The Proper way to Pull a Fret
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2017
- In this episode of DIY Guitar Making, I demonstrate how to remove a fret without getting chipout on the fretboard face, using a set of nippers and a soldering iron.
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Thanks, Eric. I'm thinking about replacing the rich lite fretboard and bridge with katalox on my Martin Dread jr to "liven'" up the higher notes. I also don't think rich lite will age in a vintage way. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Though it's heck of a hard job, I really like your idea and support your intent to improve probably beloved instrument!
Richlite is totally artifical and has nothing to do with grainy wood, so there's no way it can improve or change. :D
Damn, it's such a shame on the "almighty" Martin that they can't make guitars with rosewood while there are thousands of ~100$ guitars with rosewood fretboards and bridges.
And with real wood not cheap messy stratabond necks.
I bet they won't twist ever, but at the same time all this glue takes away so much of the vibrations and all those layers of wood are not aligned with their grain structures.
Not to mention Larrivee makes all-solid neck-heels and they seem to be stable too.
And even regular 2-5 piece necks bend or twist rarely, so stratabond is just another way to cheat on customers.
Yes, I agree. Richlite is like fiberglass and will always "buffer" the natural aging process. I have removed fingerboards before so I have some experience. There is only one way to find out. Thanks Lexonn for your input.
Oh, can you please tell if you lock the fretboard after taking it out?
I heard that it might twist/bend for some amount, so it's not a lego piece you just take off and then put back on - sanding and reshaping might be needed.
The fretboards I' ve removed I have discarded. 2 fretboards I've ended up chipping them out with a chisel. My purpose for fretboard removal in the past has been replacing it with a shorter scale board so I didn't need the original. It's always a good idea to clamp a piece of wood like that to another straight piece to keep it from warping and winding.I've made aquariums and other things in the past that I've clamped the wood straight 'till I need it. Also, it's good to let the air flow evenly on either side of the board when not clamped or installed.
I love Katalox. It's functionally like ebony in every way except looks. I've never used that richlite stuff, but it being a composite, you should be able to notice the difference just going from composite to wood.
Thanks. I bought a basket case guitar that I'm working on bringing back to life. It wouldn't be fiscally wise to pay to have somebody that knows what they're doing work on it, but it's a fun learning experience. I've got it playing and sounding good, I tried recrowning the frets, but on a couple of them the damage was too deep to eliminate, so this is my next step. By the time I'm done, I'll probably have 40 hours and $50 into a $25 guitar.
I tried to follow this advice. I did heat the fret. I could not get the fret puller under the fret. So I used an X-acto knife to get under the edge, and wiggle it. It started to move. Then I got a quality knife with a stronger blade. I used this under the edge until the fret came up and out. I attempted to walk the pullers down the fret, but it came out all at once. There was almost no chip-out, fortunately. Just goes to show that there is more than one way to get it done. I appreciate the video, it probably kept me from tearing the wood up.
Thanks for the detailed video - I'm ready to give this a shot on an old beater guitar that has frets that have seen better days - much appreciated!
thanks a ton. I needed to get the 21st fret out without destroying it .. and the soldering iron tip worked perfectly to do that !
Thank you man. I am going to use this technique soon on a banjo
I have an acoustic in which frets 2 and 3 were worn low at 1st and 2nd strings due to open chords. The other end of the frets looked great so I removed them and reinstalled them in opposite direction. It worked very well. Strings 5 and 6 are higher gauge therefore don't sit as low in the groove worn by strings 1 and 2. This saved a lot of time and hassle from cutting new wire, filing, dressing, crowning, etc. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have to install new frets but it sure works well now.
Might give that truss rod a little tighten before hand too.
Thank you for making this video, you were very easy to understand and I appreciate it, it is hard to find a good quality work nowadays.
Excellent advice and instruction.
I have watched a few fret-removing videos but yours was the most helpful. I am fixing an old bass guitar and I needed to replace the zero fret. With the help of this video I could easily remove it with a soldering iron and a regular wire cutter. Thank you!
