frets?

[Squireman131]

so on my squire strat the higher frets have like indents from the strings and its pretty bad. i didnt do it i bought it like that. any way to fix this myself? and im afraid of doing the same thing to my douglas. was it just caused by a insanely hard fretter or is it easily done?

[thearabianmage]

Those are natural indents from fretting the strings over a period of time. It's nothing abnormal, though fixing it yourself may require a bit of a learning curve.

And you only want to fix it if it is causing problems, i.e. fret-buzz or dead frets.

There's two ways a problem like that is fixed: 1. a fret-job, 2. a re-fret.

I would recommend the first. A few 'specialist' tools are required for this, but, on a recommendation level, I would suggest getting a luthier to give it a fret-job, if you are willing a shell out some dosh, that is.

Again, it's no major problem unless it's causing unwanted noise, etc.

Hope that helps! :D

[Squireman131]

thanks for the help, i think once i start getting some hours in i might get it fixed but i kinda dont want to waste the money on a guitar i bought for 50 dollars. By the way i saw your deviant art page, have you ever heard of polykarbon? if not you should check it out my brother has some stuff up there, his name is cheshirecat

[gordy_sg_no1]

you dont have to go to stew mac for alot of tools if you want to do a bit of diy. ok firstly a no5 jack plane is about 16" which i ideal for leveling frets, a fairly accurate steel rule is easy to turn into a notched straight edge, a couple af mixed packs of wet n dry, radius blocks are cheap enough on ebay, you can also dress the ends with needle files. i crown with needle files to but unless you can do it well get the old fashioned type fret crowning file at stewmac. i have levelled frets with good quality spirit levels before and they turned out great. from experience though always roll off a bit starting at the 11 fret as it helps with action.

[gordy_sg_no1]

oh and any tools you make keep them as they are handy for any other guitars, i just dont see any point if someone only does it for themself, spending a fortune on overpriced tools.