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 EVO Gold frets on a Deacon
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FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | |||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | So this is what I started with, a neck which had been refretted at least once, and the frets filed and leveled at least once. Plus lots of wear. The fret ends were rising, which snagged the high E string. Due to the damage and age of the binding, a previous owner had filed back the fret ends, reducing the effective width of the fretboard. Here are some picture before starting.    The first task was to remove all the frets and then replace the binding. The binding work is chronicled in another thread at http://www.ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=40... Edited by FlySig 2014-10-11 10:39 AM | ||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | Because of the binding, the ends of the fret tangs have to be removed. With EVO this becomes a bit of a chore. Normally the end of the tang is nipped off, and then the underside of the crown is filed flat so it will sit flush against the binding. However the EVO is very slow to file compared to nickel silver. The quickest method is to use a dremel tool and a small grinding stone. The smaller diameter stone works best. I ruined a couple of frets using a larger stone because it is difficult to be accurate with the larger stone. Each fret has to be precisely prepared. I found it easier to prepare all of the frets prior to installing any, so I used a little wood block to hold the frets and keep them organized.   Working with EVO is definitely different than nickel silver. Nipping off the tang is easier with EVO because the wire is stiff enough not to bend. Nickel silver tends to take a bend at the tip when nipping off the tang using regular fret wire cutters. There is an expensive nipping tool which probably prevents this problem. But EVO doesn't distort when nipping off that tang with regular wire cutters. Installing the frets is easier with EVO because the wire doesn't dent or kink when struck with the hammer. It also doesn't flex when installed, so it simply goes in properly and easily. One complication caused by the binding is that glue has nowhere to escape when the fret is installed. Without binding the excess glue just squirts out the side of the slot. I used slightly diluted carpenter's glue for this job, and only put a small amount in each slot. A few frets weeped glue up and along the entire length of the fret. The glue wiped away easily enough but those frets didn't seem to seat fully down into the slot. | ||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | One nice feature of working with EVO is that I found the fretboard did not need to be masked with blue tape. This was a big time saver. Another nice feature of EVO on a bound neck is not having to end file the fret flush to the side of the neck before beveling the ends of the frets. So once the frets were glued in, I leveled them using a sanding beam and 320 grit paper. The EVO sands quite easily, leaving a distinctive looking stripe along the top of the wire. No need to use a blue or black Sharpie on the tops of all the frets prior to leveling. So there is another time saver with EVO, plus no need to put on blue masking tape as a precaution against slipping with the Sharpie and staining the wood blue! The sanding stripe is hard to photograph well. It is actually a lot more visible to the eye than the picture shows. The fret on the right has the sanding stripe, whereas the fret on the left does not.  After sanding level, I beveled the ends of the frets. To protect the edge of the binding from being damaged by the file, I ran a piece of scotch tape along the edge of the binding, snug up against the bottoms of the overhanging fret ends. This worked perfectly. When the frets were filed even with the binding, the file slid easily on the tape, which was easy to feel. Thus it was easy to not go to far with the file. After beveling, remove the tape. Here's the edge after beveling before removing the tape.  A few of the beveled ends needed to be cleaned up with an end file. The plastic binding was very resistant to file damage, though I took a lot of care not to cut into it. Clearcoat on wood shows scuffs a lot more dramatically than the plastic binding does. Here's a before and after picture of one of such fret.   Edited by FlySig 2014-10-11 11:27 AM | ||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | The last steps were to smooth the fret ends with a small file, recrown the frets, and polish them. The fret ends filed smooth a lot more easily than nickel silver. The EVO seems to smooth without having to remove as much material as nickel silver. The plastic binding doesn't mark like wood does, so this was a quick task to smooth those ends. With nickel silver it takes more time per fret. Also with a non-bound neck one should use masking tape along each fret to prevent damage to the wood when filing the edges. EVO on a bound neck means no masking tape and easy fret end smoothing. Crowning was surprisingly easy, fast, and simple compared to nickel silver. Again, no need to use blue masking tape to cover the entire fretboard! No need to use a blue or black sharpie across the top of each fret. The sanding line is very easy to see, and it is very easy to see when the fret is crowned properly. It was actually fun to crown these frets! In the following picture the center fret is partially crowned. The two outer frets are sanded but not crowned yet. The center section of the center fret is almost crowned enough, leaving just a narrow bit of the sanding line. The remainder of that center fret is not yet crowned, so you can see how the sanding line disappears as the fret is crown filed. This is way easier than trying to see a blue sharpie line on a nickel silver fret.  To polish the frets I used the StewMac micro-mesh soft polishing pads. Edited by FlySig 2014-10-11 11:43 AM | ||
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| FlySig |
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | So here are the before and after pictures. All that's left today is to finish making a new nut, and start playing! Before After  Before After  Before After  Edited by FlySig 2014-10-11 11:38 AM | ||
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | |||
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | |||
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Joined: October 2005 Posts: 4044 Location: Utah | |||
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