Fret Leveling

[nsabino]

Hi, I would like to tackle the job of leveling my guitars frets. I bought a really cheap beaten up guitar to practice on it but before my ibby hits the workbench I'm lookin for some advice.

Should I worry about the radius of the frets or is it ok to just level with a flat, say 3-4 inch wide, block?

I'll be using a triangular file, that I've prepared, for the crowning. Is the objective of this to get the tops round or should there be left any flatness?

I don't want to remove the pups, any tips so that I can protect them from the steel wool fibers when polishing?

I've read about performing a leveling fall off from the 12th fret up, I didn't really understand from what I read, this is, I know what the objective of doing this is but how do I make those last frets lower without making them too low?

What is the radius of an original '91 RG770 neck? I think it's the original wizard neck...

Is there any other thing that I should take into consideration when tacking this?

Thanks for any help you guys are willing to give me.

Regards,
Nelson

[andrewgosline]

so many posts about this. Check out the harmony central threads about fret leveling.

I'll give you the quick digest of maybe 15 hours trolling forums and reading erlewine's book:

1) get neck straight as possible
2) get good quality 24" machined level, like stanley fat max, attach metal cutting sandpaper with the thin totally not-foamy carpet tape. I used 320 grit cause it's really slow. You can now level all the frets at the same time with small strokes.
3) put marker on frets, and continually check to see progress and re-mark the fret tops often.
4) don't worry about radius, level in each string path. This will slightly compound the radius on the frets.

I've done this several times with new warmoth necks and my rg 220 neck. Always improves the playability and reduces buzz factor. I check very carefully with feeler gages and the same 24" level to see how straight the neck is before starting. The straighter it is, the less you remove. Good idea to start on a cheepie. I found it hard to make a leveling pass without taking the neck off because the pickups on my rg are so close the strings. Just the humbucker ring is very high. I also bit the bullet and bought a 8" fret leveling block from stewmac, and I use that for fallaway. Frettech.com recommends building up some tape on the 12th fret or so, then using the tape to generate the correct angle. I tried this. Two layers of scotch tape (one on the level over the sanpaper, and one on the fret). This generates about .006" of elevation for angling the last 10 frets.

I'd read these threads on HC:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level

I have a 90s wizard neck at home, and just got some radius guides, so I can check for you what the radius is. Unforunately, the stewmac set jumps 14,15,16,20. So I can only give you those numbers, and like and 'inbetween'. I recall it being in the 15" or 16" area, but can't remember for sure.

[nsabino]

Originally Posted by andrewgosline

so many posts about this. Check out the harmony central threads about fret leveling.

I'll give you the quick digest of maybe 15 hours trolling forums and reading erlewine's book:

1) get neck straight as possible
2) get good quality 24" machined level, like stanley fat max, attach metal cutting sandpaper with the thin totally not-foamy carpet tape. I used 320 grit cause it's really slow. You can now level all the frets at the same time with small strokes.
3) put marker on frets, and continually check to see progress and re-mark the fret tops often.
4) don't worry about radius, level in each string path. This will slightly compound the radius on the frets.

I've done this several times with new warmoth necks and my rg 220 neck. Always improves the playability and reduces buzz factor. I check very carefully with feeler gages and the same 24" level to see how straight the neck is before starting. The straighter it is, the less you remove. Good idea to start on a cheepie. I found it hard to make a leveling pass without taking the neck off because the pickups on my rg are so close the strings. Just the humbucker ring is very high. I also bit the bullet and bought a 8" fret leveling block from stewmac, and I use that for fallaway. Frettech.com recommends building up some tape on the 12th fret or so, then using the tape to generate the correct angle. I tried this. Two layers of scotch tape (one on the level over the sanpaper, and one on the fret). This generates about .006" of elevation for angling the last 10 frets.

I'd read these threads on HC:
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...ght=fret+level

I have a 90s wizard neck at home, and just got some radius guides, so I can check for you what the radius is. Unforunately, the stewmac set jumps 14,15,16,20. So I can only give you those numbers, and like and 'inbetween'. I recall it being in the 15" or 16" area, but can't remember for sure.

Hi, Thankyou very much, this info helped clear some things for me. I read quite a bit and saw some online videos but so many different approaches left me with some questions. I believe that the radius is 17". One last question if I may, if I decide to get a radiused 19" block will this help being able to get lower action and not choking on bigger bends or am I better off keeping the radius as set by the factory?

Regards and I really appreciated your help,
Nelson


Regards,
Nelson

[Ayrton]

To change the radius of the board, you will have to pull the frets and radius the wood, then refret.

You can get a set (or single) radius blocks off the bay for less than stewmac. The published radius for a 770 neck is 430mm (16.9"), however your frets are never going to be exactly that.

I use both 16 and 19 blocks depending on how the frets are. Once you do a couple of strokes, look at the sandpaper and you can see if you need to go tighter.

[Rich]

I don't buy into the "falloff" at the end of the board. If you don't have a lot of neck relief it's only increasing the action in the upper register, and creating a tight spot at the 12th. It only "cleans" up the high frets if you're using a lot of neck relief.

You're allowed 1mm of flat fret top to the crown. Any more than that and the fret needs crowning. I'd highly recomend a medium [if you're doing a 770] crowning file over a noob trying it with a regular file.

[nsabino]

Thanks guys. I placed my order right now with stewmac. I got a medium/large crowning file and a 6" fret leveler. I hope these tools along with the obvious minor sanding and final polishing are enough too tackle the job. Wish me luck...

Regards,
Nelson

[Rich]

Using the sanding beam was the best advice in this whole thread.

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

[andrewgosline]

Yes, I noticed an immediate improvement in my jobs when I went to a long level then the 8" sanding beam. I think that the high accuracy levels/sanding beams take some of the guesswork out of getting a good job!