Building a 1963 Lake Placid Telecaster

Building a 1963 Lake Placid Telecaster - Dressing the Frets
Click on each image below for a larger view.

This section provides pictures of the fret dressing process.

The neck came with finished with the frets installed. That saved me a lot of work but added some as I had to remove all of the finish from the frets.

I started out trying to use a flat beam and sandpaper (from Stew-Mac). Next I tried to file each fret individually with a fret file. The work was becoming tedious with inconsistent results. Then an idea struck me...you can see me using the blade on a scraper to "slice" away the finish off of the frets.

I could then file the frets, crown them and polish them. I knew that I had some "wiggle room" in terms of fret height since I bought the neck with Jumbo frets (knowing I would have to do some fret work to get the finish off). The extra height allowed me to "experiment" a little with learning how to finish frets. I've heard no complaints form anyone who has played it...so the fret must be at least OK. Time and patience is all it took.

Building a 1963 Lake Placid Telecaster - Home

Close-up of the 12th fret area. 100-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Close-up of the lower frets. 101-Fret-Dressing.JPG	A side view of the scratched finish on the frets. 102-Fret-Dressing.JPG
The whole neck before the fret dressing / finish cleanup. 103-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Nicholson files and Fret-Dressing tools from Stew-Mac. 104-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Fret Dressing - Tools. Masking and painters tape; various files 105-Fret-Dressing.JPG
The large aluminum straight / flat edge from Stew Mac. 106-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Various files - all of fine grit used for light touch and/or finishing work. 107-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Protecting the guitar body. 108-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Taping the neck. 109-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Taping the fingerboard. 110-Fret-Dressing.JPG	I used the more expensive 3M Special Painters tape supposedly for delicate finishes…you'll see in later images I was wrong! 111-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Taping the neck continues… 112-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Taping the neck continues… 113-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Taping the neck continues… 114-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Taping the headstock. 115-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Supporitng the guitar body. 116-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Supporitng the guitar body. 117-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Taping the neck continues… 118-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Taping the neck continues… 119-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Taping the neck continues… 120-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Taping the neck continues… 121-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The head stock and frets taped. 122-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Top view of headstock and frets taped off. 123-Fret-Dressing.JPG
The neck almost completely taped. 124-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The taping complete. 125-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The first snadings using the aluminum beam with the 320 grit sandpaper. 126-Fret-Dressing.JPG
I only wanted to remove the finish material and take the frets down ever so slightly. 127-Fret-Dressing.JPG	From this angle you can see the aluminum bar covers almost the entire length of the neck. 128-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The frets after a few strokes of the aluminum beam with the 320 grit sandpaper. 129-Fret-Dressing.JPG
The rest of the frets after first sanding. Notice all the finish chips and dust. 130-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Close-up of the frets after first sanding. Here you can clearly see the finish chips. 131-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Another close-up of the sanded frets. 132-Fret-Dressing.JPG
The edges of the finish still on the frets. 133-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Time for Plan - B… 134-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Plan - B. 135-Fret-Dressing.JPG
There's got to be a better way? 136-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The finish on the frets at the last frets. 137-Fret-Dressing.JPG	I'm getting there.. 138-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Another close-up of me and the razor scraper… 139-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The frets with the scraping done. 140-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The upper frets with the scraping done. 141-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Sanding with 0000 steel wool. 142-Fret-Dressing.JPG	More steel wool sanding… 143-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Some frets still had a few sanding marks. 144-Fret-Dressing.JPG
You can see how much dust came off the fret after only a few strokes with the file. 145-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Some final sanding of a few frets… 146-Fret-Dressing.JPG	The shiny frets…but.. 147-Fret-Dressing.JPG
You can see the area where the finish came off. (you'll need to view the large or high-res pictures to see it) 148-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Then neck with the finished fret work. 149-Fret-Dressing.JPG	Angled view of the shiny frets. 150-Fret-Dressing.JPG
Close-up of the sanded, crowned and finished frets near the body. 151-Fret-Dressing.JPG