Sean Tierney - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

If I Fret Less, It Won't Be Fretless

Monday, June 29, 2009

I made more progress with the 'Less Paul.'

I attached the frets to the fretboard, which is a pretty major step forward.I had to do a little work with the fretwire beforehand, but I didn't take pictures and I won't bore you with the details. I needed to narrow the tang of the fretwire.

That's not a euphemism. Here's the stuff, all laid out:In the above picture, you can see the fretwire all cut to length to the left of the neck.

Curling around the red-handled nippers is a longer piece of fretwire; that's how it is delivered.

So how do you fret a guitar neck? You put some super glue into the fret slot:You then place the fret into the slot. It doesn't go far, but it stays in place.

In order to seat the fret, you use an arbor press. This one has a special fitting, or caul, that presses the fret evenly and in the proper radius:The caul, and the fitting, are made specially for luthiers (people who build/repair guitars). I don't use this often, and the rust proves it. Then again, the rust just proves I'm in Hong Kong, where the weather takes a toll on stuff:The arbor press exerts a lot of force and pushes the fret tang into the slot I hold the press down for about 30 seconds, until the super glue sets. The fret won't move anyway, but I like to make sure.Because this neck has binding, the frets have to be cut specially before they are installed. The ebony (dark wood) has slots for the frets. The binding (the light, maple wood) doesn't:So I have to cut each fret with a tool I adapted from a pair of wire cutters I bought at Radio Shack. I remove the tang on either end of the fret so that only the fret hangs over the binding:That way, the neck looks nicer, and there's no problem with fretting.So basically, you just work your way up the neck:17 frets later, it's fretted. But the ends of the frets need to be filed flush with the edge of the fretboard:Of course, I have files for this, and I file the fret ends until they are flush with the fretboard:I still have to level, dress, and polish the frets, but at least they're on the neck!

15 年多前 0 赞s 7 评论s 0 shares

Marie Jost

I don't think most people realize how much hand work goes into making a guitar. There is a reason the good ones cost so damn much--a lot of work by a very experienced and famous luthier equals big $$$. Some flamenco guitars made by one of the handful of true masters can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. These aren't collector instruments that are never played, though, these are instruments that working artists use day in and day out. One of the perks of becoming a really famous flamenco guitarist is that luthiers make special guitars and give them to you. I think Paco de Lucia has around 40 flamenco guitars, and I would hazard a guess that about 10 of them are gifts. But for recording and performing in Spain (no airplane travel so he can use his irreplaceable instruments), he has a handful of favorites that he selects based on what he is playing and who he is playing with. These babies are real works of art and some can be quite fragile. I see electric guitars are works of art, but many not quite so fragile. Unless you do a Pete Townsend, I doubt you're going to split the body. That is the great hazard with flamenco guitars because the wood is so think on the top and back. But I am sure those who play electric guitars have other hazards to content with.

15 年多 ago