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Martin Refret

1. C.F. Martin & Co. has made a lot of nice guitars over the years.  This one is a model M 38, a smaller, Indian Rosewood model with nice appointments.	2. Even Nice Guitars Need Fretwork Sometimes. This one has some frets popping loose and a good amount of wear.  Since the neck isn't quite straight anymore (even after a truss rod adjustment) the only course of action is to remove the old frets, resurface the fretboard so it's nice and straight and install some new frets.
3. Extracting the Nut is necessary since I'll be sanding the fret- board.  This nut's slots have been filled and recut before.  This, combined with the added height of the new frets I'll be installing necessitates the fabrication of a new nut after the fretwork is done. Next, I'll temporarily re-install the old nut (without glue), string up the guitar and set it up in the neck jig.	4. Removing the Old Frets with a soldering gun and a modified end- nipper quickly and cleanly extract the old frets.
5. Resurfacing the Fretboard in the neck jig under simulated string tension allows me to accurately straighten the fretboard.  I'm accomplishing this with a flat sanding bar with 80 grit self- adhesive sandpaper.  I'll follow this up with a few passes of 600 grit self-adhesive sandpaper attached to a 4" long radiused sanding block.  This both ensures continuity of the fretboard's 16" radius and gets rid of the coarse sanding marks.	6. Cleaning out the Fret-Slots is necessary since the old frets were glued in.  I can't use a saw to clean the slots because of the binding.  This poses no problems since I'm using a dremel tool with a router base to quickly accomplish the task.The dremel #105 bit is the bit of choice for this task since it can't accidently enlarge the fret slot. Next, I'll lightly bevel the fret slots with a triangular shaped Swiss needle file.  This will make future fret extraction easier on the next repair person.
7. Removing the Tang where the fretwire extends over the binding starts with fret tang nippers. I should mention that prior to this step, I pre-bent the fretwire to a slightly smaller radius than the fretboard with a fret- bending tool which quickly bends the fretwire to the consistent radius of my choosing.  Then I pre-cut each fret to rough length.	8. Grinding the Tang flush to the bottom of the crown is necessary since the tang nippers leave a small nub of the tang in tact.
9. Cutting The Fret Ends. I've tightened the truss rod up to slightly open the fret slots.  Now I'll press each fret partially into place with my fingers so I can cut the fret ends flush to the side of the binding.	10. Pre-Beveling the Fret Ends with a disc sander gets rid of the cut marks left by the end nippers and drastically reduces the amount of sanding I'll have to do to the fret ends once they're installed.
11. Installing the New Frets with a mallet is quick and safe.  Three sandbags absorb the mallet strikes which saves the guitar from unnecessary vibrations. This, in turn focuses the force of the mallet on the frets, expediting installation.  I'll place a small sandbag under the fretboard tongue when I tap in the frets over the body.  When they're all tapped in, I'll glue each fret in with thin super glue, removing the excess with paper towel squares lightly dampened with acetone.	12. Final Beveling of the Fret Ends.  I'm using 600 grit sandpaper to remove the disc sander marks and give the fret ends a uniform bevel.  Pre- beveling the fret ends didn't remove too much material since the fretwire was over radiused (for ease of installation). As I tapped the frets in they all stuck out just a hair over the side of the fretboard.
13. Leveling and Dressing the Frets.  With 600 grit self-adhesive sand- paper attached to the long sanding bar I leveled the frets with the guitar in the string tension simulating jig.  Now I'm spot crowning the frets and dressing the fret ends for a smooth feel.	14. Polishing the Frets begins with 600 grit sandpaper (to re- move the crowning file marks).  I won't sand the fret ends with 600 grit because it could round them over.  I then use 1,000 - 12,000 grit abrasives in multiple steps followed by a quick machine buff.
15. A New Bone Nut.	16. New Frets have this nice guitar back in shape.
17. Properly Dressed Fret Ends feel smooth to the fretting hand.	18. All Done.
19. A Compensated Bone Saddle . I fabricated one for this guitar to further ensure optimal tone and playability.