[Haunted Cereal]

the refretting sounds like a good idea, i have an old ibanez 6er thats been to hell and back and has been my project guitar for awhile. i work at guitar center so my pay check isn't...substantial, its 6.85 plus commission and i'm still saving for a cabinet and a neck for my warlock. when i refret, what exactly am i looking for, just making sure they're all in and at the proper radius and height? do you just push them in or use a rubber mallet or something?

[Chellee Guitars]

Get the StewMac refretting basics video and watch it a few times. Take notes. Keep in mind that it is their intent to sell you their products, though. Make a list of what you need to get. Buy several sets of fret wire. You can probably get Dunlop fretwire through work. I would suggest maybe 6105 or 6100 fret wire. 6100 is a bigger and wider fret and probably more like what is on the Ibanez, but smaller wire may be easier to work with. Both sizes are fairly tall and should allow you to mill plenty of material off to get it all nice and level once they're in. Also, don't take short cuts. If you put in a fret an it doesn't seat properly, take it out. You may need to refret the neck a couple of times to get it right. This is an excellent excercise in just what it takes to make a good neck. I do not recommend using Dunlop 6000 (extra jumbo) fret wire for your first go.

You also need plenty of light. Go to Office Depot and get one of those $20 desk work lamps that attaches to a desk/bench and can be placed in any position. Put a 100 watt bulb in it (I think they say not to use anything above 60 though) so that you can see what you're doing.

As repair work goes, fretwork can be the most profitable in terms of labor, but you have to spend a little bit to get the tools. One refret can easily pay for those tools though.

The heart of a guitar is the neck. You can put all the greatest electronics into the best woods and make it look cooler than cool, but if it plays like dung it is dung.

Bug me if you have any questions, but only after you've done you're homework. peter@chellee.com

[MrJack]

I'm currently reading the "Building Electric Guitars" book by Martin Koch, and so far it's very good.
I'm also reading the 2nd edition of "Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine and it is very useful. It's got 2 chapters dedicated to frets but it has also quite a bit about installing different bridges, TOM's, Kahler's, Wilkinson trems and Floyd Rose trems.
I recommend either buying or borrowing them from a library, great stuff to read through before you start making your own guitars.

[Randy]

I bought all my clamps from harbor freight, and though they're cheap... I've had no breakage/slippage after using them for 3 years now.

[Chellee Guitars]

Harbor Freight is an excellent place to get cheap stuff that doesn't have to be perfect. A great place for clamps. The thing you need to be careful of with clamps is applying too much pressure. If you clamp down too hard you are liable to squeeze all the glue out of a joint. One of the nice things about cam clamps is that they are fast (much faster than screw clamps) and they have enough holding power, but are easy to use effectively without over-clamping. Speed becomes everything when you're gluing a large surface like a fretboard or top. Especially in a dry climate. They're not cheap though and so you may need to wait until you can afford them to buy them. I forgot about Harbor Freight though. I got a great 12' disc sander there for $30 or $40. I still use it almost every day. Just don't expect to get a good straight edge or good set of allen wrenches there.

...Which reminds me, don't skimp on allen wrenches. Get as good a set as you can.

[Haunted Cereal]

i have a decent set of allen wrenches but i seem to have lost my...not metric...set which is driving me insane as i was trying to do truss rod adjustments earlier. i ended up taking my entire room apart. its neat having all your stuff moved across town when your on the other side of the world. guess thats another thing to put on the list.

[Dendroaspis]

Peter is right on the money, excellent advice, couldn't have said it better.

[skinhead]

Bowclamp

It seems to be the salvation

[Chellee Guitars]

That does look cool. I think I might have to get a couple of those, but you still need a ton of clamps for large flat surfaces like gluing on tops. I think I could have used a couple of those last week though...

I want some!

[stubhead]

All good advice so far.

I've been re-wiring and repairing since I was about 14, just out of necessity i suppose. I was also a keen woodworker before I started making instruments

Sounds like me - my dad always had a workshop wherever we lived, and I guess it just never even occurred to me that you wouldn't do your own action, trussrod adjustments, fix jacks & change pickups. Pay somebody?!? Just to solder?!?

I strongly second the recommendation for Dan Erlewine's book "Guitar Player Repair Guide", even before any "building" books. It's about $25, and it will save you thousands of dollars every decade, whether you graduate to full fret jobs, fine finishing or not. With that book, one way to approach tool acquisition is just to buy what you need for each succeeding job, and eventually you'll have a pretty good setup. A lot of my favorite "fret files" are not specifically guitar tools at all, just a pile of little guys I've accumulated over the years. Funny thing though, for a while I decided to buy about $150 worth of tools every time I built a guitar. 25 years later, I still need at least $150 worth of tools every time I build a guitar....

The unofficial Warmoth forum is a great place to get practical answers from people who actually build stuff, as opposed to opinions from people who've read other opinions -
Unofficial Warmoth - Index
ReRanch is strong on finishing, though they are centered on a certain line of products and the procedures that use those products -
ReRanch Guitar Refinishing
There's really no functional difference between guitars and furniture (one's louder....), so antique and woodworking places are a good source of info. The wood finishing "bible" is Michael Dresdner's "The Woodfinishing Book", though on a project-by-project basis, his website might give away the secrets:
Michael Dresdner Home Page

I like to have the actual books on hand, so I'm not always running my computer while trying to work on stuff. That Taunton Press has books on all the specialty aspects of finishing too, if that's the way your career bends.

You'll find there's a hazy gray line between players and woodworkers, there are some people who can turn out a stupendous piece of finishing, but maybe their advice on fretwork isn't exactly geared towards the best playing instrument, and it goes the other way too. Even some of the best makers sometimes pop out with advice that indicates to me that they haven't actually played a gig in a long time... it pays to collect all the advice you can for each specific project then combine the elements that make the most sense for what you're trying to do.