as long as you are using a slightly SMALLER radius and not a slightly LARGER radius, you are good. Basically you are redoing the neck, and I would probably suggest that anyway. Get a fret saw too to redo your slits. Do you really need the 240$ vice grips? Small rubber mallet works just as good lol.

 

I use flat blocks and radius blocks on the board, and I never level with radius blocks. I hammer frets in, but if you have to press them in, you can press them with a smaller radius then hammer the middle down flush. If you want the radius blocks to basically take all the guess work out of the process, use a 17" block if they have it on the board, sand it until it becomes 17" and go from there. LMI probably has a 17" radius block. Other than that, you should use the 16" but know that your lock nut is arched at 430mm so be careful your D and G strings aren't too low.

 

yes, i was referring to Frank's suggestion:

...you can press them with a smaller radius then hammer the middle down flush.

knowing Frank, i have no doubt he's right. that's also the same technique suggested by Dan Erlewine in his instructional videos, but i wanted to share my personal experience.

 

i never had luck by pressing frets with larger or smaller radius than the fretboard's. if it's smaller, the fret would bump in the middle, no matter how much you hammer it in. if it's larger, the fret ends would spring up. it was frustrating.

while, since i started pressing frets with the same radius of the fretboard, anything went flawless, easier and faster.

 

i never had luck by pressing frets with larger or smaller radius than the fretboard's. if it's smaller, the fret would bump in the middle, no matter how much you hammer it in. if it's larger, the fret ends would spring up. it was frustrating.

while, since i started pressing frets with the same radius of the fretboard, anything went flawless, easier and faster.

???????????

 

what's the problem?

 

You bend the wire radius to match the frets to match the fret board, not the other way around. I dont understand your statment before. '

http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/refret.html

 

I think Nuno means using mismatched radius cauls, not that the frets were incorrectly matched.

 

lol that makes so much more sense to me now lol. im tired