FRETS.NET

Taking a look at my archtop with the bridge and strings off, I have one popped fret that will not bed down, despite several attempts with the hammer, including with the StewMac fret "punch."  I suspect it wasn't arched well when it was installed.  This is on a bound fretboard, 11th fret.  It's up at least a mm off the fretboard at the treble end.

Is it doable to replace a single fret?  A good idea?  The remaining frets show almost no wear so I hate to think of a complete refret.  I can probably get the correct wire from a luthier friend.

What kind of problems am I potentially looking at?  I've done a couple of refrets but no single fret work.

Larry

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Take it out, radius it to your liking by hand and tap it back in, gently. If it doesn't stay down, get creative with glue and a clamping method of your choosing. You likely can't make it worse than it presently is. Failing that, take it to a pro; it's an easy fix.

Wait, you have a friend who's a luthier? Why not have him fix it? Unless he's so busy and making so much money with other jobs, he might appreciate the business.

Frets are often kind of sort of... a one shot deal in that once it will not stay down additional tapping (not smashing... ;)) only serves to remove the radi from the fret and cause additional damage in the slot where the barbs are grinding away at the fret slot sides.

My approach would be to remove the fret, examine the slot and measure the depth as well to make sure that this slot is deep enough, not full of things we don't want in our slots when fretting, i.e. old glue, dust, etc. and replace it with a new, properly radiused fret.  I slightly over radius frets in that it helps the ends stay down.  You can see where the original fret's barbs contacted the slot so I try to position the new fret so that it has undamaged wood in the slot to grab.

But you know.... a loose fret may be symptonmatic of something else such as not having a firm backing and enough support for tapping frets in that location.  I had a devil of a time long ago with one of my first builds and did not understand that supporting the neck so it can't move was not good enough.  My work bench was in a spare bedroom in my condo and the bench was sitting on plush, white... carpet.  So my blows (taps....) with the fretting hammer were being absorbed by frist the bench and then the carpet and padding.  The frets would not go in well and required additional "taps" which led to damaging the slots and you guessed it - issues...

So examine how you are supporting this the guitar too so as to address what may be the original cause of the problem before installing the new fret.  It's likely that this one is in a problem area where support is difficult such as the extension?  If this is the case some Luthiers, one on the other side of the shop here at the moment, may trim the barbs and not hammer at all instead gluing and clamping the fret in place in those extension locations.

As for what to consider if replacing only one fret.  The goal with fret work for us is always to consider the "fret plane" as our strings see it AND as a whole and never just frets in issolation.  Kind of like when kids in little league and someone told you to be the ball.  Be the string and what you hope to see is frets that are precesion leveled with none of them being loose or proud.

So the translation of my madness or what I am trying to say is after replacing the fret check all it's brothers and sisters to make sure that they are not loose.  I check frets both visually, inspecting them, and by taking my 6" engineer's scale and tapping each fret in three places, both ends and the middle.  You can hear a loose fret during the process.  Once you are sure that you have no moving targets (loose frets that bend down when leveling and pop up when playing...) redress the frets and work toward a precesion leveled, crowned and polished fret plane.

So in short what I am really saying is that replacing one fret is fine but if you want the best action available from the instrument a precesion fret dress is the next step.

Thanks for the tips, Hesh.  I'll keep this in mind when I go at it.  I intend to try to replace this fret to make it playable, then do a complete refret if it still has problems.

This guitar is not of my making so I don't know what problems the builder created on this or other frets.  I talked to the builder when it was too late to return it to the seller and this is one of his first ones; I don't think he made many more, and he told me about some physical problems he had which probably interfered with the quality of the work.  

Anyway, many of the frets have risen a little but appear stable (I glued most of those), but this one is really not going to work on any level.  I've already done a dress and as you describe, this one moves down when the tools go over it and back up when it passes--and as I said, the gap on the treble side is almost a mm.  It's the 11th fret on a 14 fret neck, so there is plenty of space for proper support.  I always work on a hard bench.  

I'd take it to my friend but he has an 8 week backlog.  Besides, I wouldn't learn anything that way.  

Now I need to find about 1 1/2" of Jescar 55085 wire.  That's how the existing wire measures.

If this one replacement doesn't make this one playable, I'll refret the whole thing--at least the first 14 frets.

Larry

Hi Larry.  It sounds as if other frets may be suspect too.  Don't know about the budget, time and money, for this one but you may want to "lift" all of the frets, level the board, and give it a proper refret and then you will know that it's in good shape.

Frets near the heel are often problematic for some builders because if pressing frets, not hammering, the Jaws tool cauls are useless in this area.

Anyway I hope that something here helps you out my friend.

Yeah, the other frets may be suspect.  But the one in question has been convicted.  I want to get this ax back on the playability road with as little grief as possible--it's not worth much and I have an upcoming gig.  Later, when I have more time, I'll think about a refret.  The ax isn't worth spending $250+ on a refret by a pro.  I have way too much time and money in it already, compared to its market value.

I was able to pick up a length of fret wire today from my friend that should work.  I'll report how it goes.

Larry

I'd probably pull it, crimp the tang a little (this will flatten the frets radius a little) re-bend the fret with my curved jaws (glass breaking aka running) pliers (modded with notch for the tang to fit in) Hammer it back in.

I'd do just that, but the fret was already leveled with the gap underneath--so the top of the fret is very thin near the edge of the board.  Of course, because it was springy, it still was higher than the rest of the frets.

Larry

Oh ok. Missed that part about it being leveled while sticking up.

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