Guitar setup tips

[Steve A.]

I've been looking for information on the type and size of the frets I need to refret my 2009 PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollowbody. I was getting some banjo/sitar buzzing on my first string and I had thought it was because the bridge was tilted forward a little (but a lot more than you would expect!)

After checking and leveling the frets on my three LTD EC-256 guitars I thought I better look at the PRS. Damn- I had worn down practically all of the frets from the D string up to the E string (yes, I do a lot of bending!) Under the E and A bass strings the frets were almost like new...

While I still haven't found what fretwire I need to get (I want an exact match with the stock) I did run across this guide on setting up guitars:

Basic Guitar Setup Tips

And here is the setup guide at the PRS site:

Customer Support Center | FAQ's

Steve Ahola

P.S. It's hard to search for "frets" with Google since so many guitars list the number of frets in their description. Anybody remember the Ask Jeeves search engine? You would pose a question and it would try to filter the hits down to the information you were looking for after parsing your question. I hardly ever used it and then it was gone. (I guess back then the search engines were rated on how many hits you'd get...)

[rjb]

Anybody remember the Ask Jeeves search engine? You would pose a question and it would try to filter the hits down to the information you were looking for after parsing your question.

It is my recollection that you would pose a question and it would try to filter the hits down to sites selling something that *might* be vaguely related to your query.

[potatofarmer]

A quick search for "PRS fret wire" yielded a few hits that indicate it's not going to be easy to get an exact match. Here's the most useful: PRS fretwire question

For an exact match you might have to send it to these guys for a whopping $450: PRS Tech Center (PTC)

Got a vernier caliper? You've gotta have a fret or two that are still good.

[Slobrain]

Hey Steve,

I get my frets from Philadelphia luthier, they carry the Jescar fret wire and I have used a few different brands of wire doing refrets and the Jescar stuff seems to be a better wire and more consistent then the other stuff. PL will sell you a 24 piece wire of any size and radius needed. This makes refrets go much smoother imho.

Philadelphia Luthier Tools & Supplies Guitar building tools and parts

[tedmich]

if its worth doing its worth SS, there is NO downside, IMHO.

course if you have 38 other guitars you could probably use red vines

[olddawg]

Personally, if it is a USA PRS, I would bite the bullet and send it to the factory. I would send an explanation that the guitar is under 5 years old and it is your favorite guitar. They might give you a break. There may have been a problem with that run. I would at least give them a call. Tell them you are a poor working musician.

[Steve A.]

Personally, if it is a USA PRS, I would bite the bullet and send it to the factory.

No, it is a PRS SE, their lower cost import made in Korea. Normally I rotate my guitars often enough to keep from wearing out the frets but this was my favorite guitar for gigging for about a year and a half.

If I can't do a good job on the frets myself I have a friend who can bail me out. I will practice first on my junky old Epiphone Casino from 1994...

Steve

P.S. If it was a USA PRS I would do as you suggested.

[Slobrain]

Hey Steve,

Philly tools sells the Jescar fret wire cut and radiused as you need it cheap. The Jescar wire is really good. As far as refretting, my first refret was a Squier strat neck and I learned well from it. To remove old frets I went to Harbor freight tools and bought a small pair of flush ground cutters and ground the face flat to get under the frets, I also heat each fret with a tip of a soldering iron to break the glue loose. if You definitely need the notched straight edge to make sure your neck is straight when refretting.

There are some good Youtube videos to see how folks do this.

Musicianatheart Fret Pullers Guitar Bass Flush Ground Face Luthier Tool | eBay

I also bought from Stew mac the fret press caul with different radiused brass inserts and then went to harbor freight and bought a 1/2 ton press and drilled out the shaft to insert the caul. I had to drill and thread a hex screw to lock the caul in. it works well for strat necks but doing a PRS you might want to buy fret jaws from Stew mac instead.

I can tell you this, once I learned to refret a neck and did a few I really liked doing them. The thing I also do is change the radius of a strat neck from a 9.5 to a 12 to make them for favorable to my playing. I use the hotstuff superglue to lock the frets in. THen you need the files to radius the edges of the fretwire. Its tedious work but really rewarding to do. I changed a few Squier standard strat necks into some really good strat necks in the learning process. The most important thing to remember is the prep of the fretboard first getting it evenly radiused from one end to the other. The other part is getting a fret slot saw to make sure the fret slots will accommodate the new frets.

You definitely need some tools to do a refret but once you put them together and get the refret experience you will want to probably refret another neck of one of your more cheaper guitars to make them play much better.

[Slobrain]

Man I look old... its a fret press...tadaa

[John_H]

... If it was a USA PRS I would do as you suggested.

You probably won't say that after you've done a couple. It's pretty easy after a little practice.

[dmartn149]

If you can buy frets already shaped to the correct radius, that's the way to go. when I re-fretted my Charvel I found that to be the most difficult part. I had thought that they would take the shape of the fret board when I tapped them in, WRONG! I didn't buy any special tools, so it was rather tedious, but it came out really good and it plays great.

[Slobrain]

If you can buy frets already shaped to the correct radius, that's the way to go. when I re-fretted my Charvel I found that to be the most difficult part. I had thought that they would take the shape of the fret board when I tapped them in, WRONG! I didn't buy any special tools, so it was rather tedious, but it came out really good and it plays great.

Jescar Nickel Silver Fretwire FW58118 Electric Super Jumbo Pre-radiused - Philadelphia Luthier Tools & Supplies, LLC

Having the frets radiused correctly makes installing them pretty easy. You can tap them in if your careful and take your time. Using the hotstuff glue holds them in exactly like the way PRS installs them, they use the hotstuff glue too.

I have a harder time painting a guitar body over doing the refret work...

[Steve A.]

Jescar Nickel Silver Fretwire FW58118 Electric Super Jumbo Pre-radiused - Philadelphia Luthier Tools & Supplies, LLC

Here are the ones that I have been looking at. Do you think that they should work okay? The PRS apparently uses a 10" radius. I was told to order the closest radius and then in the order notes tell them that you need them with a 10" radius.

Jescar Nickel Silver Fretwire FW47104 Electric Medium/Jumbo Pre-radiused - Philadelphia Luthier Tools & Supplies, LLC

Any suggestions for a fret tang cutter that costs less than $20?

Steve

P.S. So where do I get the Hot Stuff super glue?

"You definitely need the notched straight edge to make sure your neck is straight when refretting." I can see the need for that when a guitar still has frets but do you need it after the frets have been pulled? I guess so if the wood around the fret slots is crapped up a bit...

P.P.S. Did someone already post this link to an article showing how to refret a PRS? The gold frets are VERY tempting! $30 instead of $10 but when you figure in shipping it probably isn't THAT much more.


http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/p...gold-fretwire/

[Slobrain]

Hey Steve,

I get the hotstuff glue from Amazon white and red label bottle, its the thin stuff so it wicks up at the edge of the fret end before you cut the frets end off after install. two to maybe three small drops at the edge of each fret will do the job. The shipping on a pack of 25 precut radiused frets from Philly tools is maybe a coupe of bucks. it cost me around $15.00 total for a pack of the super jumbo frets shipped. Contact Philly tools and they can most likely do the 10 inch radius for you. Believe me, when they do the radius of the frets it makes it much easier to install them. the notched straight edge is used to get the neck straight in case you have to do some spot adjustment on the fretboard in case the wood humps up. I see this happen on some of the Squier necks but I've refretted some old Kramer necks and they were fine and all I needed to do was a smoothing of the fingerboard with a couple of passes of a radius block and some 400 grit sandpaper, makes the fretboard look new again.

I'm not sure how you feel about jumbo frets but I like the way they feel, gives you a better grip on bending strings. I used to have Warmoth install medium jumbo (6150) on necks I bought from them years ago and then tried the Dunlop 6100s and thought, why have I been using medium jumbo when the 6100s feels so good to play on. Jumbo frets gives a better control on the strings when playing as I found out years back, they don't wear out very fast either...

Getting the fretboard evenly straight from the nut to the end with the correct radius is part of the key to a good refret, the other part is getting all the frets in correctly so when you go to level them it comes out perfect. The notched straight edge is most useful at the time of getting the neck perfectly straight to get the leveling done right.
When all that is done, then you have a great playing neck. but... you then need to play the guitar for maybe two weeks to a month to break it back in. then that's where it really shines.

When you install the frets you need to cut the excessive frets ends off, you need to cut close to the fretboard but just a small bit way and pull down as you cut as to not make the fret end pop back up. its all in the technique...

If I were you I would try doing a refret on a old cheapo guitar you might have laying around. so that way you can see all of what you will need to do to get it done correctly. Also go to YouTube and looks at different refret videos to see how people do them, some videos are good, some others not so good so take the good and leave the bad...

Look at the pics Ive added, they are frets installed and then finished.

[Slobrain]

Fret Cutters Nippers Flush Cut Wire Guitar Luthier Tool | eBay

Fret Tang Nibbler Nipper Fretwire Cutter Luthier Tool | eBay

G M I Fret Press Caul Plus 6 Radiused Grooved Inserts | eBay

Installing Leveling Amp Crowning Fret Wire Video DVD | eBay

Something useful... The fret caul can be used on a drill press too. That was the first way I did it. The 1/2 ton press is much better and cheap at harbor Freight tools too. Cheaper than Stewmac. here is a tutorial below on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQUHKFrVkIM#t=591