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  #1  
Old 12-07-2010, 10:28 AM
Kitchen Guitars's Avatar
Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Default Refretting and some general repairs on a 30 year old played Acoustic. Lotsa pix.

I was jamming with a buddy that has played the heck out of his old Fender Acoustic over the past 30 years. I volunteered to clean her up and check her out. Watch out what ya volunteer for!
Subject is a Fender 262c from the early eighties. All laminate. I looked up the value before touching it!
I looked over the guitar while polishing it. I noticed the endcap of Fretboard binding was missing.

I pieced in a hunk of Spalted Sycamore. From the top it looks like the aged binding. From the side view a pretty wood.

I sanded it don to fit.
Next the neck. The neck is straight and so close to perfect angle at the bridge. No dips, no loose frets,. But, the frets, oh boy. The first five were toast

Maybe overkill, I used a small lamp to preheat the board a touch.

Then I used this old heat Iron I picked up for a buck at a flea market.
Note I etched a ridge to glide along the Fret I am heating. For those that don't know; You heat up the frets to loosen glue if any and to soften the wood at the fret so when you pull out the fret you minimize the chip out of wood.

The trick is to squeeze the fret removal snips and slide up the fret. Not to grab and yank.

As I removed the frets I kept them in order to size the replacement frets. Because of the bound fretboard the frets must be fitted to size on each fret.

End part1
Pt 2 making the replacement frets and an unpleasant suprise!
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Old 12-07-2010, 03:05 PM
mmapags mmapags is offline
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Nice work so far!
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Old 12-07-2010, 03:17 PM
sharkydude50 sharkydude50 is offline
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Just curious- What kind of fret wire are you going to use for the replacement frets?
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Old 12-07-2010, 04:58 PM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Very interesting. Have you talked to him about shaving the braces or installing a sound port?
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Old 12-07-2010, 06:26 PM
naccoachbob naccoachbob is offline
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John, is this a different one than the one you were going to cut off some of the f/b itself?
That's a great couple of tips on removing frets. Hoping my memory bank will hold them.
Great work! (wondering if Neil is trying to get more work out of you, too, hmmmmmm)
Bob
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Old 12-08-2010, 05:10 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sharkydude50 View Post
Just curious- What kind of fret wire are you going to use for the replacement frets?
That was the unpleasant surprise. The replacement wire I had in house doesn't have enough bite to hold on. I had already hit send on Sunday for a Stew Mac Order and an LMI order. By the time I figured this out Monday, likely the truck had left with my stuff. So, I took advantage of the time zone difference and got wire from LMI.
The wire has more bite but is .02 wider than the original frets. Looks like a total refret. So, I might as well fill in the fingerboard. I hope the radius of the board is 15 cause thats what it will be when I am done!
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Old 12-08-2010, 05:16 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by naccoachbob View Post
John, is this a different one than the one you were going to cut off some of the f/b itself?
That's a great couple of tips on removing frets. Hoping my memory bank will hold them.
Great work! (wondering if Neil is trying to get more work out of you, too, hmmmmmm)
Bob
Its the same one. The divots are not as bad I thought but it looks like I will be filling them after all.
Most of the "how to" I worked with came from "Guitar Player Repair Guide: How to Set Up, Maintain, and Repair Electrics and Acoustics Second Edition (Paperback)
by Dan Erlewine" I grabbed the book title for ease from Amazon. Um, they have 3 new copies of the book available for between $108 to $209!!!!! Used copies are $9 lol Lucky for Neil or I'd want my second copy back!
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Old 12-08-2010, 10:06 AM
Neil K Walk Neil K Walk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by naccoachbob View Post
John, is this a different one than the one you were going to cut off some of the f/b itself?
That's a great couple of tips on removing frets. Hoping my memory bank will hold them.
Great work! (wondering if Neil is trying to get more work out of you, too, hmmmmmm)
Bob
FYI, that's not my guitar. I've seen it in his shop though.
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Old 12-13-2010, 06:28 AM
Glen DeRusha Glen DeRusha is offline
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[QUOTE=Kitchen Guitars;2435296] The replacement wire I had in house doesn't have enough bite to hold on. QUOTE]

Stew Mac sells a tool for crimping the fret tang to make it fit a sloppy slot.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting...et_Fitter.html

Or you could take a hammer and a chisel and bang along one side of the tang, flip it over and bang along the other side to crimp the tang to give it a tighter fit.

