Nice job. As some have mentioned below, it would've been 100x cooler if you could've talked us through some of what your process is. Aside from that, this is some really great work man!!
What state and city you located? I’m in Seattle/Tacoma WA area and really need some work done on a 82 silverburst Gibson les Paul custom. Need to have the frets replaced with some quality jumbo frets and to be plekd if possible.I’ve been patiently waiting to find the right guy for the job as I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with inexperienced luthiers working on them. I was really impressed with the level of detail in your work and craftsmanship demonstrated in your video . Pm me if you are interested in taking in any work right now. Thanks Jeff mclean
Jeffery, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I rarely login and check the comments. It’s very kind of you to consider sending your guitar to me. If you’re near Seattle, you’re already in a fantastic area of local technicians and luthiers, some who likely went to my alma mater Roberto-vent school of luthiery. I have no doubt one of them should be able to assist you without you adding an extra $200 in shipping. Best of luck, DBN
Hey John. Thanks for checking out the video. In this particular case I did not use glue. This was the first refret the guitar has had and the slots, after extensive cleaning, were very tight on my fretwire. It didn’t feel necessary. However I normally do glue in my frets. You might have noticed how I went over the fret slots with a file before installing the frets. I use a triangular file to add a beveled edge in the slot so the fret will easily go in and be less likely to tear when they are replaced in the future. If you do glue in frets, I recommend taping off the fingerboard, assuming you use super glue, and use paraffin wax next to the fret slot (not inside!). This way it’s easier to cleanup wax rather than scraping off the super glue.
I see you treated the fret board with something before you pulled the frets. What was that? How hard was it to work with the stainless steel, especially in shortening the tangs to get around the binding?
Sarge, thanks for watching the video. I used lemon oil to make the wood wet before applying heat. 1 it’s good for the fingerboard and 2, I’ve tried it both ways, a dry fingerboard and a wet fingerboard, when heating and pulling frets, and I find that I have less tear or damage to the wood from the tangs. Logically it makes sense to me that a dry fingerboard with too much heat may crack. So that is my effort to avoid damage. Stainless steel is tough. Bending the wire wasn’t difficult, and I found the wire to be more forgiving when hammering frets. It’s less likely to loose the radius I create compared to nickel silver. The real difficulty is cutting the tangs. My old Stewmac wire cutters didn’t stand up to the task. They chipped unfortunately. I had to use a stronger set that didn’t cut as close as the Stewmac cutter so I had much more leveling with my beveled fret file which took a long time. In the end it’s worth the upgrade because those frets sang and they’ll probably outlive me.
@@creamwobbly I’ve watched plenty of technicians removing frets on UA-cam by heating them up with a soldering iron but I never see any of them prep the fingerboard for that heat. They may be in more wet environments than myself but it just seems like a good rule of thumb. The down side is if you’re going to immediately sand the fingerboard, your sand paper will get gummed up. Give the board some time to absorb the oil and then sand. That’s my recommendation.
@@joseislanio8910 I’ve never tried. More often than not, guitars that come into my shop are dry. Too many people in my area think they don’t need to hydrate their instruments. In my particular case, I need the lemon oil to get the fingerboard wet again. However I could see a use if I lived in a very humid area like the Philippines. The purpose of me adding this particular step, like how I mentioned to Sarge, was to hydrate the fingerboard and to protect it from burning while I heat up the frets. It also acts as an almost barometer. There’s no science behind this, only experience, but when I see the oil bubble, the fret is probably ready to pull out without chipping the board. Hope this helps.
@@dbnwoodland thank you for your reply. I was actually suggesting that you could use alcohol after you remove the frets, so you'd get less oil to make a mess with the sandpaper.
Nibs ,Nibs, Nibs.......they are useless guys! Why do so many cry about nibs? I'd much rather have the added fret real-estate myself. To each his own I suppose.....
@@cornbobrimlove7892 yeh I know they're useless...but I wouldn't buy an expensive old car and start removing the trim and chrome because it has no usefull purpose.
meh... you imparted nothing to those seeking the knowledge and experience of doing a great fret job but a visual, most the comments are questions about the process !
Nice job. As some have mentioned below, it would've been 100x cooler if you could've talked us through some of what your process is. Aside from that, this is some really great work man!!
Excellent professional Luther skills. Top of the craft tools. I must go and visit this guy. Great music.
Great video, cool tunes- that one hellof lot of work - great job
Great job! …But it always hurts to see a Gibson without nibs.
BS.... nibs serve absolutely no purpose. Added fret real-estate on the ends is much more valuable than some useless plastic boogers.
I see you using a scalpel, when you're beveling the fret ends - what are you using it for?
is that Jonny Lang? gotta be...
