sanding down frets

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brandon.w

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I took a poorly setup jazz bass to my guitar guy...he straightened the neck out, got it set in there as well as a quirkly indonesian squire neck can be....but it still clicks. not NEARLY as bad as it used to...but it's still sort of bothering me. he said he was going to sand the frets down, but decided against it because the neck straightened out a lot more than he thought it would, so he decided to save me 20-30 bucks.

my question is...how do you sand the frets down? just...take some course sandpaper to it? I'm either going to do it myself...deal with it (it's still totally usable, just not great)...or get a new bass (later).
 
uhhh.. I wouldnt attempt that unless I was really sharp on guitar repair. It takes precise measurement, tools, familiarity, and a little emory cloth. The worst that could happen is having to pull out all the frets to replace them, make it fretless, or get a new neck. The next would be having buzzes all over the place from odd fret heights. If all the frets click its probably an issue between the nut and bridge or manufacture defect. If its just in places, it could be the nut, a few inproperly set frets, the setup of the bridge, or playing style. When he mentioned that, most likely he was talking about taking the height of a fret or two down a little that are too high. Or at least I hope he meant that. If all the frets are to high, and it was only gonna cost about 20 or 30 bucks to perform an entire fret job, and he can do it, I`d go for it. Thats cheaper than a neck.
 
I would never sand frets to level them, only to finish (like with 1000 grit paper). I use abrasive pads to finish my necks. You can get 'em at auto body or machine shop supply houses. Don't use common green scotch-brite pads! They're too aggressive. You want the white or grey stuff.

I have used a known-to-be-flat file to surface the frets with the fretboard flat. This is a tedious job which requires concentration, skill and the proper tools. You also need to crown the frets (round the tops) after surfacing to avoid buzz.

If you haven't done this kind of thing before I would suggest practicing on something you don't mind screwing up first.;)
 
This just sounds like a quick way to destroy a guitar.

Find high frets and high spots on individual frets with precision straightedges on a strung and adjusted neck and then take them down carefully one at a time until you're trued-up.

Less drastic, more precise, more professional. Very time consuming, but far better.

You wouldn't believe how many guitars I've seen that were utterly wrecked by people "sanding the frets" en bloc.
 
Are you getting the "clicking" all or most of the way up the neck? if so, don't sand the frets, raise the bridge height. If its just one fret thats high, sometimes they need to be tapped back into the fretboard - use a block of wood against the fret, and gently tap it with a hammer. If that doesn't work, think about letting the tech fix it for you. Also, are you maybe just thumping it too hard?
 
if you don't have hundreds of dollars worth of straightedges or know why someone would, you'd better not try to consider changing the shape of your neck for action purposes.
 
Personally I don't care if I kill a neck learning, I'm doing this myself from now on. I had some problems with my mex strat and finally took to filing the last few fretts at the top down myself. A crowning file is needed AFAIK to do a proper job. For what I did I didn't worry because I was just filing the last few fretts. I was able to straighten the neck out a bit afterwards and the notes at the top are starting to sound like a normal guitar.

Of course, a good book and tools will cost you as much as getting it fixed, and finding the tools may not be easy.
 
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