In Fly Fret Gluing - Chapter 2 there is a detailed demonstration of how to re-glue a Fly fret. Dispenser top Acetone bottle: www.amazon.com/JETEHO-Dispens... "Hurry Up" Nail Glue (CA) Accelerator: www.amazon.com/Hurry-Nail-Glu...
Bondo? Burns installing frets?? Unlike the rest of Archtoppery, kids don't try this at home! Just when I think I couldn't love this channel any more, you give us these stories!
Compound radius? If only someone would invent a way where you could string the neck up to pitch and tension and then hold it there, destring it, and then shape the fret board! Alas, dreams are for bedtime! I'm convinced that the industry would immediately adopt such a manufacturing practice if only someone could do it! Oh, that's right! It's already been done! My Fly is 31 years old and it's never needed a truss rod adjustment, a fret job, intonation, action, nothing! Perfect every time! Thanks again for your genius Ken! The industry wasn't ready for someone light years ahead of their time!
Funny and heartwarming comment, thanks so much. I’ll be sure to die soon, so then folks will be able to see what I’ve accomplished. Hey, wait a minute, Not Too Soon, though! Glad your instrument is performing as it was designed to do, it’s making us both proud, eh? Looks easy when it’s all done.
Thank you for these two videos, and all of the others you've put on your channel. Hearing about how you dealt with all of the hurdles involved in the production of the Fly was the best part - especially things like the use of micro-spheres to maintain the right amount of adhesive under the frets. It was very creative to use something designed to be a thickening agent in that way.
Thanks, but the bead spacer trick is an industry standard. I wish builders would seek to learn about adhesives and other items commonly needed in our work instead of just flipping through the Stu Mac book, useful as it is.
Ive owned 8 (4 Flys, and 4 NiteFlys) that were all made in 2001 or earlier (all pre-refined), and not a single one has ever had a fret issue. I did have the nut come un-glued but thats typical for a 30 year old guitar at some point. Only issue i ever had was the Truss rod in 3 out of 4 NiteFlys, not correcting the relief. But i think it was due to someone making adjustments to it and not knowing what they were doing. My new (to me) 99' midifly is perfect! Thanks for sharing this info Ken!
I'm sorry and surprised that you've had problems with NiteFly rods. When having trouble like this, two things that may help include removing and lubricating the adjustment capstan, and then when assembled and strung up on a bench, using a neckblock or some kind of support under the middle of the neck and manually bending the neck backwards as you tighten the trussrod. As a mechanical person with years of repair experience it's still hard for me to understand the things some people have done to guitars to "see what happens", etc. You'd expect folks to seek assistance when out of their depth, but sadly, this is often not what happens.
Trying to use a regular fret bender to induce the tiny over-bend right in the middle that this fret needs would destroy your chances of success, I promise you. You could make a special tool for this process, but it would need to be two precisely curved surfaces that squeezed the fret to "smile" more, if you get me. Still, I think it would be a bad idea, since we need the original adhesive material stuck to the fret to stay right where it is for positioning, and the stress of the clamping force of the smiley tool might mess that up.
Bondo? Burns installing frets?? Unlike the rest of Archtoppery, kids don't try this at home! Just when I think I couldn't love this channel any more, you give us these stories!
