fretting

[__Robbo__]

hey guys, sorry if this is already covered, im in a rush atm, so if its already done, could someone point me in the right direction.

with fretting, getting a pre-slotted fretboard, what do i need to have/need to know with putting the frets in? what exactly do i need to do?

thanks heaps guys!

[rh15951]

You need fret wire, a tool to bend the frets to the radius of the fingerboard, a few files to level the frets, possibly some glue to stick them in. Maybe more stuff I've missed...

[hazletbassist89]

stewmac.com has lots of stuff for fretting. I'm not sure if you want to go out and spend a whole bunch of money on a fretting press or anything, but they have pretty much any tool you could ever want pertaining to luthiery (<-- is that a word?).

[Son of Magni]

You need to bend the frets to have a slightly smaller radius than the fingerboard. That way you know the ends will stay down.

You need a small plastic mallet to bash them in with.

You need heavy duty flush-cut nippers to trim the ends off.

You need a file to smooth the ends.

You can stop there if you're lucky and they don't buzz, but most likely now you need to use a flat bar with 400 grit stuck to it to flatten the frets to get them all even.

Then you need to re-crown them. There's special tools for that, but a cheap way is to just use 400 or 600 grit wrapped on your finger.

Then use 600 grit and go up and down the fingerboard with your fingers to polish it up.

Disclaimer: this is not really a professional fret dressing job, just an easy/cheap way to halfway decent job.