A new beginning...

roberty

Wow those frets are super shiny

I hope to see girls dominating in the next generation of guitar players!

ESBlonde

Lovely act on your part, she has been launched properly on her playing career. Well done Mark.

Alnico

roberty said:

Wow those frets are super shiny

I hope to see girls dominating in the next generation of guitar players!

Thanks.

I used normal masking tape cut into strips to fit exactly between each fret and right up to the fret edge.

By hand at first, using 400 wet n dry paper I got them all looking uniform then I used 600, 800 and 1000 to make them smooth. I then polished using PEEK Creme polish with a small wheel on the Dremel, buffed with a dry larger wheel, then oiled the board and left overnight. Wiped board almost dry the next day and removed oil from frets using microfiber, then without masking tape buffed again with the dry wheel on the Dremel.

It's a very rewarding process and actually only took an hour before I was walking away leaving it to soak in lemon oil overnight. The Dremel really does make things a lot easier. Without it, it takes a bit longer. Not every guitar needs an overnight soak in oil and if it doesn't, just a wipe on/wipe off will do, but I still buff the frets a second time afterwards so that's the last thing done before strings go on.

Shiny frets mean smooth frets and they not only sound better they look good, feel amazing and prolong fret and string life plus reduce fatigue on fingertips, being that the strings are easier to play in all ways.

Once they've been done like this, a quick wipe with Peek in between every string change will keep them looking like that and you won't need the whole process again until you can begin to see "Gouges" in the frets. When you do, repeat this process to stop it going any further and you'll always get the most life out of your frets.

ESBlonde said:

Lovely act on your part, she has been launched properly on her playing career. Well done Mark.

Thanks, Kev,

You know when you get these things land near you and think "I could be *that* guy that changed her life!". Well, it was just that kind of moment and she's already a born performer, loves singing with a Mic and performing, totally fearless and absolutely loves every second of doing it.

She's already got a Guitar-Orientated playlist and if you're on Spotify, you can listen to her musical education too...

 **Ruby**

When she comes over to our place there are 4 electric guitars of ours here and all of them are technically much better than hers, even now it's had the work done it's still what it is. My point is that we encourage her to play our guitars as much as she wants to so she gets accustomed to how to handle them, the feel of different styles of build and most importantly so that she never feels like a decent guitar is out of her reach or something she has no place owning. She loves picking our guitars up and although she always asks first, she needs no supervision with them and to see her totally absorbed in them is a joy to owning them for us.

The best part is that we've reduced the gap between her 'Beginner' guitar and ours and that helping hand she gets while trying to learn will be the key to her learning quicker and feeling more positive about it.

I've also programmed her to recognise when a guitar isn't playing right and do/have done something about it.

I'm dead proud of her.

Her Dad walked out when she was a baby. He has NO IDEA what he's missing and he never will.

It's all ours to enjoy and that's kind of the biggest part of why I did this for her.

*That's* Rock 'n Roll and that's the kind of spark that last a lifetime.

It did with me!

darthed1981

Alnico said:

I'm dead proud of her.

Her Dad walked out when she was a baby. He has NO IDEA what he's missing and he never will.

It's all ours to enjoy and that's kind of the biggest part of why I did this for her.

Kids are pretty amazing, my little girl has insisted I keep one guitar for her.

57Deluxe

I see you are a member of the Cannabis Growers Association as well...??

SteveRobinson

Great job Mark! 

joeyowen

Awesome  

scrumhalf

Your job will be complete when she says to you "those pickups... what can we do about them?"

Alnico

57Deluxe said:

I see you are a member of the Cannabis Growers Association as well...??

That's not taken in my house!

SteveRobinson said:

Great job Mark! 

Thanks, that means a lot to me.

scrumhalf said:

Your job will be complete when she says to you "those pickups... what can we do about them?"

I'm looking forward to that.

I reckon she'll outgrow this guitar in roughly 3 - 4 years, when she get's near age 13/14 and if we did the pickups, there's no reason why she couldn't play all her first years on this guitar, it really works well.

I've told her that when she can play something and phrase each note properly and we can both hear the tone properly, then we'll get her some nicer pickups but until then it's way more about getting both hands to work together and getting as much information into her head as possible.

She seems very taken with the Strat and plays mine whenever she can but who knows how she'll feel when she's 14.