Considering doing a refret on a Squier strat neck

[Slobrain]

Hey fellas,

A buddy did a refret on a Gibson LP copy he had and it came out pretty nice. he leveled the fretboard to a 12 inch radius and used Jumbo fret wire. I remember reading that Eddie Van Halen did a fret job on a strat neck for his first black and white striped strat using jumbo fret wire. Eddie super glued them in.

I have a really nice Squier standard strat neck that I am thinking about doing a refret on using jumbo wire. The thing that worries me is the tang size that the new wire might cause a back bow. Also I want to do a 12 inch radius as I feel that 12 inch radius feels better than the stock 9.5

Last I wonder if I should use my drill press to put in the frets with or hammer method. Any suggestions for a first time try at this?

The one thing I will say is that this Squier strat neck I have feels much better to play than the stock Fender MIM necks I have played on.
My all time favorite strat neck is a Warmoth 24-3/4 strat conversion neck with 6000 frets, maple/maple.

Really fast action too.

I have done many fret levels over the years to get a good low action on guitar necks but I have never attemped to do a complete refret.

SLO

[jrfrond]

Unless the tang size is significantly wider than the fret slot, you won't have any issues with "compression fretting", i.e. using oversize-tang fret wire to backbow a neck, done purposely as a fix on guitars with non-adjustable truss rods and too much relief, a practice at the Martin factory.

You have a few issues facing you here. You can purchase pre-cut and radiused fret wire, which makes it easier. you can press-in or hammer-in as you choose, but you need to develop a touch for both. Lastly, you will need to purchase a radiused sanding block to increase the fretboard radius to 12". In addition, a VERY important part of the fret job is the removal of the old frets.

If you are going to take up this task, I suggest you purchase and read Dan Erlewine's "Guitar Player Repair Guide", starting with the section on fret work.

[Slobrain]

Thanks for the info jrfrond,

I do have Erlewines book and will look into that. heck, I forgot I had the book till you mentioned that. Im going to invest in some tools though, I just purchased a #12 radius block and will get the nippers next. The last few items will be the fret press caul from Stewmac to use on my drill press. I have the fret pullers and will pull the frets out soon. I think the tang size varies from .060 to .074 and that still makes me wonder if that will cause an issue.

Not sure what size the fender Squier fret tang is up against say the Dunlop 6000 fret wire tang or the 6100 fret wire tang. Maybe I need to get some digital calipers...???

I wonder why Fender doesn't sell a strat with a Gibson scale of 24-3/4 and flatter radius with big frets. Seems more small handed people would like that instead of the longer 25-1/2 scale with the 9.5 radius?

SLO

[David Schwab]

I'll second everything John said. If you are going to sand the fingerboard flatter, you might have to deepen the fret slots a little.

I do both hammering and pressing depending on my mood and the condition of the fret slots. I usually use a little CA glue if the fret ends don't want to seat.

You can get a Warmoth neck that fits onto a Strat with Gibson scale.

This guitar has one:

[Slobrain]

Thanks for the reply Dave,

I want to challenge myself to try to do this but lots of bases to cover.

That guitar looks nice. I actually have 4 of the Strat conversion necks from Warmoth and they play really fast and smooth. Two are maple rosewood and two are maple/maple. 3 have a Tung oil finish on the back and one has a gunstock oil finish on the back. The two maple have satin poly on the fretboard steel wooled to get that fast unfinished feel. all have the jumbo frets too. The one with the gunstock oiled back is just a small tad bit faster feeling than the Tung oil but only by a hair.

I guess the reason for wanting to do a fret replacement on the Squier neck is that it feels better to play than a MIM strat neck. The mim strat necks are good if you find the right one but I don’t like small frets. The Squier neck plays surprisingly well even though it has kind of small frets.
The Squier Affinity necks play really fast. They are cool necks too.

I have been amazed by how well the Indonesian made Squiers sound and play. My only gripe with them is the Indo workers cannot drill a straight hole on a Squier strat...LOL.... also their fret leveling isn’t that good. But luckily since I do the Ron Kirn method of fret level my necks come out playing like butta...

SLO

[David Schwab]

The Warmoth necks are made well, but I really dislike how they are carved. That one had stainless steel frets. I don't care for those either.
That was a Kramer Nighthawk body. The owner wanted it routed for a pickguard, which I made, and I had to move the pickup locations a little. After all that work, the next time I saw him (he always has a new guitar for me to work on) and I asked how it was playing, he said he sold it!

