fret dressing help

[stoney]

Okay I took my Warmoth bass to have the frets dressed because they strongly recommend it. Well after getting it back I am very disappointed with the job. it doesn't even seem like he did anything with. No one one else in town (San Antonio Tx) does fret jobs and I refuse to take it back to him. So my question is how hard is it to dress frets? I've looked at tools on Stew Mac and money for buying those is no prob so I can get all the right tools. I just need to know what I have to look forward to and any tips I can use. ANY input is welcome. Thanks!

[Phil Mailloux]

This is a luthier you took it to I assume?

How do you know he hardly touched it? If he did a good job it would be seemless.

Get a ruler and pass it along the whole neck following how the strings would go. Check if you feel the ruler rock in between several frets. If everything is flat and doesn't rock your neck is fine. Tools of importance for this would be a straightedge and maybe the stewmac "fret rocker" There's an online video on how the fret rocker works on stewmac, check it out. You can make your own fret rocker by breaking up a plastic ruler in a few pieces like Dan's metal ones on the video. Use that to check for the rocking.

Here's the link to the rocker and the video
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting...et_Rocker.html

EDIT: That's assuming that the problem is the levelling itself. If you mean that he didn't round the frets properly once he was done then that's a different problem. SInce you mention that money is not a problem, get the stewmac Fret Basics DVD, it's worth the entry price and shows you everything you need to know and which tool you can live with or not. Dressing is not that hard a job I'm sure you'd be ok with the right instructions. Like that DVD

[stoney]

like as in the buzzing spots I showed him where still there as bad as before and his "setup" felt like playing a cheese grader.