Why I Am Not A Fan Of Fret Erasers
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- Опубліковано 17 лип 2023
- In this video, I will explain why I am not a fan of fret erasers. If you would like to help support my channel and get something cool in return, please consider the following:
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I literally had no idea that stewmac would replace worn out tools. And I have a stewMAX membership. How did I not know that. THANK YOU.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t get along with the fret eraser, the size of them made my hand cramp and ache very quickly. I went back to sandpaper and a polishing wheel on the dremel. Thank you for the video Chris.
🤣
I’ve been using fret erasers and though I was crazy because they wouldn’t take out all the scratches. Glad to know I’m not alone with that. I may switch back to sandpaper from now on.
I'm finishing my first build (thanks to lots of your advices and videos) and I chose to do the fretwork by using the three corners file, a small fine file for the dressing, sandoaper and the dremel. I have installed stainless steel frets as well.
It took me some time because I proceeded very carefully having no experience at all (exactly what you mentioned about muscle memory), but I'm very happy with the result and I didn't missed other tools, such as these erasers that, I admit, I initially thook to purchase.
I think I will do the same also for my next build.
Tried them . At the end i use a Dremel with the polishing pad and the product to polish I don't remember how is called . Much better result
To polish the frets after leveling, I simply use the same fret file but wrapped with sandpaper. The sandpaper, if thin enough, conforms nicely to the curve of the fret file. I go from 320 to 2000 that way. A few light strokes per thickness of sandpaper are enough for a high gloss. No additional gimmicks needed.
ty brother... i was just about to purchase a set of these and started questioning if they were either not very good or that they would groove and constantly need to be trimmed or something to get to a new spot to use. your response to this was exactly what i worried about so it saved me $30. thanks for great advise and comments!
Its been my experience that Fret Erasers work well for a guitar owner to clean up a set of frets between string changes.
As for a Luthier who is leveling, dressing and polishing frets often, they make less sense.
One of the reasons is the cost of the Fret Erasers and the second is their performance, I think they are "OK" at best.
After years of use I've had much better results with my dressing and crowning files that I purchased from Stew-Mac.
And of course Sandpaper, you can never have enough of it.
Thanks for the content, much appreciated.
yes Chris, what you said does make sense! fret erasers, cost about double a finishing pack of wet and dry! I can see benefits on using either, but never gave a thought about the groove issue, good to know!
Cool! I appreciate the content! I've always used sandpaper too. A few times recently I saw the fret erasers and thought, "maybe I should test them out," but something always made me hesitate. Now I think I can move on and just skip over them. 😁
I discovered the same thing. In theory they sound great. But they just take forever to get them to polish anything, and then I still end up having to polish even more with fine paper. I have been masking the frets and using a polishing bit with Flitz polishing paste and I get them to shine like chrome. Wear an apron and a mask with safety glasses because that stuff goes everywhere when you are buffing.
I have a few Fret Eraser sets and the one I tend to use the most, is the Hosco 4 piece eraasers. They come in 150, 180, 400 and 1000 grit.
The important thing is, when trying to get a good mirror-like polish using fret erasers, is to finish the leveling and crowning process with as fine a file/sanding beam as possible. That's my experience.
For example, I will level the frets using my leveling beam with 120 or 220 grit paper, then for crowning I will take the finer crowning file, but if I have a wider surface to crown, then I will start with the coarser one. Lastly, before moving on to polishing, I will ensure that I've used the fine crowning file on all frets, and then I can use the 150 and 180 grit fret erasers to polish out the fine scratches left by the crowning file.
I start by moving the fret earser across the whole fretboard, making sure to hit every fret top, once that is complete I'll take the same fret eraser and move it along each fret top. This way I change the polishing direction, and I'll remove the different scratch patterens and gradually see those scratches disappear. I'll continue like this, untill I've used all 4 erasers and then I'll finish off with my dremel, with some Autosol polishing compound.
My experience is based on nickel-silver frets, mainly.
Thanks for the video, Chris!
Cheers.
I have tried fret-erasers as well, and that groove issue you mentioned was quite annoying, but for me it was because I decided to try them without masking off the fretboard. However, I have found them to work better if I, like with the files, do one side at the time and use the side of the eraser. Nor my fav tool for the job for sure though. I prefer sand paper as well.
Glad it wasn't just me that found this same issue. Agreed with everything you raised
Sandpaper all the way, great result every time. Glad you made this vid as I was thinking about dippin into the world of fret rubbers to try but now ill stick with the ode faithfull method.
