Fingerboard leveling, flat frets, fret crowning, jury riggin

I found a halfway usable temporary fix for my bad frets.

I don't have a fret crowning file, and I plan on refretting my Aria
Pro II anyway, and I broke a string at the saddle last night, so I used that as an opportunity to do a little homebrew fret dressing.

When I bought the Aria, used, the frets were a little on the flat side, and then I made the mistake of leveling them even more with a sanding block. The frets are pretty worn, and I want the neck re-radiused anyway, so I'll be refretting it, but I don't have all the materials yet to do it, just a fret puller so far.

So, I had read on some web page about how someone polished frets after a refret "the old-fashioned way" by using a piece of sandpaper rolled in the fingers, and simply sliding it back and forth across the frets from one end of the neck to the other along its length

So, I had bought a diamond fingernail file at Wal-Mart on clearance for 25 cents, and I put it to use. Holding the file at about a 45 degree angle, so that it was parallel to the frets but angled back across the top of them a little, I swept the length of the neck, slamming the file into each fret, one after another along the entire length of the neck. So the file hit each fret in turn, then had to slide up the fret face and over the top of it. Sounded like high speed hammering almost. I used considerable downward pressure on the file, making it slam against the length of each fret and having the cutting slide up and over it, holding the thin file in a very slight curve to try to match the radius. The file would come back down on the other side of the fret and slide along the fingerboard to the next fret.

I then tried first going at 90 degrees (straight up and parallel to the fret width), the same way (sliding from the bridge to the headstock), and then reducing the angle until it was almost flat.

I alternated direction, sliding / pulling the file first from the 22nd fret to the 1st fret, then the other way. Went from medium on the file to fine and repeated, then to a carborundum knife sharpening stone for extra fine. I worked at it for about a half hour, all totalled.

So. It did not perfectly crown the frets, but it did make an obvious difference. The frets are considerably thinner at the top now, and the leading and trailing edges are rounded now instead of square. Had
I continued, I might have been able to get even closer to a crown, or perhaps actually achieve it. The next time I break a string, I'll probably go back and do some more to see.

I spooled a couple of turns of strings down from the machine heads and restrung the Floyd. I found that the frets were not polished enough, and felt very rough, so I did hard string bends all over the neck , at every position for every fret, for about ten minutes and that smoothed it out. Makes me glad I didn't change the strings... But the next time, I'll make more effort polishing the frets before restringing.
If you try this and you don't have a Floyd Rose, you probably want to do a good job of polishing the frets before restringing. If you do, either way will work.

The intonation is considerably better now. Not perfect, mind you, but much, much better than it had been. I can get a 5th fret D chord x5777x in tune AND sounding identical to one played xx0232 now: I couldn't before, I could get one in tune, but then the other would be way off.

Maybe this approach will be of some use to someone else who makes the mistake of trying to level their frets without having a crowning file, or acquires an axe with flat frets.

I could have done better with the diamond file, spent more time and laterally filed each fret, then swept the neck, and repeated that a few times, and I probably would have come closer to an actual crown rather than just thinning the width of the top of the frets. Maybe even achieved a crown that way.

However, this will SCRATCH YOUR FINGERBOARD and remove the fingerboard finish!!!!! USE THIS TECHNIQUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Use masking tape!!!
Even if you use masking tape, the potential still exists to scratch or remove finish.

I didn't mind, since my fingerboard will be sanded flat for the refret job pretty soon anyway. For some reason it didn't noticeably scratch my fingerboard, but I wouldn't want to try this on anything other than a cheap guitar. Even if I used masking tape, I would never try that approach on an expensive axe. A Gurian fret crowning file is less than $40 at Stewart-McDonald.

But if you have a cheap axe with screwed frets, and were planning on refretting it or replacing the neck or getting rid of it, maybe try this and hopefully it will work for you.

I haven't seen this approach posted elsewhere, except for using sandpaper instead of a file after using a fret crowning file, so there it is. Maybe someone can get some use outof it.

The Amazing and Mysterious Powers of Mexican Females.

Chapter 1: Levitation and Summoning.

I have had good luck crowning frets with a small triangular file with the corners ground smooth. It takes longer and consistancy can be a problem but it's quite do-able.

If you can "round over" flat filed frets in 5 minutes with 600 grit paper & your finger I'll be your agent & I'll get you all the tech work you can handle. It currently takes me almost TWO HOURS to do a satisfactory job and
I'm using a diamond grit crowning file to save time. Can you cut nut slots with your fingernails too? What am I doing wrong??

[..........]

Practice makes good

I remember the first time I tried to turn the truss rod. It literally took me hours, instead of the few seconds that are enough now.

I did, before I tried the file. I am 43 years old. Remember the frets were flat to start with. I tried it for about ten minutes, then realized it would be about my 45th birthday before I was finished.

The Amazing and Mysterious Powers of Mexican Females.

Chapter 1: Levitation and Summoning.