Guitar Fret Level / Gibson / Fender / Taylor / Epiphone

Guitar Fret Level

A fret level or fret dress is the process in which a guitar’s frets are leveled to the same height. This is necessary when a guitar’s frets are not perfectly even, or when they’re worn or grooved from playing. This is an extremely common procedure and many players have a fret dress every few years or so, depending on how they play and how hard they are on their frets.

You may even find your brand new guitar has uneven frets straight from the factory. Most guitar manufacturers pump out hundreds, if not thousands of guitars every day and many pass through quality control poorly set up and with bad fret work.

All our fret work is carried out on the Stew Mac Erlewine Neck Jig, which allows for extremely accurate leveling.

How it works -

The guitar is strapped into the jig, which is then rotated into the playing position.

Using the truss rod, the neck is made as straight as possible.

With the neck straightened, the dials on the jig are set to zero and the guitar is returned back to the working position.

The strings are now removed and using a small jack and the neck supports, the neck is carefully maneuvered until the gauges read zero again.

The jig is now simulating the string tension to an accuracy of 0.01mm and the neck is in the exact position it would be when you are playing it.

With the guitar now prepped the fretboard is masked off for protection.

For leveling I use precision aluminium beams that ensure the frets are perfectly level from one end to the other and have the correct radius to match the fretboard.

The leveling process leaves the frets tops flat. These now need to be crowned to re establish the rounded shape and improve the play ability and intonation of the guitar.

The final stage is to remove all file marks and scratches using a combination of sandpapers, fret erasers, fine wire wool and micro mesh papers to a mirror shine.

There's a lot involved to a fret dress but it's definitely worth the effort. The guitar will now receive a full set up and it's ready to be returned its owner.