Fret and Neck Overhaul

This is the long-overdue followup to my previous Emergency Fret Repair project. In this project, I demonstrate how to level, crown and polish the frets. I also show how to adjust your action, adjust the truss rod for relief, and how to intonate the guitar. Also, I demonstrate a tip to improve playability with a glossy neck.

The finished frets look and feel great!

Here are some of the tools and resources I use in this project:

My Emergency Fret Repair technique worked, but was really more of an emergency quick fix, and I didn’t expect the results to be permanent. As it turns out, it lasted about six months before I had to repeat the repair, which is pretty good all things considered. But I really wanted a more permanent solution.

So I discussed the options with a local luthier. I had been thinking that I might be able to have him completely replace the damaged fret, but he said that it wouldn’t be necessary and I should just to do a typical fret level, crown and polish. The dent really wasn’t that much deeper than a worn fret. It just seemed so much worse because of the sharp edges. And he said the process of leveling the frets would lower all the frets by a few thousandths of an inch, and clean up that dent along with any other fret wear. If he replaced that one fret, he would have had do the entire leveling process anyway, and it would be more difficult and expensive.

So, since this SG was kind of becoming a project guitar, I figured I’d go ahead and do the whole process myself – leveling crowning and polishing the frets, plus an overall neck tuneup. I’ve done all this a few times on other guitars with good results, but i don’t claim to be an expert – I’m just a DIY guy. I’ll show you my approach, and hopefully this will give you the confidence to try this too. But all the usual warnings- you can totally ruin your guitar if you screw this up- so experiment on a project guitar, and leave your top-shelf collectors pieces to a professional luthier.