Great vid as always sir
I haven't tried fret erasers on stainless steel frets and I can certainly see them being an issue with that because they take a lot more work than I expected just to polish up nickel frets. I've found that I have to scrub for a minimum of 30 seconds with the 180 grit eraser and then around 10 seconds for the rest to polish out the scratches from filing. However, if you use them just to polish up dirty or dull frets that don't need any leveling, they're fantastic. They're some of the best things I've ever used for that purpose, but dressing after filing is gonna take a lot of elbow grease.
I have a question if you could be so kind... i used these to take out some high spots on my guitars ( first time diy r ) took forever but worked ... do you think i need to recrown ? Thanks in advance
Fret erasers are great for repairs and touch ups, but I don't use them for complete refrets, there are much better tools for that much work. Great video.
Fret erasers are great.......for a whole lot of things that don't have frets. I touch up the ends with a small fine Nicholson triangle file with the 3 edges polished smooth as glass just to knock any edges left over, then start with Micro-Mesh 1,500 on a customized Popsicle stick. Work my way up to 12,000 and that's it. If I were to polished it with my Dremel it'd just dull.
Just started building my own guits including necks for a few years now.
Built a 30 in Baritone Tele and my Holy Grail guitar, a 1986 Schon Guitar. You can see them on my channel.
I've always found the easiest way to polish frets, from the levelling process is to make up a wooden block to put the sandpaper round. I make them up about 5mm thick (1/4") or so roughly, by about 60mm wide (2 1/2" ish). Something like 120mm/6" long. Then I bring the thickness of the block down to about 3-4mm on one long edge, and run a file down the 3-4mm edge (tricky work!) so it becomes concave. This edge is now the negative of the frets you're polishing. Just wrap a piece of sandpaper around the block and (carefully!) run it along the fret. After a few runs the sandpaper will conform to the shape of the fret and it's much easier to sand the fret. Do one fret like that, then move the sandpaper along to use a fresh patch, and do the next fret. Use the appropriate grit paper, and go down the grits. Then I use little circular fibre mops (cheap as chips, from Amazoff) to put on the end of a Drimmel tool and coat them with cutting compound (rouge, white oxide etc) from a block. This process will give good results fairly quickly, with minimum fuss. But the more grits you go down through, and the more time you spend doing it, the better the result will be. Fret erasers just seem superfluous to me, but might be good to sling in your guitar case for impromptu fret polishing on the go???
While I certainly don’t work on anywhere near as many guitars as you do, or stainless steel, I switched from sandpaper to Fret Erasers about 3 years ago because they are easier on my 60 year old finger joints. After crowning with Stew Mac’s 300 grit original Z-file, I use the Stew Mac very fine fret end file to remove the scratches on the sides of the frets from the Z-file. Then I use 600 grit sandpaper to remove those scratches, AND the pattern on the top of the frets from the levelling. Then I run thru the whole range of fret erasers. Yes, sometime there might be a few scratches left. I could have been a little more careful with the 600 grit, and in some cases I will go thru the whole process on one or 2 frets. Yes, the Fret Erasers get grooves. And the grooves get full of metal. I clean the metal out of the grooves with the end of a ¼” file. And when the grooves get too deep, I flatten most of the surface on an 80 grit sanding block, which goes very quickly. Overall, I’m happy with them. And my finger joints thank me. I’m not a big fan of doing fret work, due to the repetitive nature, and wear & tear on your fingers. But the Fret Erasers have helped make it a little easier.
I entirely agree. In my experience erasers are only good for polishing lightly tarnished frets, in fact snake oil comes to mind.
I only use fret erasers to clean the initial scum off of corroded frets, then I move onto progressive micromesh to actually fix the frets and then onto dremel buffing. Erasers do nothing to get out dings and scratches.
Good info, thanks! You earned my subscription a long time ago :D
I love the VEE you are building. I believe angles are the key. I don’t like round tips.
I'm currently in the process of making a list of tools to purchase for when my guitar kit arrives. Was really wondering whether I should buy fret erasers, this video is the perfect answer. No, buy sandpaper. Thank you!
I'm inclined to agree with you.
I never bought any of those fret erasers.
I just progress from medium to fine to ultra-fine wet'n'dry (400 to 2000) and finish off with metal polish.
All by hand, no Dremelling of frets for me.
One thing I've found an eraser useful for though is as a 'Sanding Block'.
A regular wedge ended pencil eraser that is.
Great for wrapping the wet'n'dry around.
Saves making a 'slot' in the ends of my fingers 😉
Its laziness...just do it the right way..agreed..
Super assilex is also great for ss frets!