And if you over do it, you can use one of these to straighten it back out.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting..._Tool_Set.html

How is this project coming along?

Glen
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Old 12-13-2010, 09:40 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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I got the Bass Guitar wire from LMI. I can't got that wide on the frets. So Kurt when you are ready to start your Bass I have your wire waiting.
I measured the slot with Feeler gauges and emailed Blues Creek. John is rigging me up right. Should have the wire this week.
Mean while I took the guitar out of the 39% Humidity and put it in 55% till the parts arrive.
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Old 12-19-2010, 06:43 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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Man that can go quick with the right stuff! Blues Creek sent me wire that matched the original width and had more tang for the bite. I will have to check out my wire bender. His wire had a greater bow to it.
I ran a home made plastic scraper through the trench
Made a half Titebond/half distilled water slurry
I slopped the mixture into the trench. Wiped up the excess.
Measured, nipped the tang, hammered them in with a Plastic tipped hammer.
After my photo shoot today I will file and polish the edges.
Next finish the saddle. The Ninja Cow Bone I use eats files
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Old 12-20-2010, 01:14 PM
Zigeuner Zigeuner is offline
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A very good tool to have for refretting acoustic guitars would be the Taylor Fret Buck as sold by Stew Mac. It braces up the area where the bull nose of the fingerboard traverses the top to the sound hole.

I made my own years ago but the principle is a good one. Check out the Stew Mac site for Fret Buck.
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Old 12-22-2010, 04:21 PM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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My arm hurts from patting myself on the back.
Yesterday I got in the frets, leveled, crowned, finished, polished (then did it another time).
Oh' the saddle
Sparks were flyin' getting through the Ninja Cow Bone! The original saddle had a divide between each string. It was intriguing so I imitated it.
Today I got the Saddle finished, replaced the battery while it was open, recut / cleaned up the bridge slots, new unslotted pins, cleaned the nut slots and put on some new strings.
She buzzed all over the place! An hour later I retuned, she buzzed a bit. Now, no buzz and wow wow to the sound and playability. I am so proud I think I will charge him a dollar!
Photo's taken through out the process. I will resize images and Journal in the next few days.
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Old 12-27-2010, 04:58 AM
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Kitchen Guitars Kitchen Guitars is offline
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What would you do?
I ended up replacing the first 7 frets. I leveled and crowned. Upon reassembly if I finger pick I get buzzing in a few spots. Heavy strumming which is what this dude is into and it doesn't buzz.
The guitar has had major surgery. While my guitar room is struggling to stay at 45%, ambient air is 20% humidity. Should I just let everything settle in till spring then do final adjustments? I can bump up the saddle a touch to get rid of the buzz. Or, just do it and be done?
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Old 12-27-2010, 07:17 AM
Glen DeRusha Glen DeRusha is offline
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"What would you do?"

It depends. If the guitar is actually set-upable, if you have enough to work with, you should be able to set it up regardless of the temperature or humidity. I don't have a problem with it anyway.

Without having the guitar in front of you, and a bunch of measurements to think about, it is kind of hard to diagnose it over the phone. If you put a capo on the first fret and play it, do you still have the same situation?

Could be- Bad strings, loose washer on a machine head, loose brace, need more of an arch in the strings at the saddle, need more clearance for those strings on the saddle, maybe the frets are not as level as you think they are, the oval of string rotation from different playing styles is it, maybe it is set up better then most people would ever dream it could be set up and you should just leave it alone? Etc?

Bring it over and throw it on my bench. We will take a look at it. Right now we are having a snow storm so if we plan it right, we can pretend that we are snowed in for a week or so. What do you want to cook on the BBQ while you are here? Steaks? Vegetable kabobs? Soup? All of the above? Maybe we can write a few songs while we are at it too.

Glen
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