Yamaha TRB-6P Six-String Bass | Part 9

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Albert's TRB-6P: Fret Installation I

Picking up where we left off, all 24 fret slots have now been cut and deepened as necessary. Much to my dismay, despite earlier chip-filling work, new chips did develop and had to be taken care of. Anyhow, here's a pic of the ebony fretboard, ready for frets to be installed.

The ebony fretboard awaiting new frets

For this fret job, I'll be using three two-foot lengths of Dunlop 6T2/6000 Accu-Fret® Fretwire. Each length of fretwire is as straight as an arrow, so we need to bend them to a radius that's slightly tighter than that of the fretboard. The tool I'll be using is a StewMac FretBender. If you're wondering how this tool works, there's a Dan Erlewine Demo on YouTube that explains everything clearly. Do check it out.

Fretwire inserted into the StewMac FretBender

Fretwire passing through the FretBender rollers

Once the fretwire has been radiused, it's ready to be cut to length with a StewMac Fret Cutter. Mine's an older model, though. It can cut through nickel-silver fretwire; but not stainless steel. In the pic below, you can see that I've already cut the fretwire into 24 segments and inserted them into a homemade fret holder for safekeeping. This fret holder is simply a block of wood with 24 holes drilled into it.

Homemade fret holder

Now, all 24 frets have been hammered in. You can see excess fretwire sticking out on both edges of the fretboard, but that's alright as they'll eventually be trimmed. We'll be applying super glue in the next step, so I've waxed off both sides of each fret with Carnauba and Beeswax Wood Polishing Wax. This wax is locally produced, 100% natural, and comes in 100ml tins.

All 24 frets have been installed

Fretboard has been waxed

The fretboard has been waxed, so it's time to apply super glue. For this job, I'll be using one of the methods outlined by venerable guitar tech Erick Coleman in his YouTube Tutorial. Here's the procedure, as explained by Mr. Coleman himself:

"Another method, after the frets are installed, but before they're trimmed, [is to] turn the neck up on its end. I'll go down the neck with number 20 super glue and I'll just put a little dab of glue into each slot. And if you look closely, you'll be able to see gravity pulling that glue down into the slot. So the glue is running down the slot underneath the fret. I'll take it, I'll flip it over, I'll do the same thing to the other side. Eventually those glue paths are going to meet and they're going to stop. I'll go back and forth a couple times until I notice that the glue is no longer sinking into the slot. And when I see that, then I'll call it quits."

Waiting for the super glue to cure

After allowing the super glue to cure for a few hours, both ends of of each fret are trimmed as close as possible to the fretboard edge with the StewMac Fret Cutter. This procedure leaves the fret ends somewhat misshapened, with lots of sharp edges and irregularities. As such, each and every fret end needs to be reshaped and smoothened.

Trimming the fret ends leaves jagged edges

For the task of reshaping and smoothening the jagged fret ends, I'll be using a fret beveling file, fretboard leveling file, wet/dry silicon carbide paper and sanding blocks of various sizes. The fret beveling file consists of a plastic block with two slots cut into it lengthwise, a flat file, and four screws to secure the file. To file fret ends flush, insert the file into the perpendicular slot. If you want to bevel fret ends, insert the file into the angled slot instead. Seen below, from left to right, are a fretboard leveling file, fretboard beveling file, various grits of silicon carbide paper and a small wooden sanding block.

Files, abrasive paper and a sanding block

I've just filed the fret ends flush with both fretboard edges. For the majority of the frets, the fret beveling file was used, with the flat file in the perpendicular slot. However, for the frets over the body [body frets], I could not use this file as the edge of the file would damage the flamed maple top. For these frets, I switched to a fretboard leveling file.

Filing the fret ends flush

Next, to bevel the fret ends, the fret beveling file was utilized once more, only this time with the flat file in the angled slot. And as before, the fretboard leveling file was used on body frets to avoid damaging the flamed maple top.

Beveling the fret ends

Now that the fret ends have been worked on, two more tasks need to be completed. The first is to smoothen the beveled fret ends, while the second is to tidy up both fretboard edges. This is because unsightly traces of cured super glue still remain, and the ebony is scratched and uneven in several places. Here's where the silicon carbide paper comes in. In the pic below, I've just finished abrading the fretboard edges. I started with 180 grit and called it done at 600.

After smoothening with 600 grit abrasive paper