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1955 Gibson LG-1: Refret

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1. Gibson Inc. built this guitar in 1955.  With a target market of the casual player and the student, the LG-1 was Gibson's most afford- able acoustic guitar at that time until that torch was passed to the LG-0.	2. LG-1's are today very collectable guitars.  This one has been played quite a bit and these old frets have come to the end of the line. There's no question that this instru- ment is worth fixing.
3. Worn Frets present lots of problems.  Mainly, they significantly detract from an instrument's play- ability.	4. Low Frets in the upper positions render a partial refret inappropriate. Infact, partial refrets are rarely appropriate since they aren't that much faster to accomplish than a full refret and the end result pales in comparison to replacing all of the frets.
5. The Erlewine Neck Jig is a tool which was developed by a talented luthier named Dan Erlewine. The neck jig allows us to simulate the tension of the strings without having the guitar strung up.  A big help if you're leveling a fretboard and frets to within .001" per foot.	6. Setting up the Neck Jig starts by strapping the strung and tuned guitar into the neck jig.  These two dial indicators are zeroed which essentially memorizes the exact position of the neck while under string tension.
7. Removing the Frets with a soldering iron and flush ground end nippers is done after removing the strings but before simulating the string tension.  If I'm afraid of a fretboard chipping as I remove an instrument's frets, I'll tighten the truss rod before removal.  This reduces the compression of the fretboard on the frets.	8. Simulating String Tension is done with a turn-buckle jacking up the end of the peghead and a strap pulling down on the headstock just behind the nut.  The strap and the jack are adjusted until the dial indicators read zero.
9. Leveling the Fingerboard with 80 grit self adhesive sandpaper stuck to a flat steel sanding bar quickly removes the high spots in the fretboard.  As the fretboard gets close to exhibiting straightness, I'll switch to 320 grit sandpaper to remove the deep sanding marks of the 80 grit self adhesive sand- paper.	10. Beveling the Fret Slots will prevent the fretboard from chip- ping during fret installation.  This will also prevent chipping during fret extraction, should this guitar ever undergo another refret.  I'm only filing a slight bevel at the very top of the fret slot.
11. Pre-Bending Fretwire makes fret installation easier.  I'm bending this fretwire on Stew-Mac's "fretbender" to a radius that's just a bit tighter than that of the first fret.  The Fret- Bender also plays a central role in the shop's fret-tang grinding jig. Before I install the new frets I'll loosen the truss rod nut all the way.	12. Installing Frets with a rubber- faced mallet.  Laying the neck of the guitar over a large bag of sand helps absorb the energy of the mallet blows (keeping them from dissipating throughout the guitar) and thus localizes the force of the soft mallet blows to the fret at hand.  I'm also holding a smaller sand bag against the underside of the top beneath the fretboard tongue.  The use of a sandbag is sort of like the difference between punching a large balloon and hitting a punching bag.
13. Installing Frets goes easiest when you tap the ends of the frets most of the way down and then move from one end of the fret to the other using only the mallet's weight to seat the frets.	14. Beveling the Fret Ends with a modified mill file.  I do this after trimming the excess fretwire from the edges of the fretboard with large flush ground end-nippers.
15. Final Beveling of the Fret Ends with a sanding bar and fine grit sandpaper gives the fretends an even look and feel.  At this time I'll go ahead and fill any gaps be- tween the bottom of the fret-slot and the fret tang with shellac burn- in sticks and sand those flush too.	16. A New Bone Nut is nece- sarry because very little of this stable vintage Gibson fretboard had to be removed in order to straighten the neck.  Of course, the new frets are taller than the old ones necessitating the nut slots to be raised or the whole nut replaced.
17. Leveling the New Frets in the neck jig fascilitates low action with no fret-buzz.	18. Dressing the Fret Ends. Beveling the fret ends leaves the corners of the fret ends kind of sharp. This crowning file rounds over the sides of the fret ends.
19. Sanding and Polishing the Frets.  Wrapping fine grit sand- paper around some rolled up foam helps the sandpaper to get into any tight spots.	20. New Frets have really improved the playability and tone of this guitar.
21. Fret-Ends must be dressed properly if the guitar is going to play comfortably and have sharp looking frets.	22. A New Bone Nut replaces the original nylon nut.
23.  A Refretted Gibson LG-1.