1982
Kevin Chilcott
Luthier
A RE-FRET ON A NATURAL FINGERBOARD
I'm going to try and add
information and pages to this section
as soon as possible.....
This section is NOT complete.
The Guitar used to illustrate this procedure is a : -
A Royal
DCS Junior.....One of my first Guitars
and made in 1982.
1982
Over the years she has had
quite a bit of work done on the fingerboard, by
other people. The frets have been stoned at least twice
I would think.....
.....but finally is now in serious need of a re-fret
after 21 years
- she's
lasted very well. I've not actually seen her since
1988.
She was originally owned by Steve Orgee
who bought her new in
1985
from
Royal Guitars
in Exeter and was gigged on a regular basis for many years.
She is now owned by Harry Attrill
who
bought her in
2003
from a secondhand
shop in Exeter, Devon, UK..... thanks to Bob
Willis and Andy Guttry.....
.....who gave me a bell when they saw her - and I let Harry
know.
He got a very good deal !
Harry
has had a P90 type pickup fitted.
You will be able to see this in the - 'Retro-fitting a Pickup' Section
which I'm
hoping to get sorted sometime soon.
So, in this section I will
go through all the stages of re-freting
a guitar
with a Standard Natural Rosewood Fingerboard.
Getting Started
I'm going to do this task in
the 3 separate 'headed' sections
below,
each made up of quite a few "sub-
sections", with Hyperlinks
in blue
to the relevant info
and pix.....
'off' this main page.
Preparation for the Job
REMOVING ANY HARDWARE
'TAPING' UP TO PREVENT DAMAGE
'LIFTING' THE OLD FRETS
DE-GREASING THE FINGERBOARD
REMOVING THE TOP NUT
* * * * * * * * * *
Doing all the 'Tricky Bits' !
INITIAL FINGERBOARD RE-SURFACING
CLEANING OUT THE SLOTS
FILLING DAMAGED AREAS
OR
DOING WORK ON INLAYS ETC
FINAL FINGERBOARD RE-SURFACING
FRETTING
'EDGING' THE FRETS
'STONING' / 'TOPPING' / LEVELING THE FRETS
CHECKING OUT ANY 'ROUGH' AREAS
RE-PROFILING THE FRETS
POLISHING THE FRETS
* * * * * * * * * *
Finishing Up
CLEANING UP
REPLACING TOP NUT & HARDWARE
RE-STRINGING & SETTING UP
FINAL POLISH
&
SAFE IN CASE
2003
I'll continue as soon as I can.....