I'm not a luthier. I have a bunch of guitars and they all have nickel frets but one. Every time I change the strings on any of them (which is not very often) I give the frets a good going over with Stew-Mac Fret Erasers to smooth and remove dings, scratches and to polish them.
I've been doing this for a very long time with fine results. Yes, they've gotten grooves in them, but I just turn them and use a fresh surface. After more than twenty-five years they're still good.
I believe this is an example of user error. You're supposed to use the sand paper and polish with the eraser. I use 600 grit paper to clean the fret, and then I go to medium, fine, and super fine erasers. Regardless, I get better results faster with jeweler's rouge on a dremel.
Wrong. They are marketed as a tool for removing scratches and tool marks. This from StewMac: "They're incredibly handy-use them in sequence as a final step on freshly-crowned frets, to erase fine file marks and scratches."
@HighlineGuitars then Stew Mac, as always, is disingenuous about their products. I got mine at Crimson; they demonstrate the rubber being used how I described. If I had to play devil's advocate, I'd be willing to bet that Stew Mac would go and say that you're not using a fine enough file and go and blame the consumer.
I was just thinking of buying these so I might hold off till another time and spend that money elsewhere good video thanks
Man you speaking the gospel right here. I only use fret erasers for removing oxidation. Useless for removing tool marks.
I only use files..sandpaper and then steel wool...thats all i need..
I file, then sand, then use the erasers for the last fine buffing of the fret wire and ends before polishing. I love them, just a quick run down the fingerboard and then Mcguiers compound with my dremel polishing wheel, and voila....perfect. Honestly, I would never consider trying to take file scratches out with those erasers. Far to tedious and a waste of time.
Now I've never used the fret erasers but you can just use regular erasers from the dollar store and itll clean your frets pretty decently
I always keep turning the eraser from side to side and bottom then top, rotate. I was thinking to going back to paper but have not yet. My only real problem I have with the eraser is I can't see what grit it is anymore, I wore of the grit #, so I guess.
Chris brings up some legit points. Depending on the material, and your willingness to put a lot of effort in the polishing process, fret erasers might not be the best tool fo everyone. For me they work beautifully though. I have done all my 7 guitars with fret erasers (+ polishing compound as a last step), with immaculate, true mirror shine result. None of them is stainless steel though, but there are some high-quality nickel alloys, and jescar evo gold as well. Grooves can be an issue, I'm cutting slices from the erasers from time to time. And also in terms of effort, it takes a long time to achieve the results I have. I'm doing one freatboard in around 5 hours, using magnifier glass, and being extra precise and thorough. But it must be said, that I love doing it this way, and it's kind of like meditation to me. If I was to produce guitars as a business, or doing lots of fretworks for some other reason, I'm sure I wouldn't use fret erasers. Also, if I had stainless steel frets, I wouldn't use them neither.
You're not joking when you say it takes experience. That is the most important part. Watching don't get you there. I'm very good with filing (knockwood) but crowning is totally new to me. I can dress frets easily when they're started but if they're not started lets say it's nowhere near as easy. Experience is the best teacher. Stainless is very hard & it is hard on tools. I hate drilling & tapping stainless. I can't imagine fret erasers doing much on stainless. I'd say it's like wasting $.
I never though fret erasers were intended to remove tool marks and scratches, they are just too fine for that work. Got to use sand papers for that. But erasers are fine for the polishing stages afterwards, and I really like that they can get into the corners and sides of the frets in a way that sandpaper just won’t do.
This from StewMac, "...use them in sequence as a final step on freshly-crowned frets, to erase fine file marks and scratches."
@@HighlineGuitars having never bought them from Stu Mac I’ve been unaware of that particular claim. As you can attest, that’s not an accurate claim. Seems to me whatever grade is written on the erasers what they actually do is a lot finer than that.
@@DrKevGuitar I totally agree. I wanted to make this video partly because I felt the claims by StewMac and others were bit unrealistic. They might apply to nickel-silver frets, but even that's a stretch.
too bad I just bought like a set of 5...I had the 8000 grit yellow and it seemed ok but I can see what you are saying, I haven't opened the others since I did get them through stew mac maybe I could return them?...probably not cheap though to do that. oh well thanks for the tips!
I just need to get a Dremel for polishing I guess
Would like to know how to be a Patron and a little more on the Norton synthetic Steel Wool. I agree the the fret erasers are great when new but ive ended you filing them back so many times that I have gone back to sand paper as well.
