Thoughts and Observations Based on my First 2 Fret Levelings

[Commodore 64]

So this weekend, I took apart my MiM Squier Series Strat. I had soldered the tone cap and the switch lead to the wrong lugs on the pots...and I wanted to see if changing them to the specs on the seymour duncan site made a difference (it did). Anyways, since I had the strings off, I decided to go ahead and remove the neck and fret level it. Last week I fret leveled my Samick Jazzmaster. So following yesterday's Fender activity, I now have some context to compare the two operations.

A little history
Months ago, I read Ron Kirn's Tutorial with great interest. I also have been reading lots of threads about nut shaping. I want to be able to make my own nuts. After a few stew mac orders and a flea bay order. I finally have most of the tools to give this a good try. Here's a list of the tools I have accumulated (stew mac unless otherwise noted):

• 18 inch Quartz Polymer Sanding Beam (E-Bay)
• 250 Grit Sandpaper for the beam
• Nut crowning file (medium on one side, jumbo on the other)
• Fret Dressing File (for the ends)
• 5 Dollar needle file set from Harbor Freight
• Full set of nut slotting saws (they are pretty cheap)
• Nut slot files (.010, .020, .035)
• Fret Protector Thingies

Samick Jazzmaster
I'm a big fan of Samick guitars. The LP copy I have is very nice, and I've been impressed with some of the inexpensive Samicks at my favorite local store. You can see the Jazzmaster on the right (reddish guitar with P-90s and my LP Copy on the left...the black and white tele in the vintage case is a '69...it's not mine). The Samick is the ideal candidate for my first fret level, since I got it for $80 (IIRC).

So I took apart the Jazzmaster. It's a poplar body with pretty darn shoddy craftsmanship. Specifically, the neck pocket looks like someone gouged it out with a butter knife. If I said 30% of the bottom surface makes good contact with the neck, I'd be generous. There was also a shim in there.

The holes for the screws in the neck are also way off center. I'm not sure if this is a big deal or not. But one of the holes is close enough to the edge that I doubt it would fit on any other body.

This was the first neck that I ever tried to level, so I didn't have any context. But it did seem like I was grinding off a HELL of a lot of fret to get them all leveled up. It took a good long time with 250 grit to get things leveled. By then the frets were so wide, I had to use the jumbo side of the crowning file. I found this out the hard way, after making one of the frets look like a stair step (the fret looked like the ohm-symbol). But I finally did get things crowned up.

I haven't reassembled this guitar. I was planning on doing it this past weekend, but I decided to attack the Strat instead. (I'll continue this in the next post.)

 

[Spudman]

You are a brave man indeed. I've always wanted to get into this aspect of setup but have been too chicken. You are kind of spurring me on to try this. I'm patiently waiting for your next installment.

 

[Commodore 64]

The '94 MiM Strat Squier Series

I got this strat on CL for $175. I wanted it to go with my '94 MiM Tele Squier Series. It's a bit beat up, and in the process of being revamped. I've already got a USA spaced trem in there with a nice fat steel block. I just need to drop some black PUP covers and knobs on there. And maybe a mint green PG.

Before

After

Anyways, having gotten some confidence on the Samick neck, I decided to go ahead and level the frets on this Strat. I took the neck off, and the neck pocket looked pretty smooth and nice. Seems like the neck would make good solid contact with the body, which like the Samick, is also poplar.

I went to pop the nut out, and it busted. Yes, I busted a nut. Actually it looked liked it had been busted once before, as it was superglued. Looks like I got sloppy seconds with someone else's busted nut. Yuck. And there was a little sheet of paper(?) shimming the busted nut. So I took that out. I had been working on a new nut for the Samick from a micarta blank I had bought from Stew Mac. So I figured I'd use that to replace the busted nut.

After straightening the neck (using Ron Kirn's Method), I started my leveling. These frets were in much better shape than the Samick, but I did take a fair amount off the first fret and a couple in the middle. Crowning went nice and easy, with the medium side of the fret file this time. I'd have to say that this neck had much better fretwork on it than the Samick. At this point though, I still hadn't been able to try either of my newly leveled necks on an actual guitar.

I started to work on the nut. I was dismayed to find that the nut slot on the Strat is radiused. I slapped some 120 grit sandpaper on the guitar neck before the first fret, and proceeded to slowly sand the radius into my nut blank. Tedious, but it worked. I also came to realize that I need a couple more nut slotting files.

I slapped in the nut and restrung the guitar. Of course the nut slots are a bit high and need to be tweaked, but I decided to play around with it with SRV-like action heights anyways. It plays pretty darn nice. I don't use the trem, but I had no trouble with the strings returning to pitch after big bends, and also there was no "tinking" when I tuned it. So i think my first ever nut will be useable. Micarta is pretty nice to work with. It sands easily.

So I still need to tweak the nut, but I can honestly say that the fret leveling makes my Barre Chords a little easier in that I don't get as many dead strings from my index finger. Can't wait to see how low I can take the action on this, once I get the nut slots proper.

I can also say that the Fender appears to have come from better quality workmanship, at least where the neck pocket and fretwork are concerned.

Right now I'm looking for a pool-routed body to put in my P-90s and use that Samick neck. Sometime this week, I'll plug the existing screw hole with dowels
and save that neck until I find a body to use it on.

 

[Commodore 64]

Link to Leveling Beam on Flea Bay

This is a really nice bar, it's heavy enough that you just let it do the work. I actually just lay the neck down on the carpet scrub it from there. I do need to make a neck jig and set up a little work area in my basement (my garage isn't heated).

