Cort AF510EOP | Part Four

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Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

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Fretwork: Spot Leveling

So far, we've seen how soundhole repairs, bridge ramping and saddle lowering were carried out on this Cort AF510EOP. Now it was time for some fretwork, more precisely; spot leveling of the frets. 

I needed to do this because Bro Eddy had complained of buzzing when playing in the higher reaches of the neck. This could only mean one thing, that there were high spots on the upper frets. And the only remedy for this malady would be spot leveling. 

First of all, the high spots were identified using a four-edged tool known as a "Fret Rocker." Basically, you place one edge of the tool so it covers only three adjacent frets. Then you try and rock the tool with the middle fret as the pivot. If it doesn't, all is good. However, if it rocks; then you have a high spot.

In this way, I was able to identify high spots on the 14th to 19th frets. These high spots were then marked with, you guessed it; a marker pen. Following this, a fine-toothed three-cornered file was used to carefully level the high spots. After every few strokes of the file, the Fret Rocker was used to gauge progress. If it still rocked, I needed to file some more.

Finally, all the high spots had been leveled and the Fret Rocker rocked no more. Yes, indeed; another sad day for rock and roll. But I digress. The fret tops were now level, yes; but they were as flat as a landing strip. And so the next step was to recrown the fret tops. I used a combination of three-cornered files and a StewMac Z-File to get the job done.

Now the frets had been leveled and recrowned, but tops were marred by lots of unsightly scratches and file marks. To remove these marks, 3M Scotch-Brite Pads, 0000 steel wool, 3M Flexible Polishing Papers and lots of elbow grease were used. The last step was a little gentle polishing with Autosol.

Before final setup and restringing, the whole guitar was given a thorough cleaning; followed by a couple applications of Gibson Guitar Polish. Besides this, the Merbau fretboard was degrimed and reconditioned with lemon oil; and all the frets polished. Well, that about wraps up this post; and my four-parter on Bro Eddy's Cort AF510EOP. Stay home, stay safe; and keep on rocking the free world!