Refretting a Micarta Fingerboard

[TKW]

I have a 2001 Martin 000-16SRGT with a micarta fingerboard needing a fret job.  Or is it ritchlite?  Does anyone have any experience with these materials?  Here are the things I’m wondering:

- Any way to tell between micarta and ritchlite?

- Can I use a soldering iron as usual to remove the frets?  Any temperature setting?

- Will the soldering iron melt the fretboard if it touches it?

- I have read that people like to use .005 oversized fret saw to prevent backbowing – any opinions on this?

- Can I level the fingerboard with sandpaper?  I have heard people say that micarta doesn’t need leveling, but this seemed a bit off to me.

- Should I glue the frets in?  If so, any preference between super glue and white glue?

- Any other tips?

Thank you for any help you can give me!

[Christopher Parker]

I've done partial refrets on that black synthetic stuff that Martin uses - richlite, micarta, or whatever. I don't recall ever doing a full refret on one. I think you can just go ahead and treat it like a wood fingerboard - sand it, heat frets with a soldering iron, etc. and there will be no surprises. I find it hard to believe that Micarta doesn't need any leveling. After 21+ years of refrets, I still haven't seen a factory guitar that didn't need its fingerboard leveled. I wouldn't expect this guitar to be any different just because the fingerboard is a different material.

Regarding glue, I prefer CA for fretwork. Say what you will about it, but I've never had a fret come loose, ever, and I've installed thousands of them. Should work fine with Micarta. 

[TKW]

Thank you so much!  I'm pretty worried as I have seen conflicting accounts of working with this material.  One person said if you sand it it will flake apart and be irreparable.  Another said it would be ok.  Then one person said it will bubble with temperature, and  another said 350F didn't effect it.

Thank you for your insight though.

[Jay Lowe]

I've done several (between 5 & 10, didn't keep score). Never a problem. Although I'm careful I have had some minor chipping on wooden boards but may have noticed much less of this (read: none) with the alternate materials. The only bubbling I've seen was on a Martin DC-16 that a local store owner was trying to reset the neck on using a heat lamp on the fingerboard extension (my guess is that he left it there far too long). It also turned it a bit grey in color. I was able to correct it with fine sandpaper and a bit of dye. I experienced none of that with the refrets I've done. I expect that it will burn the board a bit with extended contact with the soldering iron but, of course, that would burn a wooden board also. I do use CA on refrets and didn't have a problem with that either. I would recommend that you approach it with the same care that you would any refret and I doubt there will be any problem. Good luck!

[TKW]

Thank you - I really appreciate the information.  I guess I'll just go at it like ebony and be very careful.

[TKW]

I finally got around to refretting my Martin with a Micarta fingerboard and I thought I'd report how it went.  Everything was very very easy! 

On an initial whim I pulled all the frets without heat, and they came out easily with no chips or tearing - the slots were basically perfect afterwards.  I did tighten the truss rod about a half turn past flat before I pulled the frets, but I'm not sure how much that helped.

I used 150 grit sandpaper to level the fingerboard, and then used 220 and 320 grit sandpaper to smooth out the board.  It looked perfect afterwards and was very easy to true.  It even seemed better than new as it had a more ebony look after sanding.

I used Jescar EVO gold 080"x.037" frets with a .019 tang.  I read about a few Micarta fingerboard guitars having backbow and had a suggestion to cut the slots .005" over the tang size, so I used a .025" razor saw to clean the frets.  However, hardly any material if any was removed from the fret slots, so the slots seem to have already been .025" wide.

I hammered the frets in without any issue, and none of them popped back up.  I did not glue the frets in, which maybe was a mistake, but we'll see. 

I leveled the frets with 600 grit sandpaper and then polished them with micro mesh.  I didn't mask the fingerboard when I did this, and it looked perfect after the micro mesh.

I made a new nut and set up the guitar with 7/64th low E and 5/64ths high e string at the 12th fret and it played fine without buzzing after.

This fret job seemed quite easy to me.  I guess I didn't figure out how the Micarta would react to heat though - but it seems like Martin may not glue the frets in.

Thank you again for the tips!