Upgrade Day! Anyone Else Upgrading?

LOL yes.

1 Like

Ok, upgrade step 2.

After installing the new tuners on my SBV a couple weeks ago, when I went to set her up, I had some buzz in a couple places that I couldn’t fix with the normal setup methods. So I loosened the strings, flattened the neck, got out a fret rocker, and sure enough I had three or four high frets, due to both wear over the last year and also changes to temp and humidity. So, time to fix it.

First, gather the tools:

The truss rod wrench everyone knows; the others are (L-R) a fret hammer, a ladies’ nail buffer, a Jumbo fret crowning file, a combination fret rocker and ruler, and a fret end dressing file.

Step 1, get the bass up on the stand and take the strings off.

Next, find all the high frets with the fret rocker and verify it’s not due to one fret being too low instead. I didn’t bother taping them as this is a rosewood fretboard and I know how to fix scuffs (see later); if this had been maple or other lacquered finishes, I absolutely would have taped it.

Next, for each of the high frets, put the stand under the fret, find which part is high on them with the fret rocker, and (only on the high parts) give them a few good solid taps with the fret hammer. Then check again. This fixed one of my high frets and greatly improved another.

For the part that is still high, next up is to file it with the crowning file. This is something I took really slowly; you can always remove more metal, but you can’t put it back when you go too far. So I filed a few strokes and then checked with the rocker again, repeating until even.

Once the frets were level, I polished them with the coarse grit on the nail buffer. It’s still pretty high grit.

This would typically scuff the frets a little. If this were a maple fretboard I would have taped it but since this is rosewood, I just buffed the fretboard back to normal with the super high grit side of the nail buffer. (you can also see the metal polished off the fret wires on the coarse side there).

Finally, good time to round off and dress any fret wire edges I just added with filing (or which had been exposed due to humidity changes). These fret end dressing files are awesome; two flat smooth sides to protect the wood, with coarse and fine files on the file sides.

Dust off any metal dust and give it a good cleaning with fretboard cleaner/oil, and it’s looking great.

Strung her up, set her back up, and I was able to go a lot flatter and lower action without buzz. Maybe two hours work, not bad :slight_smile:

tl;dr: even fret work isn’t so bad, just watch lots of instructional material and take it slow.

17 Likes

You do nice work. Kudos.

4 Likes

Thanks! If I can do it, anyone can :rofl:

4 Likes

@John_E hey thanks… i found it online at Carmedon

1 Like

@howard wow! That is a gorgeous fretboard!

3 Likes

Thanks!

2 Likes

I wish you were my neighbor @howard, I swear I would bring the tools back when I was finished.

7 Likes

Bring tools back? I’d come back to pick up my bass when @howard was finished. (Nice work).

9 Likes

Are these exclusive MIJ Crocs not the usual MIM Crocs that the masses have? We need to know!
Screen Shot 2022-09-18 at 6.49.50 AM

10 Likes

Good eye, they are like these crock knockoffs I got for cheap as house slippers :rofl:

5 Likes

Unfortunately he will only work on Japanese basses :frowning_face:

7 Likes

I think he could be talked into Japanese guitars too

6 Likes

That was some nice work and that fretboard is beautiful.

Thanks for doing the big write up and pictures. That was a fun read.

7 Likes

6 Likes

What is that? Tooled leather?

You could throw that on the 50s Tele, if you choose.

Not my choice, but not my bass. :wink:

1 Like

Yeah, thinking for the tele bass

2 Likes

Cool.

Personally, I liked some of the off-the-wall offerings from greasygroove.com better, but, again, your choice. :+1:

1 Like

They have some good choices. Problem is I don’t own a printer, and I have to print out 3 templates and macth one up to see which one is the right fit. :confused:

https://greasygroove.com/abstract-10-tel-bss-fnd.html

2 Likes

Damn. Didn’t know that.

1 Like