Fret Levelling tool of choice ?

lysander

What’s yours ?

I have a huge stewmac beam that can be used with self adhesive sandpaper but it’s enormous and unwieldy and the sandpaper is expensive and hard to find.

I also have a crimson fret levelling file, very well made, and nice size, but I find it leaves tool marks on the playing surface of the frets that I can’t get rid of.

Maybe a diamond file of around the same size would be better ? 

randella

A cheap Wickes spirit level, one side face of which is a) just wide enough at 20mm or so, and b) impossibly true for a £10 tool.

octatonic

I use the Stewmac levelling bar & their fret files.

I then polish with high grade sandpaper and then micro mesh.

NelsonP

Gibson use one of these.....

Roland

randella said:

A cheap Wickes spirit level, one side face of which is a) just wide enough at 20mm or so, and b) impossibly true for a £10 tool.

If I were looking for a new one then this is what I’d look at. The H section makes the structure very stable, and being aluminium it’s light to handle

Until it wears out (ie after my lifetime) I’m using a fine toothed metal file blade. Not a cheap B&Q file, but a proper engineers metalworking file.

stephen.wood125

@NelsonP proper LOL. I bought a Martin OM-42 and I think they use a catapult a a brick "plek" is fucking wank. I've played 13 guitars with that and if I hadn't played a guitar with proper hand finished polished frets, I'd be pleased but for the money and supposed accuracy it's shite. The R9 I have was mostly "OK" but not good tech grade (I can't say "luthier" unless they actually make and adjust acoustic instruments, however a good tech is like a wizard)

Sarge

I use the Technofret 19" levelling beam from ebay iirc, they also sell the adhesive sandpaper strips at 240 and 320 grit, excellent stuff. 

Jaycee

I got a pice of 16" aluminium box section simillar to  the technofret and trued it up on a piece of 6mm glass with wet and dry. Cost me £3 plus the paper

lysander

I think there’s an argument for using a smaller tool like the Crimson files as opposed to a long beam / box section / spirit level, since the smaller ones don’t require the neck to be perfectly straight on its whole length when levelling but only locally straight.

This should give a bit more room for error ( ie non flatness / straightness of the neck ) when levelling and shouldn’t really matter for playability since the neck is never completely straight when under tension.
Discuss ?

Kalimna

I use a rectangular piece of 8mm glass (bevelled edges from glass merchants) that I spray glue wet-n-dry to. Cant remember which grit, but you can change as you like. The glass was cheap, it can be any length you want (mines about 7-8"x3"), and you can use any abrasive paper you have access to. It is also perfectly flat (at least as far as frets go. This is the way I was shown at Bailey guitars.

Adam

Musicwolf

 I use Steve Robinson of this parish (although I'm not sure that he'd be too happy about being referred to as a 'tool')

lysander

Kalimna said:

I use a rectangular piece of 8mm glass (bevelled edges from glass merchants) that I spray glue wet-n-dry to. Cant remember which grit, but you can change as you like. The glass was cheap, it can be any length you want (mines about 7-8"x3"), and you can use any abrasive paper you have access to. It is also perfectly flat (at least as far as frets go. This is the way I was shown at Bailey guitars.

Adam

That’s a cool idea!

Kalimna

lysander said:

Kalimna said:

I use a rectangular piece of 8mm glass (bevelled edges from glass merchants) that I spray glue wet-n-dry to. Cant remember which grit, but you can change as you like. The glass was cheap, it can be any length you want (mines about 7-8"x3"), and you can use any abrasive paper you have access to. It is also perfectly flat (at least as far as frets go. This is the way I was shown at Bailey guitars.

Adam

That’s a cool idea!

Cheers - cant say its mine tho!

Often simple ideas are good ones, and efforts to over-engineer/complicate things dont do the job any better, just more expensively

Adam

lysander

I ended up buying this file which I stumbled upon and like it a lot - good size, very controllable, quite quick but leaves a smoother surface than metal files.
https://www.chrisalsopguitar.co.uk/shop/guitar-tools/fret-levelling/Diamond-Fret-Leveller-File-TF020

SteveRobinson

Musicwolf said:

 I use Steve Robinson of this parish (although I'm not sure that he'd be too happy about being referred to as a 'tool')

I've been called worse

StewMac beam for me with strips of abrasive attached using double sided tape.