Impromptu video showing a method of sideways fret removal on vintage Fender guitars. *Please note - Ann Arbor Guitars only accepts jobs from walk-in clients. We do not and will not accept any shipped in repairs.
That particular neck seems to show sign of being refretted before - either with the original frets pulled out from the top or the new frets being pressed in the modern way. You can clearly see where the fret tang barbs have made marks in the wood near the fret slots.
Hey, in addition to this nice guide that's a big help, I'd suggest to clamp a fret down with a radius block (or maybe a smaller version of one) while hammering it out, at least for amateurs such as myself. It can be a pain, but I found out the hard way on my Kay Vanguard II (the red pointy Vanguard model.) Its frets ended up not going in the direction I was hoping for, they went upwards even though I was hammering away from myself, so I chipped the fretboard. Thankfully, the model's a low value "Student Guitar" of the 60s that's missing its original electronics, but I don't feel like repeating this error. Maybe I'm a "green" yet, but I also needed to move the position of the clamp as I moved the fret from one side of the fretboard to the other. Regardless, I learned something.
I consider myself to be a professionist craftsman, and I am impressed with your level of craftsmanship. Your custom guard and method of drilling a dimple in the fret side is impressive. I would love if you shared your skills and technique for fretboard/neck tear out repair. Thank you again!
Teacher of a lost art. Thank you. I thought it would have been 60's and earlier, but good to know. How well does this work on rosewood fingerboards, and also would you dare try it on 80s 90s, or more recent guitars?
My dude. You are a saint, thanks fir the information. How do you personally refret after this? Do you typically hammer them in per usual, or go in from the side with the new frets? Many thanks!
Does this cause problems with the new frets being able to grab in the slot? It seems as though taking the frets out sideways would widen the slot to the width of the tang barbs as opposed to the width of the tang (usually .020" ?).
(I'm not David Collins.) --- This would only widen the walls of the fret slot so much, and not above or below the barb. And frankly, this method keeps the frets seated in pretty well, speaking from closely examining my mid 60s Kay Vanguard II, which also used this method. (I just chipped its fretboard, that's how I know.)
Do I have to make the fret iron concave? Or does it take the shape of the keyboard when we nail it with glue? There is no practical tool for this at home.
I’ve had to do so many re frets, specially on 70’s strats for some odd reason and I don’t understand why Fender who usually kept everything simple design wise had to complicate their manufacturing process by installing their nuts and fret wire this way. I remove my customer’s frets the same way as this video but on my own older Strats I just heat the wire and compress the surrounding fingerboard while pulling the frets straight out, then I recut the slots to fit standard fret wire. I also get rid of the radius in the nut slot, it’s just easier to make a nut for a flat surface. That’s just my own personal guitars though. This is a great video though.
If you don't mind me asking you. Whats the best way to remove from a 2005 Epiphone Les Paul Custom? It seems I cannot do it like that on this one since it has that special trimming on the sides of the neck like they do around the body.
DreidMusicalX you pull the frets out from the top after applying heat to them. You probably shouldnt be doing this yourself. Especially with binding. My first fret job was with a bound neck. Not a great way to learn and it couldve been better
@@jubjub905 Thanks for your reply, I'm pretty good with my hands and probably could do it, but I think you might be right. Not a guitar of mine I'm willing to learn on.
VERY interesting video! I've heard about this for years but never really seen it done... thanks for sharing! do you know if the custom shop vintage reissue style guitar frets still get installed like this?
We don’t. This was a peculiar method used by Fender because the system as they implemented it was very efficient and cost effective in a production environment. Once they have been removed cleanly from the sides however, there is little reason to try and replicate their installation method. Post production refrets are pressed in from the top.
Thanks for the upload. I enjoy all your videos. Will this method of removal work if the frets were installed by being pressed in? Does CA glue cause any special problems?
+Byron Lininger - For any frets pressed in, I pull from the top as standard. Fenders up through around 1980 were the only cases I know of installed this way, and so are the only guitars I use this removal method with. CA is typically quite easy to soften with heat and clean up, but isn't typically found on old Fenders like this unless loose ends were later seated and glued with it.
If you saw the guard up close, you would notice a few small knicks in it from the cutting burr slipping off (I am human). Even if the customer isn’t watching, they would still see a cut through the lacquer if I ever slipped, so yes - always, without exception. This was a lesson I fortunately learned early by almost slipping on to the board (thank god I missed). It was a nerve wracking wake up call, and I have never wanted to risk that liability again.
If you saw the guard up close, you would notice a few small knicks in it from the cutting burr slipping off (I am human). Even if the customer isn’t watching, they would still see a cut through the lacquer if I ever slipped, so yes - always, without exception. This was a lesson I fortunately learned early by almost slipping on to the board (thank god I missed). It was a nerve wracking wake up call, and I have never wanted to risk that liability again.
A2Paddling I’ve slipped so many times I can’t count. So many fret jobs I can hardly remember the ones I did last month... Now days I’ve learned to let my fingers be the guard and it never happens, if it does though I fix it.. Now there are always exceptions, like a historic guitar or such... What I’ve found that works best in those situations is the loop side of a strip of Velcro, with the adhesive removed... I don’t think folks realize how lucky they are to have RU-vid, I enjoy watching these videos bc I still learn something new from time to time..... Time though is still the most precious thing I have... Last night after watching your video I knocked the frets out of an old beat up 78 strat neck.. Took 10mins tops to drive them out... I have a flat punch with a fret shaped dimple ground in it, no need to cut a flat spot in each fret.. that doubles the time. Take care bud, hope you have a long satisfying career doing what you love!
This is awesome! I dig your ingenuity. Question for you- I have a maple neck ‘72 tele with 7.25 radius, and it is in sore need of a refret. Local shops charge way too much for me to be able to afford, so I’m going to try to tackle it myself. The only thing I’m hung up on so far is what type of fret wire should I choose? I know there are tons of options: height and width..., but where I get lost is the depth of the slot. What did you use to refret the neck in the video?
Hey Anony Amos :-) Perhaps I'm able to help out here... When refretting an instrument it's important to know the basic steps, before even thinking of starting.. All about getting the neck straight, selecting the proper fret wire, leveling the fretboard, preparing the frets, etc. For choosing new fret wire, I will always try to match the old with the new, as best as possible. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's a bit harder. I would pull out one or two of the old fret and measure their crown width, tang width and tang width with the barbs. The height of the new fret wire is something you'll have to choose - whether you want a slightly higher or lower wire, is up to you. Generally you want to match the new wire as closely as possible to the old wire. Using a new wire, that is much bigger than the old one, will result in compressing the neck and giving it a back bow.. sometimes hard to correct, other than pulling the frets and starting over. For the depth of the slot I tend to use a Fret Slot Depth Gauge, which will tell me if the fret wire I've selected will fit the slot, without problems. You can also take a thin feeler gauge, insert it in the fret slot, and take a sharpened pencil and draw across the fret slot, the being able to see the actual fret slot depth :-) Good fret wire brands could be JESCAR, Dunlop, Sintoms, Hosco, etc. Perhaps this will help you - if not, then let me know :-) Best regards.
Is this just regular fret wire. I would have thought the slot in the fingerboard would be made wider by removing frets like this. Then theres no meat left for the new fret to seat itself.
I think this is one of the best ways to remove old frets without chipping the fret board. Also, it leaves a nice grove where the old fret prongs were which will keep the new ones in place easier. Thanks !!
