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I've acquired a few inexpensive guitars over the last couple of years and, apart from their bang for the buck, they've one thing in common: they'd all benefit from a fret dress. But with the pros charging more than many of my guitars actually cost, I decided to add to my skill set and do it myself. How hard could it be?

Step 1: the method

Ron Kirn, over at TDPRI, has this pretty much covered in a couple of his threads: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/104487-ok-so-i-promised-here-ya-5.html#post1265684 and http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-technical/201556-fret-leveling-yer-tele-101-a.html. I'd never have considered doing this without his excellent step by step guides. Thanks, Ron. Add a tour round half a dozen guitar forums and StewMac's site and I was ready to go.

Step 2: the tools

Now it's possible to spend a lot of money here and I completely understand the DIYer who enjoys putting serious money down for the best tools out there. That's not me. If I have to pay, I will, but I'm sure going to try and avoid doing so if I can.

Searching eBay, I managed to find a Corian offcut (with precision flat faces) and a quality 180 grit silicon carbide sanding roll (50 metres! It'll come in, right?) for no money. Result. With the addition of some low tack masking tape, double-sided tape and a marker pen, that's the levelling tools sorted.



Finding the right crowning tools at the right price was more difficult. There are several ways to go and none of them are anywhere close to being cheap. I eventually went with StewMac's medium three-corner fret dressing file. £13 didn't seem too high a price to pay, even though it's essentially a triangular file with the edges ground off. I also picked up their fret end dressing file to complete the tool box.



Step 3: the guitar

Now I needed a guinea pig to learn on. So for the last few weeks I've been on the lookout for a fixer upper. Step forward, for the princely eBay sum of £27.21 (with a tatty Laney solid state practice combo thrown in), a used/abused and pretty much unplayable MIC '95 Squier Strat.



Step 4: levelling

First job was to get the neck level. A minor tweak of the truss rod and it was straight enough! The fret board was taped; the patient was prepped and ready. Notice the improvised neck support – I'm going to have to rig up something better up for the next one.



Every fret was marked up with the pen:



I used double-sided tape to attach the sandpaper to the Corian and set to work. No force was required. Just gently passing the block up and down took those high spots back immediately.

After just a couple of passes:



Looking across all of the frets, the cuts confirmed the neck was straight enough to continue.

After a minute or so of gentle up/down/rolling action, most of the pen had gone but not all. You can see here that frets 21 and 22 were stubborn hold outs. Fret 20, on the other hand, had been taken back a lot. No wonder this guitar was unplayable above the 12th fret.



Another minute or so though and the job's done.

To finish off, for that pro touch (roll off?), frets 12 and upwards were given a few more strokes to take them down just a tad further.

Step 5: crowning

I marked the frets again with the pen. The job now was to remove all of the ink with the file save for a fine sliver on the crown. A nice dome shape was the goal but I'd be happy with an inverted 'v' on this one. Either way, it's all good.

After watching StewMac's video demo for the triangular crowning file again (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Shaping_and_crowning/3-Corner_Fret_Dressing_Files.html?tab=Video#details) I took a deep breath and began.

Progress was slow and steady. By working from both sides of the neck, I tried to get each fret two thirds of the way there before moving on to the next. The file's 'safe' edges did their job for the most part with the masking tape holding up well but I wouldn’t think of trying this with a bare neck.

You can see here the first fret I worked on. A couple of slips are visible on the crown and the tape's worn through and needed replacing. I got better.



Next, I went over each fret again, working on the profile and getting that ink line nice and fine. My confidence grew and I actually started to enjoy myself. About an hour after starting, the levelling was done.

Step 6: finishing off

After cleaning up the fret ends (though the majority needed little to no work) I used a piece of 1000 grit paper wrapped round my finger to take off the remaining ink and buff up each fret. I finished them off with a good polish and removed the tape. A little lemon oil on the board and I'm smiling.



