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My 1999 RainSong WS1000 carbon fiber acoustic guitar, made in Maui, Hawaii, had never been an exceptionally comfortable instrument to play. More accurately : There was nothing wrong with the guitar. The fretboard was not to my particular liking. RainSong's standard 20″ fretboard radius was a bit on the flat side for my taste, and the fretboard was loaded with jumbo fret wire.
The guitar had visible fret wear, though it wasn't bad. I had been reluctant to address the carbon fiber fretboard, and that had kept me from truly enjoying the instrument.
I wanted to replace the jumbo frets that shipped with the guitar with a smaller wire. But what I really wanted to do was to alter the fretboard radius. I finally committed to fully refret my RainSong fretboard, and I have documented that effort in this article.
The Taping
Having never encountered a carbon fiber fretboard before, and having no idea what I might be in for, I opted to apply a low-tack tape everywhere, including up onto the headstock (not something I would normally do). Should I get any chip-out, I can capture the pieces as they adhere to the tape.
I set two rectangular steel card scrapers that I bordered with tape on the soundboard next to the fretboard extension, and secured them with a piece of tape. This is another area of the guitar vulnerable to damage during refretting.
SPOILER : Don't laugh. Okay, you can, but just a little. Taping the fretboard proved to be entirely unnecessary, as you will see. To this day, though, I continue to lay those same two steel plates alongside fretboards I am working on in order to defend the soundboard.
Tape Applied
Fret Removal
To minimize chip-out on a wooden fretboard, where fragments of the fretboard splinter away from the surface as a barbed, steel fret is pulled from it's slot, I apply heat to the fret, just enough to soften any glue that may otherwise act like an additional shard of glass exiting a wound. This was my first carbon fiber fretboard, and I wasn't sure what to expect in the way of potential chip-out, so I opted to start with the same process.
Woodburning Pen
I heated up an electric woodburning pen, fitted with a flat blade (A soldering iron can also do the job, as will dedicated tools such as a fretboard iron heated on a hotplate, a fretboard electric heating blanket, a small laundry iron, or even a hair dryer or heat gun). I heated the first fret and carefully worked it loose with a pair of Fret Pullers (Narrow Flush-Cut End Nippers).
Fret Pullers
The fret lifted out extremely easily, as did all 20 remaining frets, with no trouble at all. Chip-out? What chip-out? This was awesome! I suddenly wondered why I had put this off for so long.
Fret Selection
The guitar was originally fitted with jumbo Nickel frets, 0.105″ wide. I had toyed with the idea of replacing the original frets with Stainless Steel frets, but opted at the last minute to stay with Nickel. Here was my reasoning:
I was fully expecting to have to deal with some major fret slot repair and, depending on how that went, I would potentially be refretting this guitar only once. I did not expect the frets to release as easily as they did. As a result, I knew that any subsequent refret would be a relatively trivial undertaking.
Stainless Steel fret wire introduces extra effort and is much harder on my tools. If I didn't have to use it, I would prefer not to.
RainSong shipped their guitars with Nickel primarily for tone, as they believed Stainless was a bit too bright. They had a point.
I selected StewMac #148 fret wire for the replacement frets. At just 0.084″ wide, it (on the left, below) is a much narrower wire than the jumbo wire (on the the right, below) that had shipped originally with this guitar.
Narrow Versus Jumbo Nickel Frets
Fretboard Flatness
Prior to (re-)fretting a neck, let alone (re-)radiusing it, the surface of the fretboard is tested for flatness and corrected, if necessary, via planing and/or sanding. On any neck fitted with a dual-action truss rod, including the more recent RainSong N2 neck, I would use that rod to adjust the neck to be as flat as possible prior to modifying the fretboard surface.
Failure to do so will make for unwanted waves down the surface of the fretboard, later, when the truss rod is adjusted. But my RainSong N1 neck does not house a truss rod of any kind.
The RainSong necks were cast carbon graphite. Even the fret slots were cast, not cut. The fretboard and neck were made as one, unified component to be as stiff as possible. RainSong carefully formed a general relief profile into the surface of the fretboard. In the company's own words:
... these necks are pre-engineered for optimal relief.
