498 That is a valid point, and I like to believe that I have a mildly unique approach to that sort of situation. If a guitar's been refretted enough times that it would almost guarantee issues with frets staying seated without glue, I'll take a different approach than only gluing in the next set. Because for me, if the fret slots are that damaged that the frets can't bite into the wood for a snug fit then I'm also not going to trust that amount of 'void' between the fret tang and slot walls with just glue. The reason for that is twofold- when most glue hardens, the structural integrity of just a wad/piece of glue isn't up to snuff for my standards- as you know most cured glue can be chipped off with relative ease- and as for superglue, I don't really like applying that much in one area no matter the situation (or at least the superglue by itself/unadulterated). What I would personally do is actually fill the fret slots with a combination of glue and sawdust as that has quite a lot of structural integrity. From that I can cut fresh slots that fit the fretwire much more optimally, and the repair is still completely masked by the fret material.
@@TidusReborn I've seen the glue and sawdust method before A luthier I know taught me to use ebony sawdust and epoxy to fix chips in fingerboards Never heard of it done for fret jobs until now,sounds good
Properly taken care of is key... hanging guitars on the wall in 70+ % RH in summer and 20% in winter and they don't see a problem with that. In my experience most owners don't take proper care of wooden instruments.
@@dtimm612 You're right on the money with that. Back when I worked full-time as a tech the worst case of improper care I saw was on a beautiful Martin D20. There was a decently long but easily repairable crack on the top, and the guy bought coverage on it so he would've got it fixed at no cost to him. Unfortunately, he brought it into the store in the dead of a Minnesota winter (it was well below freezing that day) from his probably hot house. After the customer opened up the case to show me the crack, I picked it up to do a closer inspection of the crack, and noticed that about 16-18 inches of the back had completely separated and aggressively peeled back from the side. I asked him about it, and it had been perfectly fine when he put it in the case to bring it over to me. At that point there was just no fixing it, because the back had peeled back so far that it took a tremendous amount of force to get the back realigned, and there was no way in hell that I was gonna go ahead and try to glue that back up. Thankfully he was given store credit for the full purchase price of the guitar so he could buy a new one. But it's simple negligence like that that does the most damage to guitars from what I've observed in my time doing repairs.
For the upper frets of an acoustic guitar it is a good solution as when hammering in frets, even with an internal support, damages are likely to happen. The slots then have to be sawn just a bit wider so that frets with only a few small hammer moves will find their position.
Noud Koevoets great point! Personally I use the stew Mac fret barber on the upper frets. That way you can leave the slots as they are, less work and less invasive for the instrument.
Yeah; well there are about 100 variables re the "spring" of the tongue of the board past the neck block. That's a tough area, with the variables of the action a customer would like, AND the "grip" of fret-wire ... some have sharper barbs than others.. JEEZ, there are a lot of things that come into play there. Neck angle and neck flex strength under tension. Where's the T-rod most active on XYZ brand of guitar? Does it work? or is it garbage right from the factory ? Jeez!!
Thanks for all of your great videos..., i almost have confidence enough to finish rewiring the non fender tele i assembled not so long ago. The switch compartment was a little snug fitting and needed a little more work. Well now i need to rewire the 5 way into the humbucker's
Newbie wanna do a fret job guy lol Question , I know some folks use a soldering gun to heat frets to remove them but does that work with super glue ? And what are the fret removal methods ? Thanks 😊
You might've found the answer by now but yeah it does just take your time. It doesn't loosen it per se but it has an evaporating effect...so watch your eyes...it can sting. I also sometimes put a little fretboard oil on too plus back bowing the neck a little (just remember flatten back out before you level) with the iron AND solder...you can spread it on the top of the fret and it heats it up even more. Just make sure you get your fret height measurement first or heat one without solder.
It’s a good idea to wear wrap-around safety glasses when gluing frets. When you strike a fret with glue under it, glue can and will fly to the worst places you can imagine.
I guess one consideration is what might happen if for whatever reason the frets need to come out again. Is fish glue for example easier to dissolve than superglue?
Since when do you need to clamp down hide glue over night? And then totaly overlook the benefits with refreting if the frets have been glued with hideglue.
That was water based glues like Titebond (PVA) which is rubbery anyway adn probably absorbs tone. I think its more a case of the wood absorbing small amounts of moisture and swelling slightly, just clamping it until everything has gone off means you know none of the frets are proud.
You usually heat the frets before removal to both expand the slot slightly and soften both the wood and the glue. It'd probably be unnoticeable, just requiring some cleanup of the slot afterwards.
