Jet Frets ?

[FRANK]

has anyone ever tried these Jet Frets ? some kinda Krazy installation where you need a cnc or a plek in my opinion .Has any one ever tried them ?

[Frank Ford]

Almost 40 years ago, an engineer pal of mine suggested using regular HO model railroad rail stock for frets, with a "T" shaped slot in the fingerboard through which the fret could be drawn. . .

[FRANK]

FF this one is a star shape with the top protruding upwards something like .090 tall

[Grahame Myers]

Snake oil....

[FRANK]

your funny Gram I like that snake OIL

 

[Paul Verticchio]

http://www.jetfretz.com/

Not much technical info on them.  That concerns me.

It's a truly brilliant idea but this will not appeal to 99.99999% of the players out there. The target buyer will most likely be the Metal scene guys & girls.

Similar designs have been used/suggested to secure "bolt on" style necks.  None have caught on. Now there's an application where interlocking sections would be a wonderful thing. You wouldn't even need neck screws if tolerances were dead-on.

One of my favorite things to do is going through back issues of Guitar Player from the 70's & 80'.  It's comical how many strange, off-the-wall ideas & products were advertized only to vanish into the abyss of obscurity.

My clientele are traditionalists, so I don't think I'll apply for training to be an authorized installer of this system.

Thanks for bring this up FRANK (: It, otherwise, would have gone under the radar for me.

And kudos to the developer of this system.  He obviously put some serious time into product development. I always applaud a forward thinker!

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday FRANK (:

[charley erck]

The jet fret site offers 35% more sustain. Add this to the 23% gotten from Tusq (see the nut and saddle material discussion) , and we're up to 58% ! If we can get this to 100% that would be the equivelant to perpetual motion! ( wait, I guess it would just double it).Anyway just having fun, :)

[chris snyder]

Reminds me of the Chapman tap stick's frets.

http://stick.com/instruments/frets/rails/

[FRANK]

yes but no

[Rory]

Hmmm...I looked all over that site and I couldnt find any info at all about installation/ removal or any technical info at all for that matter. Do you have to buy their fingerboards pre-slotted? Any idea how you would re-fret a guitar with these without removing the fingerboard? Not that I'm planning on it, but I just am wary of websites with low resolution product images and little to no tech info. Please show me a youtube of someone going at their fingerboard with a dremel & a dovetail bit please!

 

Rory

[Grahame Myers]

Assuming you can obtain a dovetail bit as small as you'd need for this job, how do you dovetail a radiused fretboard? Looks like a nightmare: with CNC maybe? Or with a radiused sled for the router?

If a customer comes to my shop someday with one of these necks wanting a refret  etc, I'm sure I'd turn the job down....I have enough grey hairs already thankyou, without running the risk of them falling out altogether.

And anyway, as far as improving playability and increasing sustain etc goes, as claimed on the website, I stand by my opinion from earlier in this post:  SNAKEOIL!

[FRANK]

its the refret made easy but first time installation could be a bit of a bitch I agree. I would think when you add this much extra weight to the neck you could add sustain . yea gota shoot them in from the side Ive seen fender do this with wire . I think the fact others are trying new stuff is Cool .

[Grahame Myers]

I'm not sure even a refret would be so easy: The Fender necks that have the frets pressed in from the side (they used this method till about '74 as far as I'm aware) are often a PITA, although half the battle is knowing that the frets were pressed in sideways, and not hammered in from the top like everybody else did it (and Fender too after '74).

I had a customer one time, years ago, and he decided he'd like to learn how to refret, so he took his late '60's strat, (!), read a book or two, and away he went. You can guess how it went: The trick with Fender pressing them in from the side wasn't mentioned in the books, so he removed them from the top like normal frets, with the resulting chipout on the neck. He then realized he'd got in too deep, and came to me with it. The fretboard looked like his dog had been chewing on it,it cost him big bucks, and me a lot of work!

But I digress: The Jetfrets have an enormous tang in the form of a dovetail, and it wouldn't surprise me if they're glued too. Imagine trying to remove those things years after they've been installed, thanks but er..no thanks...

Don't get me wrong, I love new things too, but sometimes people try to solve a problem that doesn't exist...If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

And, as well as that, IMO the  Jetfrets just look plain ugly, your mileage may vary...

I'm sure there are players out there that'll think they're the answer to a problem that they think they have, some players I know spend their whole playing lives looking for the "holy grail", and mostly never find it......