FA+
Shop
147
Views
Views
0
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Photography / Tutorials
Species Vulpine (Other)
Size 1280 x 960
File Size 151.7 kB
Report this content
More from drewfustehfox
After getting the ends of the frets beveled I am carefully taping up the fretboard leaving only the frets uncovered. This will help protect the fretboard thought the next few steps of level, crowning and polishing the frets. It's recommended that you use blue painters tape for this, but since the guitar I'm working has a pretty tough finish I'm saving a few bucks and using some good old masking tape.
Category Photography / Tutorials
Species Vulpine (Other)
Size 1280 x 960px
File Size 151.7 kB
The guitars white finish has probably tuned yellow due to being finished in lacquer which naturally ages that way so no worries. That can be a pretty cool look, particularly for a fine vintage instrument.
The "finish" around the frets is actually something called "binding". its a plastic or celluloid strip glued onto the side of the fretboard. For whatever reason Gibson decided that Les Pauls should be fretted before installing the binding strips which leaves little tabs of it on the fret ends. You can re fret a Les Paul and keep that binding at the end and there are couple of different ways to do it.
On is to just sand those off during the refret and rebuild them after words with celluloid paste. This tends to be the least hassle and look pretty good. You can also try pulling the frets and leaving the binding tabs intact though this really isn't an option if you actually need to re true the fretboard. This method would also make the refret quite a bit more expensive as fitting the frets in is now surgical procedure involving calipers and exact lengths and whatnot.
Most luthiers just recommend just having a normal fret job done and getting rid of those binding tabs.
The "finish" around the frets is actually something called "binding". its a plastic or celluloid strip glued onto the side of the fretboard. For whatever reason Gibson decided that Les Pauls should be fretted before installing the binding strips which leaves little tabs of it on the fret ends. You can re fret a Les Paul and keep that binding at the end and there are couple of different ways to do it.
On is to just sand those off during the refret and rebuild them after words with celluloid paste. This tends to be the least hassle and look pretty good. You can also try pulling the frets and leaving the binding tabs intact though this really isn't an option if you actually need to re true the fretboard. This method would also make the refret quite a bit more expensive as fitting the frets in is now surgical procedure involving calipers and exact lengths and whatnot.
Most luthiers just recommend just having a normal fret job done and getting rid of those binding tabs.
Comments