Also, I didn't take pics or describe the process in detail, because it's covered well in Ron Kirn's thread that I linked to in my first post.

 

[deeaa]

Excellent CBM! I applaude you. And very much similar experiences here.

That quarz block seems like a handy too indeed. If I see one here somewhere, methinks I'll get one. I also need a crowning file, I've been borrowing one and I really need my own.

I have one suggestion to make things quicker, though. They sell these long whetting stones, like 12" long and 2" wide and have two surfaces. Those are quite long enough so you get a level surface when you slide them over the frets. And who knows how long ones they make, I'm always looking when in a suitable hardware store...if I could get one even longer and slightly finer too I could probably do pretty much the entire job with just that. If you get one of those, it really levels them frets FAST if they need lots of grinding, and after that you can use a less efficient but more fine-tuned paper etc. to finish the job.

So I'd suggest looking for one of those for the preliminary leveling job, I just used one on my Yamaha which had INSANE deep grooves on the frets and it took me literally maybe 5 minutes to get them leveled nice, maybe twenty light runs carefully all around the neck to preserve the curvature, and then continued with paper over this steel block I have.

And oh yeah - if you use a whetting stone, you'll want to use it wet, not dry...

 

[Spudman]

Yes, I busted a nut. Actually it looked liked it had been busted once before, as it was superglued. Looks like I got sloppy seconds with someone else's busted nut.

That's some pretty good signature material there. :thumbsup :rollover

 

[poodlesrule]

...INSANE deep grooves on the frets...

A quick question about that; when are frets so grooved that it is beyond ordinary leveling work?

I saw a used Epi LP in a store the other day, and I did notice serious grooves on the first three frets. I think the price was a tad high, and I may want to leverage that fret wear, perhaps?

 

[Commodore 64]

I've seen a lot of Epis like that poodlesrule. My friend has a Dot, and it has some serious grooves where the wound strings cut into the frets. The fretwire must be pretty soft stuff. I'd hit that with a crowning file and see what happens.

Also, I finished my nut tonight, and lowered the action to 4/64 (.0625) at the 17th fret. No buzzing. This guitar has the lowest action of any of my guitars. It is SUPER smooth now. I'm gloating a bit, but I'm so pleased that this whole nut cut/fret leveling operation turned out well. :dude :thumbsup

 

[deeaa]

I don't know if there's a limit to how deep a groove can be really, it's more like a question of how low a fret you're willing to accept playing on. My Yamaha used to have jumbos but after leveling the frets they're quite very low frets now, as it had several places where the strings had cut straight into the fret - like it's full thickness, not just worn some. I suspect it had taken a hit there that had smacked the strings to frets hard.

BUT I've seen guitars with even lower ones. I understand in the 70's Les Paul Customs were for instance called 'Fretless Wonders' because they came with super low frets brand new. And my friend's '73 did have some super low frets on it.

I like low frets just fine when I want very light action and super fast playing - they just make bending and a tight, snappy touch a bit harder. Still, I guess I'd take very low frets over scalloped or very hight frets for my playing style. Just a matter of preference, really. It's far from impossible to play a completely fretless guitar too.

On the other hand my Squire Classic has very high and thin necks, and it's delightful to play leads and bends on, really groovy, but in contrast you need to chord with a light touch as it can sound very out of tune as you can press the string towards the fretboard even after it's been fretted properly already and cause it to go sharp.

I suppose frets are one thing where quality varies much. On my Gibson, I played 13 years, countless hours on that thing as pretty much my only instrument, and would have never needed any fret work still, unless I had smacked one fret so deep it had to be replaced at which point the frets got a really light leveling job & recrown.

 

[Commodore 64]

I got an SX Tele in trade a while back from Eric. I'm in the process of installing a P-90 in the neck and making some other upgrades. Last night I did some work on it so I have some observations to share.

1. Proline locking tuners from azgutairs are a drop-in replacement. Even the set screw holes lined up perfectly. I just installed a set of these yesterday. You can get a set of these for 23 bucks (33 for the rear thumbwheel version--I got one set of each for testing). The original tuners kept the guitar in tune fine, BTW, I wouldn't say they HAD to be replaced in order to play the guitar.

2. Bridge route on the Tele body was sloppy. The bridge pup wouldn't adjust since it was rubbing on the side of route. Took about 15 minutes of work with a triangle and a round file to rectify it. It wasn't that far off, but just enough to cause trouble.

3. Huge glob of finish inside the neck pocket. Took about 5 minutes to scrape it out with a chisel and sand it.

4. The screw hole for the bridge plate in upper left encroached the PUP route. I dunno how long it will last before the screw won't grab anymore. At some point I'm gonna have to dowel it.

5. Control plate holes for pots are sized for minipot shafts. Not a big deal and a 30s job for my step drill bits (5 bucks at Harbor Freight) and drill press. But annoying, nonetheless.

6. Replacement ashtray bridge from azguitarparts did not fit. Neither did the one I took off my '94 MiM Tele Squier Series. I would have had to redrill the string-thru holes, or use them as a toploader. So I have to think there is some bastard sized bridge plate for the SX.

7. Fret leveled the neck. It wasn't too bad at all. I'd say in between the Fender and Samick I talked about previously. The neck is the best part of this guitar, for sure (apart from the Furian headstock).

I'll let others decide whether the SX is a good modding platform based on these observations. The finish glob in the neck pocket and the slightly off bridge PUP route were not a big deal, but I would never call the fit and finish of this guitar impeccable, perfect, or excellent. It also makes me suspect the QA/QC tolerances are commensurate with the price point, which makes sense when you consider the cost of the guitar is less than a decent body from Warmoth.