I've responded to your comment in this Q&A video. Check it out! ua-cam.com/video/Ma-I2E0HwkI/v-deo.html
Great video dude! Excited to try this method 🤘🏽🤘🏽
Nice work. Thanks for the inspiration
Solder iron and pen knife work great
Very nice and to the point, thank you. Any specific place to buy those flavored nippers of recommend?
thank you. this should help me a lot
Great video, like the closeup on the types of nips/pliers this really helps and the patient heating up the frets is super. I have 4 old acoustics that need fretting to at least make them playable again, there is no replacement for quality "old" wood for sound.
I didn't understand the pliers. was the left and right mixed up? The one on the left looked "grounded".
Hi Eric thank you for the video, what would you recommend to fill the wholes, I'm thinking in turn one Nylon string in a fretless. Feeling a kind of Pastorius Syndrome... :). BTW you got a new sub!
Thanks , I enjoyed that .
Awesome video boss. Question though!
I got new frets to replace my old frets... How do you get them in there and have em stick? Do you hammer them in? Glue? Some kind of expoxy? What's that process entail?
This is the way to remove old frets! I've learned by experience.
Good job. Thanks.
what fret wire would you use on an acoustic guitar?
Thanks!
Thank you so much Eric!
Your videos are priceless. :)
How do you decide if the frets should be replaced and not leveled?
I also wanted to notice that you were making radius of the nut relying on the fretboard.
While it seemsto me that if you do it relying on the frets' radius, there's even less place for an error.
I'm speaking of the method "cut pencil in half and draw a line lying the pencil on the frets".
Why don't you do it this way?
Thanks Lexonn. The frets were deeply pitted. Levelling to the point where the pits are no longer a problem would have meant levelling too far, especially since these weren't tall frets to begin with. It's always a judgement call.
As for the nut thing, I assume you are referring to the nut slotting videos I posted? You can use the half pencil trick as long as you have a way to add several thousandths of an inch to the height of the radius. You don't want to cut to precisely the level of the fret tops, of course. In fact, if you had a pencil that was cut not as a half pencil, but with a tip 6 thousandths or so above half, then you would have a handy nut slot depth marker. Either way works so long as the nut slot depths are higher than the fret tops by a little bit.
That's a good point( no pun intended!) Thanks for bringing it up!
I saw a jaco pastorius doc and wanted a fretless bass. I remember my friend did it to his bass. But I went the route of a knife to my squire P bass and it worked great EVEN WITHOUT the gaps filled in. But I just got 3+ guitar and realized "I CAN MOD ONE TO FRETLESS. This I have a soldering iron
hello, I'm just a 16 year old boy trying to fix my uncle's old guitar, and I don't really have the tool to heat the fret wire. What would the consequences be and is it still okay to remove the fret wire without heating it?
Thanks for the video, Eric! Appreciate you taking the time to show something like this!
I have a question:
Aren't there any pre-steps before actually getting to heating and removing the fret(s)?
You know, getting the neck straight while under string tension, taking off the strings, checking the neck relief and then getting the neck straight without the string tension? I remember reading this in the Dan Erlewine setup book.
Or does such pre-steps not have to be done, when only replacing a few frets?
Thanks - I hope to hear from you!
Cheers :-)
Thanks! Yes, there are. All those things that you just mentioned, in fact! Anytime you level the frets, those things should be considered, and a partial refret always ends with a fret level..
For this video I just wanted to zoom in and take a close look specifically at the fret removal part of it and leave it at that. I would've made a longer video on performing a partial refret, but I simply just had to get the job done and get caught up on my work, and often filming (and especially editing!) videos can turn a simple operation of a couple hours into a project of several days! I'll probably do a partial refret video in the future.... Dan Erlewine's stuff is great. Do what he does!
Hi Eric!
Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it! :-)
Yeah, I see that, and it's all good! I just wanted to make sure that I got it right :-)
Still, the video is great, and there's a lot of good stuff to get from it!
Trust me, I know how time consuming making and editing videos can be - I'm frequently doing it...
Would be great, at some point, to see a video on the whole topic - refret and the steps to get there!
Yup, Erlewine's stuff is indeed great - and I'll stick to that, hehe!
Perhaps an off-topic question, but.. What video editing software do you use?? :-)
Cheers & thanks!
Sony Vegas Pro 12
Nice, looks great!
Thanks & have a good one!
Cheers!
2:06 more heat transfers if you use solder.
I would keep the pincers themselves kinda hot, so it doesnt leach heat away from the work?
That's a bad idea. It's okay if the pinchers end up being a bit of a heatsink. You don't want to end up inadvertently applying direct heat to the wood, as that can warp and structurally alter the wood, and you end up with slots that may not grip the tang of the frets.
I just got a fender strat, first three frets are worn out already. Unstead of filing all of them down, I'm going to order some from amazon. Free shipping and get her done
How'd it turn out?
I have a weird problem on my guitar - one of the frets is slightly straighter than it should(doesn't fully follow the curvature of the fretboard). When I press on one end, the other will pop out out just enough to touch the string(the action's pretty low so it doesn't take much) and play a false note if I'm trying to play a chord. I'm considering fixing it myself as it's only one fret. So do I have to get a new fret or can I fix the existing one once I've got it out?
Hey, I know this is an old comment but if you want to fix that issue, there are jigs with a certain radius you can buy or build that you pull a whole length of fret wire through to get the right curve before you cut it to individual length.
I believe those are "Stewart MacDonald" Fret Cutters ?
What about using the soldering iron on a bound neck?
Was about to ask this myself. Did you ever find an answer or perform the task
No I never got an answer@@greaserleo
Do U think I can use a hairdryer for heat
No. Won't get hot enough to loosen the glue. And if you found something hot enough to do that you'd damage the fingerboard. A soldering iron is 20 bucks.
Could I use this method to make a fretless guitar?
Great video!
How about using an iron, as in one for clothes? Heat all over and some steam to let lose on the fret board?
what about the fretboard glue...!
Great question!
0:42 steel wool and ?? what did you say? can't understand :(
naphtha
at least i think so
@@nightspicer what is naptha??? 🤔🤔??
@@zawaxe123 you can google it, just make sure that you spell it correctly
What if the frets are very low and the grabber doesnt pull?
Razor blade.
Im currently an amp tech, but I spend a decade working in a shop as a luthier. Watching this video gave me flashbacks. I was doing a switching system and the other guy started working on a refret on an 1904 or 5 Gibson mandolin. He was heating the fret up like here and must have the heat cranked in the iron.
I saw something of my periphery and heard a shouted curse, and turned to see the entire top of the mandolin completely ablaze with green flames. I don't know what the finish was, if it was lacquer or varnish, shellac etc but it went up like a Roman candle.
Thank God for insurance.
To bad you didn't have the instant replay
hahaha making fret less guitar now 😂
Why need to change fret wires instead of crowning them even your frets is still ok hmm what is the reason?
It is a judgement call as if the divots are too deep and one has to sand off a lot of material resulting then in very thin frets and as such the guitar will not be playable, so new frets is the only solution.
wow this must take an hour to remove all the frets?
There are worse ways to kill and hour.
Yep which is why shops charge so much for a complete fret job. There's no other way of getting frets out faster without butchering the fingerboard.
@@andreww1613 It can be done much faster presumably by someone more experienced
@@chrischoir3594 You wouldn't be refretting any of my guitars. Continued heat is the only safe way to break the glued bond. Trying to speed that up means using force which means risking fretboard chipping
you need to CLEAN that iron bro , ,better heat contact
Your soldering iron technique was not good.
1. The end of the shaft is where the heating element is, it is hotter than the tip so don't use the tip on the fret, use the very end of the shaft.
2. Sliding the iron along the fret gives a poor heat transfer. Instead, hold the iron pressed hard against the fret for 2 or 3 seconds, in each position along the fret. Using both these changes you will get a lot more heat into the fret, and much quicker.
too much hard selling stop doing it, my previous comment said u were direct and to the point, if i wish to go to your site i will dont tell me to go
the Best fret removal tutorial on the Net
Thanks !!!