YEAH! I work on electrics too – but only fretwire stuff and (God forbid) structural damage.
This pristine US-made Stratocaster from 2002 was brought to me after the owner – himself quite capable of taking care of his instruments – had tried just about everything to get rid of the irritating fretwire buzz.
Out came the tape and assortment of tools to tackle the issue: I had managed to find six high frets (Find the six red dots to find the naughty fretwires).
But before I began employing the tools, it was imperative to protect susceptible areas. So, the mummyfication of the instrument was undertaken
One tries to level a particular fretwire in relation to the neighbouring two fretwires flanking it. But, the wonderful thing about fretwire levelling is that in the process of levelling more higher fretwires seem to crop up, multiplying costs, time and effort.
My simple rule is that if there are more than six fretwires and spread widely that need attention, it’s best to level, crown and polish the entire fretboard. The funny part: I enforced the rule only after doing the Cha Cha Cha – two steps forward, two steps back – for three hours on the fretboard!
The old tape with all its markings was ripped off and fresh tape was put on. Fresh sandpaper was installed over the levelling beam and the radius of the fretboard taken into account. Once the fretboard was levelled, the radius would have to be re-introduced into the fretwires for the sake of playability.
If you can see, the radius gauge that fit the fretboard was 9.5″. I rummaged through my entire drawer of radius cauls and could not find a 9.5″ caul, though I am still sure that I had a 9.75″ caul. The closest I came was to find a 10″ caul.
Now, this is the beauty of an electric guitar: you don’t have a 9.5″ radius caul, work with a 10″ one. You can always change the radius of the bridge by playing around with the screws there (screwing around with the bridge?) In fact, it was the owner who suggested that I work with the 10″ caul and he would take care of the bridge.
Once the levelling and crowning was completed, all 22 frets were individually checked again and rectified, if needed.
Then came the worst part – polishing each fret with 11 grits of sandpaper and cream to bring them up to a certain level of gloss, so that bends and slides would come with effortless ease.
The tape from the fretboard and body was finally removed and the body buffed. I leave you with the final photographs of this US-made Fender Stratocaster.
that one