Self-inflicted fret issues Redux

[mtjo62]

Last month I posted a thread regarding a guitar which had been knocked over and two frets were gouged by the stings on impact. I was ready to get a new neck as the repair estimate was gonna cost roughly the same, but I wanted to at least try to do a repair job myself. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics as I improvised the tools needed and a 30 min job took two hours. Anyway, I purchased some plumbing solder which is mostly tin with a bit of antimony and used a 40 watt soldering iron with some flux to build up the areas where the gouges occurred after removing any burrs with steel wool. I then took an old carpet knife which only had about three inches of blade left and laid it as flat to the frets as possible and shaved off the peaks of the build up. Next I tilted the blade forward and leveled the rest out as best as possible. I used a fine grit sand paper between shavings. I then smoothed out the fret with steel wool and shaved the remaining excess. When finished, I could not detect a repair on one fret and the other is barely visible other than the two deepest gouges still were there but only minor now do not affect the playability. I suppose the moral here is that in a pinch and with the right tools, you can repair a damaged fret. We'll see if it holds up now.

[mellecaster]

"We'll see if it holds up now".....that being the operative phrase ?

[KokoTele]

Take your thumbnail and see if you can dent the repair. I think you're going to find that the solder is way too soft and is going to wear away after just a little bit of play time.

[charlie chitlin]

I've never heard of this, but solder is probably too soft.
MAYBE silver solder would work.
I think it's much harder.

[mtjo62]

I never intended this to be a permanent fix, just a proof of concept that you can do it as a temporary fix. I intend to desginate this guitar as my slide ax, so the fret issue really won't come into play.

[Nick JD]

Get that soldering iron, hold it on the damaged fret for a few seconds and then lever that sucker off with some flat clippers. Cut another piece of fret wire, bend it to slightly more than the radius and tap it in the slot. Wick in some CA glue while holding it down. Carefully file the edges flush.

You'll laugh at how easy it is. If your other frets are new, and the wire is the same .. I'll bet you don't even need to level it.

Seems sad to make it a slide guitar when it's got such little damage.