What state and city you located? I’m in Seattle/Tacoma WA area and really need some work done on a 82 silverburst Gibson les Paul custom. Need to have the frets replaced with some quality jumbo frets and to be plekd if possible.I’ve been patiently waiting to find the right guy for the job as I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with inexperienced luthiers working
on them. I was really impressed with the level of detail in your work and craftsmanship demonstrated in your video . Pm me if you are interested in taking in any work right now.
Thanks
Jeff mclean
Jeffery,
I apologize for taking so long to respond. I rarely login and check the comments. It’s very kind of you to consider sending your guitar to me. If you’re near Seattle, you’re already in a fantastic area of local technicians and luthiers, some who likely went to my alma mater Roberto-vent school of luthiery. I have no doubt one of them should be able to assist you without you adding an extra $200 in shipping.
Best of luck,
DBN
What process did you use to polish the fret ends? Just sandpaper?
Looks Norlin era, but what year? 🤔
cool what size frets are those ?
Hi Dave. Did you use glue on the frets, the video went by a bit fast at that point. Thanks . John.
Hey John. Thanks for checking out the video. In this particular case I did not use glue. This was the first refret the guitar has had and the slots, after extensive cleaning, were very tight on my fretwire. It didn’t feel necessary. However I normally do glue in my frets. You might have noticed how I went over the fret slots with a file before installing the frets. I use a triangular file to add a beveled edge in the slot so the fret will easily go in and be less likely to tear when they are replaced in the future. If you do glue in frets, I recommend taping off the fingerboard, assuming you use super glue, and use paraffin wax next to the fret slot (not inside!). This way it’s easier to cleanup wax rather than scraping off the super glue.
@@dbnwoodland Thanks Dave. Best regards. John.
What brand and size frets did u put on mate ?
I see you treated the fret board with something before you pulled the frets. What was that? How hard was it to work with the stainless steel, especially in shortening the tangs to get around the binding?
Sarge, thanks for watching the video. I used lemon oil to make the wood wet before applying heat. 1 it’s good for the fingerboard and 2, I’ve tried it both ways, a dry fingerboard and a wet fingerboard, when heating and pulling frets, and I find that I have less tear or damage to the wood from the tangs. Logically it makes sense to me that a dry fingerboard with too much heat may crack. So that is my effort to avoid damage. Stainless steel is tough. Bending the wire wasn’t difficult, and I found the wire to be more forgiving when hammering frets. It’s less likely to loose the radius I create compared to nickel silver. The real difficulty is cutting the tangs. My old Stewmac wire cutters didn’t stand up to the task. They chipped unfortunately. I had to use a stronger set that didn’t cut as close as the Stewmac cutter so I had much more leveling with my beveled fret file which took a long time. In the end it’s worth the upgrade because those frets sang and they’ll probably outlive me.
@@creamwobbly I’ve watched plenty of technicians removing frets on UA-cam by heating them up with a soldering iron but I never see any of them prep the fingerboard for that heat. They may be in more wet environments than myself but it just seems like a good rule of thumb. The down side is if you’re going to immediately sand the fingerboard, your sand paper will get gummed up. Give the board some time to absorb the oil and then sand. That’s my recommendation.
@@dbnwoodland would it be bad to use some alcohol to help remove some of the oil faster?
@@joseislanio8910 I’ve never tried. More often than not, guitars that come into my shop are dry. Too many people in my area think they don’t need to hydrate their instruments. In my particular case, I need the lemon oil to get the fingerboard wet again. However I could see a use if I lived in a very humid area like the Philippines. The purpose of me adding this particular step, like how I mentioned to Sarge, was to hydrate the fingerboard and to protect it from burning while I heat up the frets. It also acts as an almost barometer. There’s no science behind this, only experience, but when I see the oil bubble, the fret is probably ready to pull out without chipping the board. Hope this helps.
@@dbnwoodland thank you for your reply. I was actually suggesting that you could use alcohol after you remove the frets, so you'd get less oil to make a mess with the sandpaper.
I can not believe how i did not see you sight the board through the entire process ... no sound demonstration either
oh shita Vintage Trouble!
Did he keep the nibs?
No....if you did this to my custom I'd probably break it strait over your head
Keeping the nibs doubles the price of the refret
Nibs ,Nibs, Nibs.......they are useless guys! Why do so many cry about nibs? I'd much rather have the added fret real-estate myself. To each his own I suppose.....
@@cornbobrimlove7892 yeh I know they're useless...but I wouldn't buy an expensive old car and start removing the trim and chrome because it has no usefull purpose.
@@robertkidd6270 Then don't wear out the frets.......hang it on the wall and brag that ...."hey, it has nibs and I'm keeping it that way"....
meh... you imparted nothing to those seeking the knowledge and experience of doing a great fret job but a visual, most the comments are questions about the process !
bye bye fret nibs :(
Save binding nibs