Fretwork in reverse?

I'm refretting a 70's Conn classical for a friend. This has been a challenge! Initially, the original fret tangs are WAYYYY wider than all the usual frets we all know and love. Luckily I was able to find 1 supplier that offered fret wire with the proper thickness. Victory there.

Then I realized the tang DEPTH on the new wire is quite a bit more than the slots. No big deal, I have my trusty StewMac fret slot saw.

The trouble now is the fret wire came to me pre-radiused to 12". Guess what the radius of the classical is. If you said 0", you're correct and obviously have heard of a guitar.

My question is this, while I want to keep some of the pre-radius, I'd like to flatten it out a bit. Any tricks I should be aware of?

Why would you want to keep the pre-radius? I don't think that would look right to me. Unless it's something really hard like stainless steel, I'd say just press them in and they'll go flat. My first two guitars were made with flat fretboards and my wire came pre-radiused. Flattens out fine.

Why would you want to keep the pre-radius? I don't think that would look right to me. Unless it's something really hard like stainless steel, I'd say just press them in and they'll go flat. My first two guitars were made with flat fretboards and my wire came pre-radiused. Flattens out fine.

Ohhhh, I see what I did there. Sorry.

I intend for them to be flat after I hammer them in (don't have a press). I just want them to be less radiused before I start hammering. I've heard horror stories of overly radiused wire winding up kinda wavy in the slot, if that makes sense.

I doubt it will give you any trouble at a 12" radius, but you can pull it between 2 wooden blocks (in a vise). Just make sure you cut a groove in one block for your tang. But if you hammer gently starting from one end, it won't matter :wink:

I doubt it will give you any trouble at a 12" radius, but you can pull it between 2 wooden blocks (in a vise). Just make sure you cut a groove in one block for your tang. But if you hammer gently starting from one end, it won't matter :wink:

Thank you Dave. I've never worked with wire radius quite so much over the intended fretboard. But you're advice has always served me well. So Saturday, I'll be a-hammerin'. I'm sure Hernando will be very happy to have his first guitar back and playing beautifully (hopefully :neutral:).

I opened this thread thinking "alright, a thread for me!" since I do most things in reverse, or at least out of order anyway.

But Dave & Chameleon stepped right in and gave great advise like always.

Carry on. I'll just keep looking for someone that knows less than me about building guitars and maybe I'll be able to help them.

:grin::grin:

De Nada :oops:

Alright, it seems even the tang on this fret wire is still too thin. Would it be possible to fill the slots with black epoxy and recut them?

Alright, it seems even the tang on this fret wire is still too thin. Would it be possible to fill the slots with black epoxy and recut them?

Create a fretboard caul and glue the frets in.

When I want to flatten fret wire out, I hold it up making an arc, and tap it in the middle.

Not quite following you: In your OP you said the tangs were much too wide, but you'd found a fret wire supplier who provided fretwire with the right tang width, but it was radiused, and the tang was too long (deep)??

I think the missing piece is that you deepened the fret slots with your Stew-Mac saw and now they're too wide, right?? Radius is OK, or would be if the tang would grab in the slots, etc. If I'm right so far, I'd say follow Colt's advice.

I would not consider filling and re-sawing the slots unless the frets are just rattling back and forth in the slots. Use a caul (luckily in your case, that will be a flat piece of wood, ideally with a cork or similarly padded surface) hammer the frets in as best you can, then clamp the frets in place with the caul holding them down in place. Turn the neck on its side, and drop a tiny drop of CA glue into the end of the fret slot. Do this on both sides of the neck, for all frets. If it looks like the glue will run right through, you might want to switch to a medium thickness CA glue, and tape some wax paper on the underside of the fretboard to keep the glue from running out onto the edge of the neck.

Not quite following you: In your OP you said the tangs were much too wide, but you'd found a fret wire supplier who provided fretwire with the right tang width, but it was radiused, and the tang was too long (deep)??

I think the missing piece is that you deepened the fret slots with your Stew-Mac saw and now they're too wide, right?? Radius is OK, or would be if the tang would grab in the slots, etc. If I'm right so far, I'd say follow Colt's advice.

I would not consider filling and re-sawing the slots unless the frets are just rattling back and forth in the slots. Use a caul (luckily in your case, that will be a flat piece of wood, ideally with a cork or similarly padded surface) hammer the frets in as best you can, then clamp the frets in place with the caul holding them down in place. Turn the neck on its side, and drop a tiny drop of CA glue into the end of the fret slot. Do this on both sides of the neck, for all frets. If it looks like the glue will run right through, you might want to switch to a medium thickness CA glue, and tape some wax paper on the underside of the fretboard to keep the glue from running out onto the edge of the neck.

Yeah that's all pretty much what happened. I tested the new wire in the first fret and it held pretty tight, causing me to think the new wire was good. Then on the second and third, they were rattling. I don't think the fret saw caused any of the issues though. But I think I'll make a caul for my drill press and try y'alls advice of glue and press. Can't see it not working.

So I made a caul. It's crude and ugly, but the results so far have been great. I just drilled a hole into some scrap mahogany (with a nice maple top), flipped the drill bit over and put in the hole, glued a piece of hard metal I found to the bottom of the block and filed it flat. Works really well!

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o6/bobbytouche7/photo2.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o6/bobbytouche7/photo1.jpg

WoW !! Thats a fancy caul you got there, Flame maple and mahogany???
Thats a Les Paul Caul. ;-)

WoW !! Thats a fancy caul you got there, Flame maple and mahogany???
Thats a Les Paul Caul. ;-)

Yeah! Who knows, maybe I'll put a burst on it.:lol: