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First time Refretting a Squier strat neck and changing the radius

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  • First time Refretting a Squier strat neck and changing the radius

    Hey Folks,

    Last night I attempted to change the fretboard radius on a Squier strat neck. First off this neck had issues with a rise in the last 4 frets and the radius was off being 10 inch at the nut and a 9.5 at the 22 fret. Not sure why this neck was like this but I wanted to use this neck to learn fretting. This was a indo Squier neck. Not sure the quality control is always good there, maybe this neck was a dud... I have other Squier necks that play fantastic though...

    Well another issue I ran into when pulling the frets is that the Squier had the tangs cut short from the edge of the neck and I thought that was strange but I proceeded to use a fret saw to make the fret slots all the way thru the neck. that went well.

    Next I tried to fix the rise in the end of the fretboard by using a radius block and 100 grit sandpaper to fix that, not so good. no matter how much I sanded it just did not seem to get me to a 10 inch radius at the end of the fretboard...

    I sanded the entire fretboard till it was somewhat straight but never could get that 10 inch radius all the way down the fretboard. I think I needed one of those long metal radius sanding blocks to achieve what I was trying to do.

    Finally I decided to try to do the fret installs and being my first time I found that pressing is much easier than hammering. I also found that radiusing fret wire is critical to getting a good press fit and using two different fret inserts on the caul, like using the 7-1/4 brass insert to get the fret ends to seat, then using a 10 inch brass insert to get them to seat all the way.

    Then I had to pull a fret out to redo and the slot would not hold the next fret down after replacing so I had to glue in that fret and put a clamp on it.

    Finally I ran the CA glue thru all the fret slots and let it wick up only to find that it came out on the fretboard so now I now why wax is so importand on the fretboard when using tha CA hot stuff.

    Over all it was a fun experience and I learned alot. I definitally need to keep doing this to build a set technique but I got over being nervous about trying this and feel hopefully that the next job should be much better than this first time.

    I did find my fretbender worked just like it should have. The fretboard radius blocks do work but thats a technique all its own and you cannot rush that.

    Finally doing the fret installs, pressing is easy and cool to do. hammering is a bit harder and you have to have a steady hand or otherwise you can get a dented fretboard.

    Thought I would post my experience to everyone, maybe some can tell their first time stories too.

    Cheers
    Last edited by Slobrain; 12-10-2011, 03:36 AM.

  • #2
    A few pics to show, I still need to crown the frets but was wanting to see how well the bigger frets would feel. this came out pretty good. Hopefully my next time will get better. Squier necks are not bad for training on...LOL....
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