Stuff like leveling frets is time consuming, so you wont see that going on with factory guitars as much as it should.

I'd say by all means learn to fret the Squier neck. One of my favorite guitars lately is a cheapo FirstAct GarageMaster that a friend gave me. It's the ones that came with VWs. It's a nice guitar, but the pickups were crap, and the fretwork is not so good. But I have new pickups in it now, and I'm going to refret it with jumbo wire, and out new machine heads and a new nut on it

As long as you like the feel of a neck and the guitar sounds god acoustically, there's nothing that makes it any different from a more expensive guitar except setup and hardware.

[Slobrain]

Hey Dave,

Here is a clip of me doing a youtube demo of a Squier that I modded a bit. The guitar came out really nice. Its got the Warmoth conversion neck on it. Its was the Squier Deluxe that has a full size basswood body. I did a few videos after last X-mas since I had the family cam out. Not really sure why but after seeing these I felt like a nerd on Guitar.... over weight too....LOL

Too bad I didn't have a video cam 25 years back when I was playing metal in the Galveston, TX clubs and being a skinny kid...LOL


Modifying a Fender Squier Deluxe Stratocaster - YouTube

[David Schwab]

Hey Dave,

Here is a clip of me doing a youtube demo of a Squier that I modded a bit. The guitar came out really nice. Its got the Warmoth conversion neck on it. Its was the Squier Deluxe that has a full size basswood body. I did a few videos after last X-mas since I had the family cam out. Not really sure why but after seeing these I felt like a nerd on Guitar.... over weight too....LOL

Too bad I didn't have a video cam 25 years back when I was playing metal in the Galveston, TX clubs and being a skinny kid...LOL


Modifying a Fender Squier Deluxe Stratocaster - YouTube

Sounds good. I have an an old Charvel with a Tele neck and what ever pickups I have currently in it that I like to play a lot. I own much nicer guitars that I built, but it's a nice sounding guitar, and I like the neck. So the price of the guitar, or even what it's made from don't matter much if you like it and it plays well. I've modified almost every instrument I have owned, including the ones I made!

Yeah, I was skinny 25 years ago too. I'm going to be 54 in seven days so...

[Slobrain]

Happy 54 Dave,

Hey I wanted to ask if Im going to do a 12 inch re-radius on a fretboard then what radius should I bend the fret wire too? maybe a 10 inch or more tighter?

Also, I just bough a fret hammer and needed to ask do you use the brass side to seat the frets ends first, then the pastic side to go from the middle out to each end? to finish seating the fret?

Thanks

Slo

[David Schwab]

Happy 54 Dave,

Thanks!

Hey I wanted to ask if Im going to do a 12 inch re-radius on a fretboard then what radius should I bend the fret wire too? maybe a 10 inch or more tighter?

I use one of those fret benders. I'm not sure what radius I set it to, but I do it quite a bit smaller. You want the two ends to meet the slot before the middle.

Also, I just bough a fret hammer and needed to ask do you use the brass side to seat the frets ends first, then the pastic side to go from the middle out to each end? to finish seating the fret?

I think I only use the brass side. I might use the nylon side for slightly loose fret ends of something. I also have a small ball-pean hammer which has the pean side ground into a chisel point. I use that on the tang side when I need a wider tang to grab into lose slots.

But I seat the two ends, and then work my way across. I often run a bead of CA in the slot first. I used to use wood glue. If you use CA wear safety glasses!

Sometimes I also press them in instead of hammering, but I have hammered them in for much longer.

[Slobrain]

Fretting tools...needed...

A few pics of a home made fret bender. I needed to make this so I could bend the 6100 fret wire I'm ordering from Warmoth. The wood roller will adjust up or down to get the desired radius bend. The other two rollers are for a patio door, I bought these from Home depot and got the idea off the internet.

Its funny that I bought a small fret hammer of Ebay a week ago for around $16.00 and then seen the same hammer at Harbour freight tools tonight much cheaper. I did buy the mallet hammer from Harbour freight to use as an extra fretting hammer. I got one of those vise grips that have the large jaws so I can figure out a way to build a fret press from that.

anyway this fret bender is easy and you insert the wire and push and pull at the same time to get the radius needed to fret with. I will clamp it into my vise to hold it steady.

I'm suprised that I seen a japanese saw at Harbour freight tools that was .06 blade width and that was a shame as it would have been perfect to use on fret slots had it been .023 go figure....

[David Schwab]

Nice job on that. I have one of the Stew-Mac benders that I bought back in 1990 or so.