The finished article:





Rewired with a new switch and jack, I've kept the stock ceramic neck and middle pickups and added a cheap DeArmond bridge humbucker I had lying around. I've replaced the pickguard, nut and tuner bushes and tweaked the trem. The dirt and grime's been removed revealing a well matched three piece alder body though the finish has chipped off in a couple of places – mojo, right?

How does it play? With its fret dress and new set up: like butter. How does it sound? For the most part, like a MIC '95 Squier of course but it's not too bad and if I decide it's a keeper that can be changed.

Bring on the next guitar!

Great work and great tutorial! I should do this to a few of my guitars.

Thanks for posting this.

Excellent post, thank you.

I had to make this post since I saw my post count was 311 before it. I hate 311.

P.S. The tatty Laney practice amp that came bundled with the Strat was useless. Its non-stock speaker, however, was anything but. A vintage Celestion G8-15.




I contacted Celestion to find out more about it and was told it was issued in January '79. "It has a glass fibre coil giving a bright, tight and clean sound with bit of a wild overdrive. Power handling is 15W. The large L magnet helps to control the bottom end so the speaker sounds less fizzy in its tonal balance. The sensitivity will be around 95dB. The frequency range, when new, would have been around 100Hz - 5kHz but if it's been played a lot it's now more like 85Hz - 5kHz."

The amp's gone to the tip: the speaker hasn't !

Fantastic thread! I'm in the process of re-building my own Squier Strat (MI Indonesia), and have been really hesitant concerning the frets. I'd just assume leave them alone not wanting to ruin something on what is one of my favorite necks to play.

And - KILLER score on the speaker! For what you paid you got way more than your money's worth I'd say!

Thanks for this. I am also on the lookout for a cheap neck to mess with.

Great job and pics GA

I've done a lot of fret levelling over the years- I'm too cheap to pay someone else to do it too
Actually though, once you've got the kit, you're all set for the rest of your playing life.

I use exactly the same method but with two different tools. Instead of a block and sandpaper, I use a chisel sharpening stone. Heavy and dead flat, it sort of does all of the hard work for you, but you need to be careful it doesn't eat into the frets too quickly because of said weight- slow and steady!

Great tip about the upper frets. Work lightly from the 2Xth fret to around the 12th and then, again, lightly from the 2xth to the 14th, to the 16th, 18th etc so that the fall off slightly increases as you go higher up the neck.

I also just lightly run the stone side to side, E to E, across the frets as a final piece of insurance against having bitten into the frets curve too much in any one place, helping guarantee slick future string bends.

Then, instead of a triangular file I use a crowning file with a built in radius to the cutting edge that you run over the top of the frets. I think the curved crowning file guarantees even fret tops but is harder to use with the marker pen method as it tends to just smear it a bit which makes it harder to know when to stop.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

You're a braver man than me, Tonedeaf, if you're going to use a favourite neck for your first fret dress . I've just picked up one of those laminate MII hardtail Bullets for my next project and I'm really impressed with the neck on it. I certainly don't want to ruin it. I'm going to go work on it even more slowly and carefully than my first.

Good advice, MC.

Since posting, I've discovered this tutorial: http://www.frettech.com/fret/index.html. Nice idea about adding four layers of tape over the 10th fret to give a smooth fall-off slope. Going to give that a try on my next job.

Ooo, interesting GA- is that with the idea of the 4 tape layers then giving a tiny bit of lift and setting the right angle for the fall off?


Incidentally, I picked up an old '74 Ibanez SG a couple of weeks ago. The 37 year old frets have pretty much had it but I thought it was worth a light fret level to see how it plays before paying for a full re-fret.
The frets are so low that the arched fret file I've got did not actually get to touch the stoned fret tops when each side of the metal curve was sitting on the rosewood! So I had to improvise and grind off the edge of a triangular file and create an ad hoc tool. Much prefer the manual method now. Rather than using a curved file and having to live with the radius it imparted, I could define my own with freehand shaping. Bit more work but I got a much finer fret top as a result.
If you're buying tools, I'd totally back up the crowning file GA recommended now. A more flexible and accurate method.