That relief amounted to about 0.006". I am not an aggressive player and, while I prefer a low action, I am not seeking those silky electric guitar string heights. I like a flat fretboard, sans relief, so I determined to flatten the board.
A slight fall-away also exists on this N1 neck. I did not know it at the time of this refret, but later confirmed that the fretboard was indeed dead flat. This was discovered when I reset the neck and released the fretboard extension from its bond with the soundboard.
A slight fall-away also exists on this N1 neck. I did not know it at the time of this refret, but later confirmed that the fretboard was, indeed, dead flat. At the time, I assumed the fall-away had been formed into the fretboard, courtesy of RainSong.
If you read my article on resetting this very neck, » RainSong N1 Neck Reset , you may be as surprised as I was to discover the fretboard was simply bent down onto the soundboard and bonded. When I released the fretboard extension (using heat), the fretboard returned to dead flat.
Regardless, attempting to remove fall-away by planing or sanding from the nut to the end of the board would require removing way too much material. My approach would be to level sand as well as radius the board down to a flat plane between the nut and the 14th fret, and honor the fall-away across the fretboard extension.
Fretboard Radius
I removed all the tape from the fretboard (the tape that I hadn't needed to apply, after all).
Using a piece of 220-grit 3M Gold self-adhesive sandpaper attached to a StewMac aluminum Radius Sanding Beam, I carefully modified the fretboard down to a 16″ radius. The fretboard cut very quickly.
16" Radius Beam
Satin or Gloss?
The RainSong originally shipped from the factory with a satin-like look to the fretboard. I had always wanted to shine it up, but (to do it properly) would require removing all of the frets, first. Well, now was my chance! I stepped though grit changes up to 800, then swapped out the Gold paper for wet/dry paper.
I spritzed the fretboard lightly with water (hooray for carbon fiber!) and, using a short wooden neck radius block, I dressed the fretboard with 1000, 2000, and 3000 grit wet/dry paper (using a sanding medium called Finish 1st that I picked up at the Auto Parts store). Remember, this entire instrument is made of carbon graphite, not wood. As a result, water is not the enemy.
Once the refret is complete, the guitar will make a trip to the buffing wheel where I will polish everything up to a super shine.
Fine Sanding the Fretboard
Fret Wire Prep
The fretboard was now ready for brand new frets. The slots had been precision cut on a CNC to set back from the edges, creating a "bound fretboard" appearance. This will necessitate nipping the tangs at the ends of the new frets.
I first wiped down the surface of the board, as well as conducted a thorough cleaning of the fretwire using Naptha. Then I rolled the straight lengths of fret wire into a curve on my FretBender. Now I could begin the refret.
I started with a piece of wire cut just a bit wider than the fretboard. I removed the tang from the very ends of each fret using a pair of specialty pliers, leaving only the crown of the fret to rest atop the fretboard at the fretboard edge.
Tang Nipper
When preparing "stepped" frets this way, for an ultra-precise job, I will follow-up the material removal by clamping each fret onto a small sled included with LMI’s Fret Tang Filer. This handy device lets me pass the underside of the of the fret wire across the side of a stationary file, removing any burrs that might prevent the fret from fully seating. You can do this by hand, but one "slip" ruins a fret. Having a jig or fixture can help ensure repeated success.
Fret Tang Filing Jig
Fret Installation
Because I chose to use a smaller wire having a smaller (thinner) tang than what shipped with the RainSong, I needed to add a crimp to the tang for the fret to fit snugly into the wider slot. For this task, I used a specialty plier from StewMac named a Fret Tang Crimper. After crimping, I applied a thin bead of black CA glue along one side of the wavy tang, then hammered the new fret home.
As careful as I was to apply the CA glue sparingly, it did squeeze out, leaving a visible streak along one edge of each fret. This had me a bit nervous, but read on to see what happened.
Fret Tang Crimper
Fret Trim and Bevel
Before
Once all the fret wires are in place it is time to trim their ends flush with the edge of the fretboard, and file the metal smooth. Care must be taken to not file the neck, itself, only the fret wire.
At this stage I retaped the fretboard with my low-tack tape, the purpose being to provide a layer of protection to the finished surface of the board.