Removing glued-in frets will not damage the fingerboard if done properly. Here is a link to a video on our website where Dan Erlewine demonstrates this technique. www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Secrets/Removing_the_frets_on_the_Mike_Bloomfield_Tele.html
@@stewmac Does this count with every type of glue? What is better to use... Superglue or Cyanoacrylate Glue? I can image that some glues are stronger than others and can damage the fingerboard for future re-fret.
Epoxy?! Most epoxy glues have no problems with temperatures about 250 °C (opposite to cyan acrylate or hide glue), so I'm interested to hear how you want to remove this frets one day without going mad?
I like to use glue as well. The extra security and solidity helps me feel more confident that I will never have to do the job over again for that particular guitar.
"Johnsons Paste wax in the yellow can can usually be found at Lowes or Home Depot right next to the wood stains and varnishes." Found this info on Luthier website
"Johnsons Paste wax in the yellow can can usually be found at Lowes or Home Depot right next to the wood stains and varnishes." Found this info on Luthier website
Clean the fretwire tang barbs with acetone, coat the tang and barbs with shellac then press in immediately. Shellac gets very sticky and lubes up the slot going in.
"Johnsons Paste wax in the yellow can can usually be found at Lowes or Home Depot right next to the wood stains and varnishes." Found this info on Luthier website
To prefend pieces of wood from chipping while removing (glued) frets, softening glue by heating it may be a good option.Which of the glues you mentioned can by softened by heating?
I'd avoid epoxy as it has a very upper middle resonance, though you can get 12 hour cure time stuff, here in the UK we have Araldite. I suppose you could use Cascamite as it's very crisp sounding but now on dark fretboards. I just got my first bottle of Titebond (its just builder's PVA glue!) which I don't recommend as its rubbery. Super Glue is the best and you can remove frets by heating them with a soldering iron.
Epoxy ... the HARD stuff... is great for fret slots that have been widened too much. Resonance of each brand of epoxy varies. I just tested epoxies by mixing up different ones and dropping them, and then LISTENING to the frequencies. Note: I get that WE ARE talking MINUTIA here, re the total effect on tone of various epoxies.
Hi ERik, I have a question: How to polish a open pore finish, like some Gibson SGs without leaving those white marks on the laqcer (rests of polisher that remains into the open pores)?
Excellent video, just the reassurance i needed. Do CA glued frets release easily enough when heated with a soldering iron, or does it make future refretting more difficult? I'm doing a partial refret (just a few badly worn spots), if it doesnt work out perfectly, it would be good to know they can be removed easily enough.
Does the type of glue effect the tone in any way? Some luthiers claim that fish glue has better results in sound over super glue. That's a real question. Thanks
I’ve fretted and refretted over 10,000 guitars since 1974. We always glue the frets. Thin Hot Stuff super glue is the best. It takes a little practice to not make a mess with the glue, but once you get past that little learning curve it’s a snap to get perfect results on every fret job you do if you follow the correct steps. We use clamping cauls that clamp two frets in at a time. We dremel out the fret slots with a small dentist burr that makes a perfect sized slot then clamp them in two at a time. We work from both ends of the neck to the middle, so after we glue in the first two and clamp them, then we move to the other end and glue in two. Once those are clamped the first ones can be unclamped and the ends flushed up. Then glue in the next two, and repeat the process at the other end. I can do a full refret start to setup in about 2 hours on most guitars.
I validate the "better tone" thing. Definately not placebo, since I refreted two instruments using titebond under the frets and yes there is something better with these guitars, I mean comparing before and after
@@stavrost6559 I don't believe that. A better fretjob = better sustain all across the fretboard. A better fretjob = no dead notes. But I find it hard to believe it would amount to a better sustain. That would only be the case if those original frets would actually be somewhat loose.
@@PelleKuipers Ok I hear you buddy, my point of view is that the more contact the fret has with the wood, the more vibrations would pass through it. Makes sense right? After all, your tone(string) has “contact” with the fret, so it will affect it. By eliminating any potential gaps under the frets, we reduce potential tone loss or potential dead notes, so why not fill those gaps? We increase the contact with the wool after all. I hear luthiers all the time saying not to cut very deep slots on the neck, so.. I don’t remember if it was on Erlewines’ book or one of his videos that he mentioned that, in a small study they did on the same neck, before and after filling the gaps. I don’t know how they measured it, but the results of the filled frets were better. Cheers!
@@stavrost6559 It makes sense in the way that a loose fret will transfer the vibrations more poorly. If a fret is properly seated I don't think a big difference can be heard glued or unglued. I've made guitar gluing in frets and not and I can't hear a difference. There might be a difference but not significant enough to be noticeable.
Hello guys, thanks a lot for this awesome video. I just changed frets in my DIY electric guitar, i use Jescar Evo gold 58118 but. Now i want to change the fretboard radius from 12" to 16" so, a must take the frets out again. Q: can i re-use the same frets?
