It's back! The Strat that I did some minor work to in Sept 2010 (see blog) is in for some new frets. This will be a bit of a challenge, as Fender used remarkably thin strips of Rosewood on their fretboards during those years. Rosewood is particularly brittle, and when left untreated and played a lot it results in a lot of small chunks being lifted away when removing the old frets.
Prior to removal, the fretboard was thoroughly cleaned and treated with a generous dose of lemon oil and I even increased the humidity in the shop for a few days. After romoval of the original frets, however, there was still some patchwork needed even after levelling and dressing the board. The first half of the new frets went in quite well, but once I hit the "busier" part of the board I started to have some problems.Enough material chipped away as the old frets were removed that the fret slot became too wide in some areas to receive the new frets. Several things can be done in this case. The tang of some frets were crimped to allow a wider bite, and the wood dust saved from dressing the board was used to build-up the chipped areas after mixing it with crazy glue. Regardless, the ends of some frets were still floating and would have to be glued-in individually after install.
Using several solid maple cauls to apply pressure specifically to the fret ends, the opening was filled with water-thin crazy glue then the floating fret end was pressed in to place and secured with a clamp.
A piece of veneer was used to prevent any possible indent in the fretboard made by the caul.
This process was required for several frets and on both sides of the board. Once securely in place, the refret routine could continue as normal.
