2002 Fender Standard Stratocaster | Part 3

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This Strat Gets Another Refret

I was first introduced to this 2002 Sunburst Fender Standard Stratocaster way back in 2013. The guitar badly needed lots of TLC, and part of of that involved a full refret with Dunlop Accu-Fret 6110 Jumbo Fret Wire. Since then, it's changed hands and now the new owner wants a couple upgrades and another refret with "smaller frets" as he's not a fan of jumbo frets. To simplify matters, I'll be dedicating this post to the refret job per se; and the next post to the various upgrades effected. That being said, let's talk about the refret job; shall we?

After detaching the neck from the body and removing the nut, tuners and string tree; the maple fretboard was cleaned with naphtha (Zippo Lighter Fluid). Then, the fretboard was lightly scored along both sides of each fret with a scalpel blade. This was done to minimize fretboard finish chipping when the frets were removed later.

Following this was fret removal. Each fret was first gently heated with a soldering iron; as I'd used super glue on the last refret. A neat trick is to apply solder to the area being heated as if you were actually soldering something. Then, when the solder melts on the fret, you'll know that you've applied enough heat. Subsequently, a pair of flush-ground nippers was carefully used to "walk" each fret out of its slot.

Fret Removal in Progress

Fret Removal Completed

Once all the frets had been removed, the fretboard was lightly scuff-sanded. I'd have liked to fully prep the fretboard with a 9.5" radius sanding block, but the owner was adamant about me not altering the appearance and ruining the "mojo" of the worn fretboard. Yes folks, worn spots, bare maple and bacteria all contribute to a high score on the mojo scale. 

After fretboard prep, the fret slots themselves were cleaned of any debris and checked for proper depth with a StewMac Fret Slot Depth Gauge. This time round, StewMac #149 Wide/Medium Fretwire would be used, and these had a tang depth of 0.067 inches. The slots were deepened where necessary, and the top of each slot tapered with a small triangular file. This was to aid fret insertion.

Fretboard and Fret Slots Prepped

StewMac #149 Fret Wire

Now, as the fretboard radius was 9.5 inches, 2-foot lengths of the fret wire were radiused to slightly less than that of the fretboard using a StewMac FretBender. The fret wire was then cut to the appropriate length for each slot and stuck onto a home-made "fret keeper" wooden block.

StewMac FretBender

Fret Wire Cut to Length

The next task was installing the frets in the usual manner. You know, tap to seat both ends, then tap tap tap until the whole fret is properly seated. And as is my normal practice, super glue was wicked in from both ends of each fret to fill in any gaps between the fret tangs and sides of the fret slots.

Frets Installed

Once the super glue had cured, it was time to trim the fret ends and file them flush with the sides of the fretboard. Following this was fret end beveling, which was also done using a file. Each fret end was then rounded over with a small file and sandpaper to remove any burrs and sharp edges.

Filing the Fret Ends Flush

Fret Ends Beveled

This having been done, strips of StewMac Orange Multi-Purpose Tape were applied to the fretboard to protect it from any damage during subsequent procedures. I really like this tape as it does not leave a lot of sticky residue when removed; unlike store-bought masking tape.

The tops of the frets were then marked with a black permanent marker pen, and leveled with diamond sharpening stones. It was easy to identify any low spots because they would still have black marker on them. After re-marking the fret tops, the leveling process was repeated until there were no more low spots left.

Fretboard Taped Off/Fret Tops Marked

Fret Leveling in Progress

Periodically, the frets were checked for uniform flatness, three at a time; with a fret rocker. Any high spots were immediately dealt with using a small file and sandpaper. Besides this, "fall away" was also created in the higher registers by applying five layers of masking tape to the area around the 12th fret and re-leveling subsequent frets. The end result was a slight downward taper from the 12th to 22nd frets.

Creating "Fall Away"

Fret Leveling Completed

What was left then was to re-crown the fret tops. I used a combination of a small edge-ground three-cornered file and StewMac Z-File Fret Crowning File to accomplish this task. With re-crowning taken care of, the frets were abraded and polished with successively-finer grits of sandpaper and 0000 steel wool.

Frets After Crowning and Polishing

The final step in the refret process was the application of several light coats of Tru-Oil to seal the maple fretboard from sweat and grime. I'd have liked to refinish the fretboard with several coats of clear, but that would have destroyed its mojo; and the owner wasn't having any of that.

That's about it for this post, folks. In Part 4, we'll see how this 2002 Sunburst Fender Standard Stratocaster was upgraded; and admire a couple pics of the revitalized six-stringer.

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