Todd Rundgren's 'Foamy': Should I refret it? 

I like how you explained why you wouldn't want to do a refret

I wish the orthopedic surgeon that ruined my left knee had this much consideration for the big picture

That is really cool that you played his music while we watch you work on his guitar :) very respectful of the artist and it was very professional to take precautions when caring for his instrument. As someone who has been burned by a careless repairman before, I highly respect this

I played that guitar onstage in London with Todd in 1994. It's a lovely guitar.

I suppose it's a matter of trying to work out what the customer really wants as opposed to what he thinks he wants. Todd may have communicated that he wants a refret (unaware of the drastic change to the overall familiar feel of the instrument that would bring) What he got was priceless. Problem sorted to the point where a seemingly magic wand was waved. You did the right thing there, I'm sure Todd will now be thinking... man I'm glad he didn't refret it.

The amount of care some people take in guitar repair is so beautiful. The fact that there are people so knowledgeable and skilled at it just goes to show that a guitar someone has played for years is irreplaceable. I would absolutely love to learn these skills, seems like such an interesting job but it also seems to require a whole lot of patience which is something I could probably work on. I love how Erick has really gone above and beyond what he needed to do to this guitar and used his brain to think about how what he is doing is going to effect the feel of the instrument. Hats off to you.

This is not at all the video that I was looking for but I watched the whole thing anyway

Todd Rundgren was my first ever concert! I went with my dad when I was 12 which was around the time I started playing guitar. It's cool seeing his guitar up close like that! Great video

I did fix two high locking floyd nuts - it's not a real major surgery, just have to sand the bottom of the metal locking nut after unscrewing it from the neck. Can use a coase grit sandpaper glued to a flat surface and slowly take away the metal. The tricky part is knowing how much to take off, if you want to be sure take away little by little and put it on the guitar (it's a bit of a pain because you have to set it up with the strings again, so my advice is - lock the trem bridge into a "fixed" bridge for the time being with some wood ;) ).

Action issues with a floyd locking nut shelf can be addressed by filing the wood under the shelf very carefully in one single direction until the action is ideal while maintaining a level surface. As long as the fingerboard radius is the same as the shelf radius there should be no problems. I've learned this the hard way friends...for example a 14" radius shelf with a 10" radius fingerboard will give you intonation problems especially with the open position D major chord.

Yes, my favorite guitarist "Todd Rurngernern!"

Was initially surprised you didn't just use new wire w/ original spec, as that was the 'feel' Todd was used to on this guitar, and those new .045 Jumbos would last a lifetime based on the last set of frets. However you have done a fine thing.keeping the guitar in its relatively original state and very playable without disrupting the fretboard in any way, so that may be a significant advantage of keeping the first frets ever set into the rosewood. You won't maintain a better mechanical integrity than this, and the instrument won't have to 'settle' to the pressure of the new tangs. Good call. Because if Todd still misses the fret height, you can always do that refret, regardless than I'm sure he appreciated your crazy amount of hand work reshaping. You basically can't tell the frets are rejuvenated. Cool! We need people like you in the world sir.

I could watch these videos all day.

Couple of things - the song was _Kind Hearted Woman_ by Robert Johnson, from the album of Johnson covers _Todd Rundgren's Johnson._ The gouge by the bridge was from a piece of lighting scaffold that fell during a soundcheck. Another couple of inches, and Todd could have lost a hand.

Awesome craftsmanship and attention to execution so it doesn’t change playability... impressive

Really nice job. Thanks from a huge Todd fan for taking such thoughtful care.

National Treasure, Todd! Peace and Love to you all

What we need now is an evaluation for Todd to see how well you fared I love these videos 🤙🤙🤙

Awesome guitar work, Todd will most definitely love the work you did on it

Erick Coleman is a Great guitar repairman! For those who may not realize how difficult it is to find someone who does good fretwork, here's a story about what a crappy repairman did to one of my guitars: In the late 70's, I took my vintage Les Paul Jr to a "reputable" guitar repair shop next door to Chuck Levin's Washington Music because it needed to have one of the fretboard bindings replaced; when I got it back, the asshole that did the work had filed down the edge of the fretboard between each fret to get the binding down to height. He didn't stop filing the plastic binding down to height when he should have, he kept right on going deep into the rosewood, making a 45 degree ledge on the entire side of the fretboard! When I had it refretted a couple years later, I sent my LP jr to Strings & Things in Memphis Tennessee. I don't even know if they exist anymore, but they did a great job. Believe me, I didn't like shipping it, but I sure wasn't going back to the same place that hacked it up the first time. Strings & Things called me when they received the guitar and said (paraphrased) 'who the hell did that to your guitar's fretboard?!' They had to plane the entire fretboard to get that freaking ledge off. Fret work has to be one of the hardest jobs to do correctly on a guitar. Finding someone who does it well is not easy!