Next up is to file a bevel into the fret wire ends, sloping them inward toward the center of the fretboard. For this task I employed the use of StewMac's Fret Beveling File, which holds a file at 35° in a UHMW block that glides non-destructively across the tops of the installed frets. The frets are now sized and shaped to fit, but they remain extremely sharp on the ends. Those edges will be smoothed manually in a later step.
Beveling the Fret Ends
Fret Leveling
In order to provide for clean fretting of the strings, and to avoid muted notes or string buzz, it is necessary to ensure the surface of the fret wires comprise a plane of consistent height, a process known as fret leveling. Under ideal circumstances, one simply adds precision-cut fret wire to a perfectly leveled fretboard and the fret plane is perfectly flat. It has worked out that way a couple of times.
Most of the time, the slightest of variations in overall fret height are be introduced during the fret setting process. Those variations are readily addressed using sandpaper attached to a dead-flat bar. 220-grit paper is sufficient for the task.
NOTE : On a neck having a truss rod, the neck would have been adjusted to dead-flat prior to any fretboard flattening, radiusing, fretting, or fret leveling.
Mark the top surface of each fret with a Permanent Marker, and watch the scratch pattern as you gently run the perfectly flat sanding bar over the entire neck. The objective is to bring any high spots down to a consistently flat plane, removing as little metal as possible.
Leveling the Frets
Fret Crowning and Dressing
The last step is to crown and dress (or re-round and polish) the frets, absolutely essential for the frets I just marred and/or flattened during the fret leveling step. Crowning restores the rounded shape to the top of the fret and dressing polishes the scratches out. I have several favorite tools for this process, including traditional flat files along with dedicated radius diamond files.
When crowning, it is important to respect the effort that just went into fret leveling, as the height of the fret was just determined. Aggressive crowning would easily alter that height.
For this fret dressing I chose to use a series of graduated abrasive grits embedded in small rubber blocks called Fret Erasers. The fretboard remains taped off all during these steps to minimize any contact with the tools.
Fret Polishing (with a new set of abrasive erasers)
To add a high polish to new frets, I like to use a miniature buffing wheel attached to a Dremel, and just target the fret wire. As you may recall, I had scheduled to use this guitar for an outdoor concert, and I simply ran out of time. I walked the guitar over to the big buffing wheel and, after spending a few minutes on the fretboard, it looked great, but I knew it could look even better. I would hold off the final polishing until after the performance.
With the refret complete, I removed the tape from the shiny surface of the fretboard, installed the nut and adjusted the nut slot height. Then I adjusted the saddle height for a buttery-smooth low action.
Ah, the best laid plans ...
I completed my RainSong refret late in the morning of the day I was to perform. The performance was outdoors. It was in the high 80’s (both temp and humidity), and no fans were available. With sweat dripping out of every orifice of my body I began to play, only to have my fingers begin literally sticking together (just enough to mess with my fingering - it was nearly unbelievable). No matter how I tried, I could not slide along the fretboard without chatter. What was going on?
It was at that moment the horror struck: I realized that in my haste I had neglected to wipe down the fretboard AFTER I had removed the low-tack tape. LOW-TACK my foot! In this heat, it might as well have been fish glue! I was now dealing with the (non-visible) residue and that nasty stuff was everywhere! The hot day had exacerbated the problem, and adhesive residue ended up all over my fretting hand.
I forced my way through the performance. I would liken the effort to running a foot race, barefoot, over gravel. But the RainSong sounded good and, more importantly, it played just the way I liked it!
The Day After
The day following the performance I needed to address the sticky residue all over the fretboard. I removed the strings, wiped the neck down with Naptha, and polished the nut and saddle.
You may recall that the CA glue had left visible streaks after the frets were hammered in and any squeeze out was wiped away. I wetted a cloth with Acetone and wiped the fretboard along each fret, being very careful to not permit the Acetone to come into contact with anything except the surface of the fretboard.
The CA glue residue just melted away, as though it had never been there! A little extra time with the polishing wheel on the Dremel gave the frets a beautiful luster, and a final trip to the buffing wheel polished the fretboard to a near-mirror shine.
Now that’s a refret!
Refret Complete
