Grind & polish

[Truktek2]

How do I know when I need a grind & polish? I see little grooves along my frets, but they're barely noticable. I also noticed that the satin polyurethane is built up along the sides of the frets. Is this shoddy workmanship? Its an american jazz. I Thought they paid more attention to detail. Oh well. Maybe I should take it in to a pro?

[ByF]

By "grind and polish" I assume you're talking about dressing the frets? Never heard that term before.

If the grooves in the frets are not deep enough to affect the playability, don't worry about it--you can play for years on frets that have visible grooves. As far as shoddy workmanship, well I'll be nice and let someone else answer that because I'm not a fan of Fender.

Ed

[Rattman]

"Grind and polish?" What a nasty way to describe a very delicate, exacting procedure of re-leveling frets. Shallow grooves are really nothing to be concerned with..yet. Eventually buzzing frets and increasingly higher action will dictate a re-leveling of your frets. I love the results I get after doing that job. The poly buildup on the sides of frets... well most Fenders seem to display that... I can and have removed cleanly the aftermath of putting a poly coat on a fretboard post fret insertion.

[202dy]

Lacquer build up against the frets of a maple fingerboard is natural if the neck is fretted before it is shot. It's called bridging because the lacquer "bridges" the space between the fingerboard and the fret in corner where they meet. It is not necessarily a sign on shoddy workmanship. It's actually pretty hard to avoid. The only way around it is to lacquer the fingerboard before installing the frets. However, the risk is that there will be occasional lacquer failures due to the nature of installing the frets.


Playing in the ruts is not a problem for most players. Except for bending in and out of the ruts, that is. Low string heights in the ruts can cause rattles. Poor intonation is a problem, too, because the string is no longer hitting TDC on the fret. Of course, when the wraps on the strings don't fit the lateral grooves in the rut, they'll just chew up a little bit more of the nickel-silver fret wire while obtaining a dull flat spot to index against the now flattened out of tune fret.

When you see grooves in your frets it's time to have the frets dressed. It's that simple.

[Truktek2]

Thanks for the input guys. Here on the east coast a grind & polish is the term used to describe when they straighten the neck and level and recrown the frets. I assume thats the same as a fret dressing? I guess if the lacquer issue is normal I should leave it alone. Just looks a little ugly thats all.