I’m a HUGE Rundgren fan. Great job in showing restraint with Foamy. Great job. Great decision.

This is right up there with the great guitars that you share. Thank you for these!.

Honestly my personal preference and from experience is that if you're gonna go for a locking tremolo bridge along with all its complexities, just shoot for a German Original Floyd Rose. It is for sure the real deal.

I'd tried exactly what you did ..and it works! My old guitar is working great now. No more string buzzing and string marks dissapeared. Thank's for the idea.

I appreciate men that take their work as serious as this guy does. It speaks volumes. If your heart aint in it, it will show in the final product. Good job bro!

Great video where an excellent tech does what is best for both the player and guitar.

Wow, great work. My Strat is the same colour as that one with matching headstock and with black hardware. It also has emg pickups. HSS. Mine has a black 3d Schaller bridge. It did have a matte black scratch-plate when I built It more than 20 years ago. I had no idea who Todd was when I built it. Looks very similar.

This guitar is actually the PAW-3 Akira Wada model guitar (Guitarist of PRISM, japans first fusion band). P-project is fernandes pro brand started by legendary guitar builder Yatsuse Saijo. He left Fernandes in the 90s and builds guitars and basses under Saijo Guitars name now. Extreme attention to detail is given for all guitars he built, designing everything from a patented locking tremolo system to pickups made from scratch, working together with Akira Wada to get the tone and playability he was trying to achieve. Saijo still does maintenance and repair for some of japans top musicians together with his son at his workshop in Seijo, Tokyo.

The P-Project guitar is a custom guitar produced in Japan around 1990, and I own a different type. The tremolo unit is a floyd rose type, the pickup is an emg product, and the body material is alder and the fingerboard is ebony.

Thanks. I’ve been playing over 40 years and learned quite a bit.

Nice job there Eric, I know how much of a tedious job it is recrowning super jumbo frets when you've taken so much material off. The video makes it look like it was easy but it's a back breaking job! :)

Awesome video, Eric! You should tell people that your fretwork apparatus keeps the guitar neck from moving out of position when you take the strings off. I’ve thought that guitar was a Stratocaster! Thanx to Stu-Mac for being the best source for guitar parts and the tools to repair/build them!!! About 20 years ago I made a guitar with Warmoth parts and Stu-Mac products, and still love it!!!

Eric....just so glad to see you handling an unknown guitar. I have so much less experience than you do, but just as much passion. I have been doing guitar repairs for about 2 years, and it is a never ending learning experience. So many manufacturers, so many models, so many intricacies. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

I love watching a craftsman at work!!!!😁😎👍🎸🎵🎶

Cool. I personally spend a lot more time time polishing the frets. Then use a rotary tool with metal polish. It love the glassy feel of finely polished and frets.

Man, I love these videos... I learn so much...

say hi to Runt 4 me..his biggest fan since "Something/Anything?"

Todd Rundgren's guitar? No pressure there haha. Nice work.

Amazing as always

I had a luthier do this to my guitar because of one bad fret, never felt the same, never played it after the frets were taken down.

Interesting and entertaining as always. For a professional player producing such a wear, I think a refret with stainless steel wire in the exact existing fret high would have been the better solution. Also, with a fretjob you change the play feeling because the frets are lower now.

I get why you didn't want to refret, and I'm glad it came out playing well, but I can definitely feel a .005" difference in first-fret action if I'm making or adjusting a nut. I have no doubt you're far better at fretwork/setup than I am, though, and I'm sure your logic was sound.

As an learning amateur at the whole luthier thing, it was great to see you work, particularly with such an iconic instrument (for a Todd fan such as I). Regards.

I wish this guy worked in my area. I had an owner of a guitar store file down my frets and either he didn’t know what he was doing or he forgot to polish the frets after. They looked like you could see the actual filing marks. I had to sell it. I’m sure bending the strings a few times would break the strings too. What a mess and what a lesson. Did a trade to a store of course they gave me hardly anything being the horrible one store we had. I walked in the next day and see a guy playing it. Sold that quick. 🤦‍♂️

Lovely job. As always.

Great job and getting to meet all these amazing people.

There are literally hundreds of pictures of him with that guitar. I've seen that guitar at least 50 times over the years and I'm not even a Rundgren fan. Nice piece of music history.