I agree for working and shaping new frets wet dry sandpaper would be the way to go. However I never thought of the fret erasers for that use. I use the wide flat side for a quick polish when cleaning things up during a string change and simple setup. Never thought of them as a guitar "building" tool but more of a maintenance tool. As for actual "fretwork" replacing and shaping frets I would leave that to a pro. But what do I know I am just a drummer with a mechanical engineering background that plays a little Bass but somehow became an elected guitar tec buy all my friends and now their friends that actually play guitar and bass but struggle to change strings on one.
Unfortunately, they are marketed for use as a tool that can remove scratches and file marks.
Thanks!
Thanks Steve! I hope my videos are helpful.
Could it be that fret erasers are better suited for nickel frets?
They are also like 20 bucks for what seems to me is just really small sanding sponges.
Thank you for such wonderful vids. I would like to hear yu opinion on the FretMaestro. Cheers.
I have no opinion since I haven’t tried one.
I'm about to polish the frets on mine I have the yellow fret eraser but I've also got a Dremel and flitz polish. The frets are only tarnished with very little wear as it sat in the case for two years until I recovered from a health issue. The only synthetic steel wool pads I've found online are the 3M *000 very fine pads. I've also found Norton brand *0000 synthetic steel wool pads as well. Would you recommend just using a Dremel and polish just for tarnish? The *0000 or the *000 synthetic steel wool pads for tarnish?
Thanks for the video
I also purchased a full set of these erasers and I don’t like them either. Aside from the grooves they get, they just don’t seem to give me a nice of a finish prior to polishing them. Good point brought up 🤙
Greetings Chris
I wonder if you could put the neck on the cnc and “plek” the frets level to the radius. You only remove thousandth of an inch, that way you may only have a few to recrown and polish.
A Plek machine is basically a CNC machine that has been adapted to do fret work.
@@HighlineGuitars yes but they are $20,000 and up. Just thought it might be an option but not sure how to program the cnc to do touch measurements to find the lowest point.
@@stevereese6488 Easy. All you need to do is figure out a way to scan the fretboard into data that would be used to guide the spindle. That's why a Plek machine costs so much.
I found the same thing with the erasers. That groove is annoying. That's why I also use sandpaper after crowning.
Never used these fret erasers .. and after this video I will probably never use it 😆
I just use a sharp knife to trim down the erasers.
Given the price of fret erasers... I find W-o-D papers far cheaper and easier to form to the fret wire.
Also, aside from the groove-forming, erasers dump fine particles of abrasive rubber all over the fretboard - like using wire wool...
W-o-D abrasives don't do this.
Good advice for newby luthiers.
Question would the synthetic steel be appropriate to say tape off fretboard and use that on some scratching frets ? Would that affect the crown?
I use it all the time. It isn’t aggressive enough to affect the crown.
I've never found the erasers to by helpful except for specific areas on one or two frets.
Nice video. What type of synthetic wool 000?
I use 0 to 0000
Okay, now finish my guitar!
Let’s Roll. It 100 degrees today.
Keep Cool Sir, especially that little girl of yours. 👍😉
Sandpaper or carborundum paper?
Silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper.
I’m not a big fan of the erasers either. It feel like you have to really press hard to get any real progress and they take forever. Sand paper is much faster.
What type of material or stone are the Fret Erasers made out of? because I think the fret erasers are suppose to be made out of a certain stone to be used for Stainless steel frets because stainless steels frets don't work well with sandpaper and graphite paper
My sandpaper uses silicon carbide abrasives and is intended for use on steel.
@@HighlineGuitars Thanks for the info, but are the Fret Erases made out of Silicon Carbide also? or is it a different type of stone
@@waynegram8907 I have no idea. Maybe Google it?
@@HighlineGuitars I will try again I don't know if they say what fret erasers are made out of. I think they don't leave particles like when using steel wool leaves particles that damage pickup coils so it's very risky using steel wool so that is why people use fret erasers instead to not damage there pickup coils?
Yeah I didn't care for them either. But like the one gentleman down below commented. They are good for guys who do regular maintenance on their guitars. Like once or twice a year. But definitely not worth the money.
What's up with that flying v I didn't know you made V's I'm going to have to check out your channel, hopefully there's some videos on that😊✌️
I agree, Fret Erasers suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! They are a pain to use, don’t properly remove scratches nor get the frets shiny. Mine went in the trash. Also these are originally a tool from Hosco (a good brand) but these miss the mark.
Something….
I don't think fret erasers were for fretwork purposes, but for removing oxidation, grime etc on the frets.
They are marketed as tools for fretwork.
@HighlineGuitars marketing will say lots things to gain a new customer base mmm, I've been following fret erasers for a while and they do work best in that removal of rust etc area.
No erasers? I'm good with that.
negative intro