Quick & easy guide to polishing frets (w/ pics!)

Dord

Ok, so I made a thread last year about this but there were no pics. Roll on today, I actually had to do this and it was bright out and I had a working camera. So, without further ado here goes!

Normally when polishing frets you would use steelwool but it is very messy and if you get the bits on the pickups it can screw 'em up. I was thinking about another way to do it and decided to try using scratch remover. Thankfully it worked. :pac:

Today I decided to clean up the frets on a spare bass neck I had lying round. For this I needed some T-cut scratch remover (or similar), a roll of masking tape, and a neck. I put masking tape each side of every fret in order to protect the board. Note that in this picture I had started to clean the first fret.



Here's the scratch remover I used. It's made by T-cut and it has a paste-like consistency which I think is much better than some of the other liquidy ones that are messy. You should only use a very very very small amount per fret. Once I had my tiny bit of Tcut on the cloth I rubbed it along the fret, back and forwards. After that I used another part of the cloth that was clean and buffed it up a bit.





This is what the cloth looks like after. The reason why the frets go dull looking is due to the oxidisation of the nickel in the nickel-steel alloy. So what you're removing is this top layer that was oxidised... or something like that. This is why theres a load of black on the cloth.

Now... on to the finished result. Well, in this case the first fret is done and the second isn't. As you can see there's a big difference.



Once I finished all the frets I put a little bit of lemon oil on the board. Now it's all nice again. For those interested... this neck should be up on adverts tomorrow. (hope the mods don't mind this little mention)

Rigsby

Dord wrote: »

this neck should be up on adverts tomorrow. (hope the mods don't mind this little mention)

Dord banned for spamming !!!

Nice work Dord, and thanks for posting it. I'm due a string change soon, so will probably try your method.

Dord

Rigsby wrote: »

Dord banned for spamming !!!

Nice work Dord, and thanks for posting it. I'm due a string change soon, so will probably try your method.

What? me spamming... never... :pac:

Thanks.

Johnny Storm

Those frets look like they've hardly ever been played. :eek:

Dord

Johnny Storm wrote: »

Those frets look like they've hardly ever been played. :eek:

Let me just set this straight. This won't level your frets or magically bring them back to life, it will however polish them and have them looking and feeling nice again.

Now, the reason why this neck looks like it's barely been played is because when I did use it I played the bass with flatwounds. Along with this I have a very light touch.

Demeyes

I've seen people use this method before.
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/the-sevenstring-org-workbench/37482-restring-fret-polish-without-steel-wool.html
This is a thread that has a lot of pictures of the process and a good description of it as well as other good cleaning and maintenance tips.
I normally use a D'addario fret polish cloth thing for frets that I got free in a pack of strings. It seems to do the job nicely and bring some shine back into the frets.

Dord

Demeyes wrote: »

I've seen people use this method before.
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/the-sevenstring-org-workbench/37482-restring-fret-polish-without-steel-wool.html
This is a thread that has a lot of pictures of the process and a good description of it as well as other good cleaning and maintenance tips.
I normally use a D'addario fret polish cloth thing for frets that I got free in a pack of strings. It seems to do the job nicely and bring some shine back into the frets.

Yeah I realise I'm probably not the first to do this. I just figured I'd put a thread up with some pictures showing how easy it is to do.

Oh, and btw... it's up on adverts now. Link in the sig.

NoQuarter

7 years playing guitar and ive cleaned my fretboard twice i think!

What are the merits to doing this???

just that its all shiney!?!?

Dord

king-stew wrote: »

7 years playing guitar and ive cleaned my fretboard twice i think!

What are the merits to doing this???

just that its all shiney!?!?

They look much better and also it should play better also. Bends etc. would be easier.

Johnny Storm

king-stew wrote: »

7 years playing guitar and ive cleaned my fretboard twice i think!

What are the merits to doing this???

just that its all shiney!?!?

I was going to ask the same question but I didn't want to reveal the endless depths of my lack of knowledge:p

I think it really is the shiny thing.;)

I have read that if you are getting the beginning of some fret wear then giving the frets a going over with some sandpaper evens out the divots and makes bending smoother. I have done that myself, it didn't make a black and white difference but hopefully it didn't do any harm either.

EDIT: Dord beat me to it while I was composing my masterpiece.

Dord

Johnny Storm wrote: »

I was going to ask the same question but I didn't want to reveal the endless depths of my lack of knowledge:p

I think it really is the shiny thing.;)

I have read that if you are getting the beginning of some fret wear then giving the frets a going over with some sandpaper evens out the divots and makes bending smoother. I have done that myself, it didn't make a black and white difference but hopefully it didn't do any harm either.

EDIT: Dord beat me to it while I was composing my masterpiece.

I dunno, watch with that sandpaper. Someone here (not naming names... ) botched their frets with sandpaper and had to get Mr. Nelson to fix them. :pac:

Johnny Storm

I remember that but IIRC it was mostly the ebony fretboard surface that got scratched
I do actually read almost all the posts in the forum and have learned a lot from them.

FWIW I used these very handy yokes from Stew-Mac to protect the fretboard and the sandpaper I used was these yokes.

NoQuarter

Johnny Storm wrote: »

I was going to ask the same question but I didn't want to reveal the endless depths of my lack of knowledge:p

Ha thats why i mentioned the playing for 7 years bit, didnt wanna saound like a n00b! :pac:

I gotta say it really reeks of effort, i wouldnt be botherd!!

Informative thread none the less!

Dord

king-stew wrote: »

Ha thats why i mentioned the playing for 7 years bit, didnt wanna saound like a n00b! :pac:

I gotta say it really reeks of effort, i wouldnt be botherd!!

Informative thread none the less!

It only took about 15 or 20 minutes.