Dammit! I read this as “should I regret” and went: “Ooooo....Erick effed up! Erick effed up!” Rats, that would’ve been a fascinating video. EDIT: This was a beautiful call for several reasons, by the way. Some people might think “he just talked himself out of several hundred dollars”....not true. The time and effort it would’ve taken to properly shape these into the fretboard and level them all to 45-50 thou (to retain feel and nut clearance) would’ve been insane. Sometimes it’s MUCH better to take the $200, “complex” fret dressing job. You move projects quicker and your clients trust that you aren’t trying to milk them. The importance of the latter can’t be overstated...

I don't even play guitar, but as a video producer and equally a huge Todd fan; great video.

Unfortunately this guitar went missing after Todd started his tour with Daryl Hall in April. Haven't heard much from Todd about it other than the airline last tracked it in Connecticut. He's replaced it with a Schecter Hellraiser. Hoping it miraculously gets sent to his home.

A legendary guitar, to say the least. It more or less replaced another legendary axe ("The Fool" SG, previously owned by Eric Clapton) as Todd's main guitar in the early 1990s

Any buddy was a guitar repair cat! His fingers were always cut up from razors and such. I noticed your are the same! Thanks for the video!

You can DIY a better tool for the initial levelling: -Buy a good quality (i.e. accurate) pre-radiused fretboard blank -Route a channel about 1/2" deep down the wide side of a cedar 2x4 the same length as the fretboard blank and about 1/2" wider (if it's an extra wide blank you could glue some thin wood to the sides instead, the point is to have a channel a bit wider than the blank) -Fill the channel with bondo, put a single piece of waxed paper over it, and then press the fingerboard blank into it, making sure it's square with the 2x4 in every dimension. -use a second 2x4 with some bricks on top of it to hold the fingerboard in place with enough pressure that you get a firm impression but not so much that the fretboard blank presses deep into the bondo - you want to cast the entire surface of it but not have it press in any deeper than necessary. -Let the Bondo cure, then trim and sand the squeezeout along the edges so that it's flush with the cedar, and you now have a stable, durable, full-neck, radiused sanding block for less than $10 that should last for decades. The great thing about this method is that you can make a block with a conical or compound radius (credit to George Morris of Vermont Instruments for teaching me about the advantages of using a conical, full length sanding block - he hand-sanded them out of poplar, but casting an existing fretboard with Bondo is a lot easier and at least as durable). In use, you place the block over all of the frets and sand with even pressure and small strokes - less than the space between the nut and the first fret, so all of the frets are sanded evenly. When the frets are leveled, they will already be very close to perfect and should only need minimal hand filing, if any, after they've been crowned. It can also be used to sand the radius onto a raw findgerboard, of course, and it takes a lot less practice to sand in a conical radius this way than it does to plane one by hand (even if you plane the rough radius, it's good to have a full length block to finish with). It's also possible to clone the fretboard geometry of an existing guitar this way, although the end result will be harder to use because it will also be the exact width of the original. The frets will be cast into the block, but once you attach sandpaper that isn't an issue. Also, because Bondo cures exothermically, there's a small but real risk of the heat loosening the fingerboard or worse, so I wouldn't recommend trying it on a gutar with any kind of value or rarity (that said, my personal full lngth block that I use for conical radiuses was cast from a '95 Parker Fly Deluxe without any problems at all).

I feel like if you had planed the frets back down to .45 (from larger unworn wire) it may have worked beautifully. And the frets wouldn't be .05 less than he's use to. But yeah. A refret indeed can change the feel if you don't get it like it was before

Enjoy all your work Todd FYI since I started shaping With a triangle all man life has been so much better! Fret job time cut in half! More consistent outcome every time!

Love these videos, please make them longer and more in depth!

Wonder if replacing the worn frets with fret wire same as the lesser worn frets, then a leveling and crowning could be another option? I am no luthier just a tinker.Always appreciate videos with real craftsmen .thanks

Good call and nice work!

Fret-levelling can completely change the feel of a guitar as well. For starters it makes bending more difficult and takes time to get used to. Particularly for someone who prefers tall frets.

I think you did the right thing. Once the old frets are removed, they are pretty much trash. If for some strange reason Todd insisted that the guitar be refretted after this, it can be done. If you had refretted right away and he did not care for the feel you can't put the old ones back. The best you could have done at that point would have been to try and make replicas from brand new fret wire. Excellent work.

And this is why I have stainless steel frets on my custom made guitar neck. They last my life time I am 52 now. Nice guitar and looks like heavy metal guitar but good blues sound too ?

Hi Erick, I have two questions if I may.. When sanding to level the frets, why did you sand with the aluminum 16” block instead of just leveling the frets with the radius block? And with regards to the possibility of the locking nut being possibly too high after the removal of fret material, could you have just have sanded underneath where the locking nut was installed to make up the difference instead of performing a complete re-fret? Thanks!

