How to Level Crown & Polish Guitar Frets

[hillbillyrik]

Hi boys and girls,
before you start sanding the frets, you better check if your neck is dead straight!

[letz_getschwifty]

Great job, though I few things flagged up for me;
• Check the neck is straight first, adjust accordingly (never normally straight).
• Mark frets with a marker pen and use an actual levelling beam that's been machined accurately, precision is everything to get the best action and playability!
• Use a fret rocker to ensure you've got level frets.
• You could of crowned the frets with a better tip, they were still quite flat. Maybe try a 3 sided file for more precision again.

[wedrivebynight]

Excellent video on what not to do to your fretboard.

[scottconnors]

Good vid***tip for ya to make finishing easier, ***before taking fret board, run piece tape from nut to end of neck on sides, then tape, when done just pull side Pape m pin all comes off usually one shot...top guy showed me long ago n saves alot time.. .

[bradleyshuppert]

Whenever you see grooves like that on the frets…. It is not because the nut was cut too low….it is because the nut is too high…. The player is pressing a greater pressure to get to the frets and also causing sharping and probably playing out of tune. Whatever gauge of string you play, the setup is half of whatever the gauge is or, a .009… your natural nut slot should make that gauge ride across the first two-three frets and half or .04/.05. Bill Nash then takes it a step further by cutting the nut to just start buzzing and then goes back and removes some of the fret to make it play cleanly and that ensures a low comfortable action in which you barely press down for string to fret contact…. Makes for a low action and easier fretting period… most people never spend the money past the guitar purchase of a shitty factory set up which is neutral and basic. Nut slots are set high from the factory because they cannot possibly know if you play 9s or 13s…. Your set up means everything…. Nut set up is EVERYTHING PERIOD!! Get that wrong and replace frets in the first 5 frets…. Seriously!!

[bluewaterpig]

The concave file you’re using doesn’t crown frets by just filing normally like you did. You need to address each fret and really tilt the file to crown from both sides. The Z-File would’ve been perfect for the application you followed for this video. It’s a great starting point but you have some very flat frets at the end of the video.

[martinthompson]

Beautiful polishing! Not so sure about the leveling and crowning…
Thanks for the vid!

[robertpace]

Frets don't appear to be properly crowned. Should be a very thin peak on each fret.

[ryanybos]

Hands down the best, real deal results, fret polishing tutorial on the planet. Simplified down to a science, but wait this video isn't boring & actually holds my interest. I own & operate my own guitar repair business and I do everything exactly the same but have never tried (and I'm guessing here as to what you're using) the ABRASIVES FLEX-N-FINISH NON-WOVEN SANDING PADS -2000- or like a 3M Scotch-Brite Sanding Pad. Man that step made all the difference in the world. Thanks Numavigа

[rgx]

that's got to play like a million bucks now

[setyabudi]

see you. Good luck and better knowledge about installing frets on a guitar neck. From all the YouTube channels over the years I have observed the same thing. His mainstay is leveling and crowning, this shows that precise installation on the fretboard has not yet been mastered. Please search until you don't do that. so that the results are maximum, perfect and not detrimental to the height of the new frets. May it become a connection.

[BITESIZEJONES]

I'm dreading this. It's time and I'm scared to have it done. My fear is frets becoming too flat.

[WTHFX]

Without a fret rocker and marking the high points how do you know you're level and not taking too much off the top before crowning and polishing? Why are you using your leveling beam after crowning, prior to polishing?

[uncommonground]

Those frets are in need of a tone-control to adjust the brightness 😎

[Patriot_Drone_Services]

The frets really are shiny. I’m not certain they are level though, well, I’m pretty sure they are not level, and the crown isn’t shaped correctly (it is round, but there is more to crowning then just making it round again). But they do look awesome. This is how frets should look after being polished, after being properly leveled and crowned.

The purpose of fret leveling is to level all frets to an equal height. Then put the crown back (removing the flat from the leveled frets). The STEWMAC crowning file used will shape the fret, however, it removes more fret material from the top of the fret. When more material is removed from the top of the frets, then they are no longer level (again). Folks already mentioned using a fret rocker, ensuring the neck is adjusted to being straight, using a marking pen to get the thin line of the crown, when shaping the frets, of course the leveling beam needs to be dead flat (machined), may be the wood block was planed down to dead flat, but probably not.

[kilgoretrout]

Those frets' flat areas still look pretty thick. Nice polishing tho

[TonyHodge-osji]

What a joy to watch. Now, that's how you make a great video. Well done.

[TheShop.]

Ok so I'm completely new to guitar setups but I thought the frets were supposed to end up rounded, "crowned", on the top. Some of those were still flat although polished very nicely. Does it matter or are you just trying to get the frets even all the way across? If that's so then why the crown file? Help me understand. Thanks

[gregknight]

Great video, I like the fact that apart from fret crowning file no specialist tools are used and is all obtainable stuff and the results are decent. Was neck on or off the body?

[RipJawsX]

Congratulations, you have just deleted your fret