"Johnsons Paste wax in the yellow can can usually be found at Lowes or Home Depot right next to the wood stains and varnishes." Found this info on Luthier website
Does fender glue thier frets down? It seems like when I lemon oil my frets, a few raised up a bit. I had to file a few high frets down after I hammered them back down. Great topic.
I am not expert with any guitar skill. However i've worked with resins and wood for many years. With that i would simply suggest when you turn the guitar on its side and drip #10 to the underside of the fret it is more a capillarity (capillary action) rather than gravity that actually pulls the glue into the slot. If there were no glue under the fret you would have to puddle quit a bit of glue at the fret before it would seep into the fret slot in fact the glue is as likely to roll off the back side of the neck.
I almost never use glue while fretting, I simply don't believe in the concept of glueing them. If the fret slots are a bit too wide to hold the tang, I think it is way better to deform it. With those special "W" pliers of Stewmac for example.
an important thing to note is the needle point of the glue bottle. Super glue is so messy...and as another pointed out wear safety goggles when hammering.
I personally just use a soldering iron and fret pullers, I run the soldering iron on one side of the fret and I move both fret pullers and soldering iron across the fret as I am pulling the fret out, so the heat from the soldering iron heats up the glue but not too much where it will be a huge mess unless you hold it in the same spot for a longer period of time
We recommend using a soldering iron, chip stopper, and fret pullers for this job. Here is a link to a video on our website where Dan Erlewine demonstrates this process. I hope this helps! www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Secrets/Removing_the_frets_on_the_Mike_Bloomfield_Tele.html on our website
I'm pretty sure Stew-Mac did a test on different glue types for melting temperature. If so, I think it would have been nice to make mention of this as it relates to potentially removing frets later. Or do so in a fret removal video and reference that in this one. Since this video has already been completed, I think it would be nice to update the description with that info. Is that possible? I'm not a content creator, so I don't know whether it is. I did use an old finger board and test removal of frets with several types of glue a few years ago. They all came loose with no problem using my Weller 100/140 watt soldering gun with two-piece tip (so the current is carried through the fret itself).
I just really don’t believe that it would truly make any impact over the tone. I mean, I’ve never listened to a record and said ‘Welcome to the Jungle is OKAY, but would be so much more elevated if Slash had glued in his frets!”
@RDE Lutherie Hi, however, badly seated frets can cause dead spots on your fingerboard. One of my customer came with a really nice quitar but his D and G strings sonded totally muted and it could be heard when tapping on the frets with a metal object. Gluing frets is a must but I wouldn't say that one type of glue sounds better than another, that would be silly.
@RDE Lutherie Well I'm not quite "everyone and [his] mother" bodinlutherie.wordpress.com/ This repair was done successfully, the guitar sounded great afterwards. This was a hard thing to diagnose and I've never seen it another time in eight years doing repairs. The customer was happy to have his guitar restored to his original sound. I didn't questioned your habilities at any time so please stay polite.
all that matters for caps in passive guitar/bass circuits is their METERED value and build - "build" means don't waste money on PIOs for these applications, where mylar, epoxy, polyro, etc, are simply better. this whole "caps in guitars" debacle has be exposed for what it is many times over - nonsense perpetrated by the clueless.
Excellent video! Thanx for the always very informative content! Any preference of wax used to border the glue in the fret slot? Every advice is greatly appreciated. Thanx!
One thing not mention is when you use any of these glues , and the day comes to regret, how hard is it going to be to get the fret out, and what condition is the fret slot going to be once the fret is out..
Any CA glue with the right viscosity and temperature range is usable. I'd reserve special products for spot repairs, where all its properties are needed to to fix the crack/ding in the finish. I'd go for CA glue that got a name to it and you can get a safety data sheet, telling you about the curing and at what heat it will get brittle too. The right storage temperature should be in there as well and it will be good for a year. That way, you can be sure to get a decent quality glue. It's not all the same.
@Rock 5150 Hey Rock 5150 I did that yesterday and it works marvelous! Just a regular white candle It was a bit messy but The Cyanocrylate went in really well, and cleaned super easy! It was a rosewood board, I don't know how it works for a maple one, especially if it already has nitro or any other finish on it. Cheers Dude.
I have one from a handful of years ago. It needed leveling, and they used to NOT touch the fret ends after the cut. So it needed leveling, and fret end polishing. And optionally a rolled edge since the board come with NO rolling whatsoever. I hear they smooth the fret ends nowadays. But there is no guarantee it won't need leveling, and you best like the fretboard with a 90degree edge if you want to just bolt it on.