Great video. Well explained and enjoyable. Thanks. 👍

Those frets are huge . Nice work as always .

Good tutorial. Love that color

I would love to see the fret board brought up fresh too.

Would a partial refret with similar wire make sense in this case? If only a few frets are heavily worn, then most could remain higher after leveling, instead of this approach in the video of lowering/sanding them all down to the lowest.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing the process!

thanks Erick, was Todd happy with your work ?

Man and I thought my frets were bad! they are getting close though I've had my Epiphone les pual for 13 years. I was thinking about a re-fret but like he said you don't want to undo all that playing in..plus i have binding in my neck, i would like some bigger frets because i play 11's

This was a nice video. It showed products but it doesn't feel like it's built around a product. I wish they did more like this

I'm glad you didn't refret. Your decision process was well explained and I hope luthiers and 'wanna-be' luthiers here were listening. ;-) Was there any buzzing or 'fret-out' going on with those worn frets? Good job as always!

great to learn about this process so clearly, thanks

Awesome informational educational video experience Y'alls

Pretty cool he could keep a guitar so long over so many tours and not have it get stolen or ruined. It belongs in a museum some day.

Whay a unique cool guitar and lovely job.

Nice work , and thank you so much for these videos , I am a hobby Luthier and I have learned so much from you guys :D so thank you so much :D

Is a partial re-fret of the worst couple of frets not an option?... To keep the fret height at its biggest? Great work here. Sx

You made the right repair call. You're right, a refret would have totally changed the feel and dynamics of the guitar... and not for the better.

Thank you for this indepth vid of this famous guitar, I have watched Mr Rungren play this on numerous stages on shows, your dissision to dress the frets was huge,..😶..do you know if he had this when he was on tour with Kansas in 77' ???maybe too early? Saw him at Alpine valley...

please don't hate me on it, I love you, the channel and the video together with all the care you took in this process, but never level out the frets like that. First of all, remove the nut to make sure you don't damage it or the wood around it by accidentally knocking it. Also, this allows you to move the sanding beam past it. As you will see, you are making an uneven level since the first frets are traversed by only about 1 inch of sand paper back and forth, while the last frets are being rocked by a much longer course. Second of all, leveling with a beam like that is very uneven left-to-right, you might think you're moving the beam nice and slowly along the neck, but you are waving the pattern left-to-right by A LOT. There are better solutions to this, but at least please try removing the nut and making the length of the sandpaper traversal as equal as possible. Even so, with the nut removed, the center frets will ALWAYS get more sanding than the frets towards the ends of the fretboard using this method.

excellent work thanks Sir, thanks for sharing

I have seen Todd play that guitar onstage with Ringo's All-Starrs.

That's a very cool approach and really nice to see the process (although I appreciate a lot of time and effort has been cut from the video)

One of my guitars that I got used had no fret wear what so ever when got it. It looked like that after about 6-8 months. I went to stainless steel after that and I've never looked back since 😂

Wow! Thx for showing about recrowning the fret cause i had the same on my strat

It is alway inspiring to see someone who loves their work do their thing... How many items do you use that are custom made by you for your work?

Great video - loved it

Lovely piece of work sir

How I wish I had a pro like this in my neck of the woods

If you needed to lower the nut could you not remove a bit of the wood after the fret leveling? then if later you had to refret it you could shim the nut back up to height. nice job on the level and re dress.

If Todd was angry and insistent that the refretting be done, I can just imagine him leaving the argument (and the room) pointing back and saying, "You will refret this!" *DOOR SLAM*

Amazing jig! nice work.

Sometimes I crown the worn frets BEFORE I level, if I’m trying to maintain as much fret as possible. That makes it less likely that I will overshoot the minimum levelling I need to do.

Eric's face looks like he's 40. His hands... look like he's 140... but what trustworthy hands they are!! Great job dude👍🏾

Cool hair !

I do lots of fret dressings in my repair shop. I know this video was made to show how Erick goes about deciding what to do here, but this one is truly a no-brainer. Wear spots with giant frets= a level and recrown... plain and simple. There's tons of meat on those frets to do several dressings. Unless there's a complaint about fret size, fret damage from a drop or a seating issue, a refret is what an unseasoned or unscrupulous tech would sell to a customer. Tod Rules!

Anyway.....from knee surgery BACK to guitars....this guy is "the" doctor... just watch,listen,and learn.....great demo/vid.....thanks.

Just wondering why you would not tape off the fret board before dressing and sanding? I'm a fairly new tech, and i have been shown to always always tape off before sanding. Your video didn't show that, so I'm wondering if there's a reason not to?

Awesome work!