Warwick Corvette Standard 5 String Bass: Refret with Stainless Steel Fretwire

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1. A Warwick 5 String in need of a refret is a rare occurance. The factory uses what they call bell brass fretwire on all of their fretted bass guitars. These hard jumbo frets can take a real beating, however...	2. An Unevenly Bowed Neck makes removing the frets to straighten out the fretboard necessary. This straightedge is laying flat accross the top of the frets on the bass side of the neck, including the 8th fret (pictured above).


3. The Treble Side of the Neck is concave, or underbowed. There's a substantial gap between the top of the 8th fret on the treble side and the bottom of the straightedge. Sometimes the necks of fretted string- ed instruments will bow unevenly if they are dried out from exposure to a low relative humidity environ- ment. This bass spent two weeks in our shop acclimating to the building's constant relative humidity of 50% before we diagnosed a refret to solve the problem.	4. Removing the Frets is safely done by heating the frets with a sold- ering iron and forcing the frets out of the fretslots with a pair of flush- ground end-nippers. These end- nippers simultaniously push down on the fretboard (preventing chipping) and pull up on the fret.


5. Resurfacing the Fretboard with a block plane with a razor-sharp blade straightens out the wenge fretboard.	6. Sanding the Fretboard with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dead-flat sanding bar puts the final touches on a smooth and flat fretboard.


7. Beveling the Fretslots with a small, Swiss-needle file will prevent the fretboard from chipping when the new frets are installed.	8. Resawing the Fretslots gets rid of any gunk from the slot while insuring that the slots are cut to their proper depth. This dovetail saw has an adjustable plexi-glass depth stop to prevent the saw from cutting the slots too deep.


9. Installing the New Frets with a small brass faced mallet goes smoothly since I've invested so much time into preparing the fret slots and fretboard. I'm installing the frets with the neck resting on a sandbag. This prevents the energy of the mallet from disipating throughout the neck, thus making installation quicker and easier. The owner of this bass opted for stainless steel fretwire.	10. Beveling the Fret Ends with a mill file is the first step in dressing the fret ends. This mill file has 2 faces with full cutting surfaces as well as smooth and rounded sides and edges for safe fret-filing.


11. Filling the Gap at the Bottom of the Fret Slot. I'm applying a small drop of medium viscosity cyano acrylate mixed with rosewood dust. This thick paste is easy to control (I don't want glue running down the back of the lacquered neck) and will fill this small gap with a single application. As an added bonus, the rosewood dust is a natural super glue accelorant.	12. Sanding the Filler Flush with fine grit sandpaper.


13. Rounding the Fret Ends with a fret crowning file.	14. Rounded Fret Ends. See the difference between these two fret ends? Rounding the fret ends makes them comfortable when they come into contact with the fretting hand during play.


15. Leveling the Frets with 600 grit sandpaper only takes a minute since I've done so much preparation in straightening and resurfacing the fingerboard.	16. A Properly Dressed Fret End. After leveling the frets I sanded the frets with 600 grit sandpaper, then polished the frets with two different grades of steel wool and micro-mesh pads. These frets have been polished to a 12,000 grit shine.


17. New Stainless Steel Frets and a straight fretboard have this quality bass back up to par.