Fret hammer

[New2bass2]

I just went over the whole fretboard with that piece of plastic and the tiny hammer . They really weren't set well or to any specific depth . I could see the seat as I tap on them ,. Checked it again with the only thing I have , the level and it is so much better or level , still plan on sanding and learning more ,.
Ty everyone , I'm on hold till fret sanding kit gets here .. then again the truck might have been hijacked on the street ..

 

[groovepump]

When you buy a Glarry, you should pull the frets OUT, fill the grooves, and move into the fretless space. . .

 

[New2bass2]

The main reason I bought the glarry child bass was $60 and to learn how to Luther ,set up a bass , learn to sand frets for better action , just learn ..
And the 2nd reason , I am an old drummer with arthritis and I have a thing for guitar size bass ,. I have a mikro , a hondo , and a les Paul I built out of a Global neck . And I'm thinking of taking the glarry neck when I'm through with it and make a strat bass out of the 25.5 scale.
I found the original pickup for the teisco Global bass ,.

Is this any good ,
Is it an old humbucker ?

 

[GretschWretch]

I thought "Fret Hammer" was an old Peter Gabriel song....

Hammer, Don't Hurt 'em

 

[ardgedee]

Is this any good ,
Is it an old humbucker ?

Highly likely it's a single-coil pickup. It's got a single row of poles and the underside sure looks like the signal wire is coiled around them. There's a scant chance it could be a sidewinder, in which there are two coils on either side of the poles, but it sure doesn't look like that from here.

Is it any good? Well, if you like how it sounds, then it's good.

 

[BassFalcon]

Ty , thought it was way to hard , I just wanted to hammer them down and glue them and then teach myself a light sanding technique .

You’re making this way harder than it needs to be by “teaching yourself” all these techniques have been mastered and figured out already for generations. Even if you don’t want to pay for books and your local library has none, go to frets.com or Stewart Macdonald where Dan Erlewine has tons of instructional videos. It’s easy and free to learn to do this stuff correctly in a way that will be durable and last. Stand on the shoulders of giants.

 

[Beej]

I'm pretty sure that's a single coil too. They can be a bit weak and microphonic, but overall they'll make it sound like a bass. I kind of like the lo-fi, one-trick-pony sound they can generate.

 

[60bass]

Get a crafting hammer. Small and one side is rubber and the other is plastic. I got mine off Amazon. It does the job and had held up through countless setups here on my bench at home.

https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Malle...60060&sprefix=craft+hammer,aps,88&sr=8-5&th=1

 

[New2bass2]

You’re making this way harder than it needs to be by “teaching yourself” all these techniques have been mastered and figured out already for generations. Even if you don’t want to pay for books and your local library has none, go to frets.com or Stewart Macdonald where Dan Erlewine has tons of instructional videos. It’s easy and free to learn to do this stuff correctly in a way that will be durable and last. Stand on the shoulders of giants.

I have looked up and watched many videos , this has been 2 years in the making aging. Yes I can turn it over to someone else , but I would like to learn and know how to set up an instrument ,. How do I say it , I have been a drummer and now I want to touch music, = bass .. I want to start w the structure and go from there ,. Maybe I'm a bass collector or maybe I could master it and do something I am interested in .. I can't even play and I have 4 basses , and a project bass ,. Prep for sanding ..

Teisco Global youth bass 60's original pickup , it has 2 tight copper wraps , 1 on each end ..

 

[Indiana Mike]

Fret Hammer is a good band name

I googled it, it appears it’s fully available.

What’s it cost to trademark it ?

 

[New2bass2]

Maybe it's me
Poison existed ..
I don't think FretHammer , is truly what you're hoping it will B

 

[jimmydean]

Good luck with that , that's how I ended up making my first fretless .........

 

[ardgedee]

Teisco Global youth bass 60's original pickup , it has 2 tight copper wraps , 1 on each end ..

It's all one coil, going around the poles like my scrawl over your photo.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Fret Hammer time!

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Absolutely not, you will completely ruin the frets with a steel hammer. Get a fret hammer.

Unless the frets are very poorly installed and not seated properly they probably need levelling rather than hammering. After you have levelled the frets you will of course need to crown them and polish them.

If you are absolutely sure the frets aren't properly seated it MIGHT help to hammer them. But if it's the frets ENDS that are are popping up you will usually not be able to seat them properly no matter how much you hammer them. You will most likely first have to remove the frets and bend them to an appropriate radius (I prefer a SLIGHTLY lower radius, more bended, than the fretboard radius) and THEN hammer them down. This way you should be able to seat the frets properly. It takes a bit of practise to get it right. Hammer too much or too hard and the fret ends WILL pop up.

Using a fret rocker is a good way to go insane. I will strongly advice against it. It will nearly always "rock" somewhere, even with perfectly levelled frets. Did you at least loosen the strings and adjust the truss rod for a PERFECTLY straight neck before you checked the frets with your small level? If not the result are 100% worthless.

Gluing the frets should only be done as a last resort IMO. I would only do it on an old instrument with very worn fret slots and even then only as a last resort. Gluing the frets shouldn't be necessary AT ALL if the fret slots are in good shape and the frets are properly installed. Using glue will only cause potential problems if/when the bass needs a refret in the future. I absolutely HATE it when I have to refret a bass where someone has glued the frets.

It's great that you are trying to learn these things and that you've got a cheap bass to practise on, which is a great start! The StewMac website is a great resource for learning different techniques. Check out their videos. They also have excellent tools for pretty much any guitar repairs (but their prices can be a bit steep...).

Good luck!

 

[Rip Van Dan]

No, they were to knock the headstocks off on the relic models.

LOL....they didn't have "relic" versions yet in 1972. But that was funny!

 

[New2bass2]

Absolutely not, you will completely ruin the frets with a steel hammer. Get a fret hammer.

Unless the frets are very poorly installed and not seated properly they probably need levelling rather than hammering. After you have levelled the frets you will of course need to crown them and polish them.

If you are absolutely sure the frets aren't properly seated it MIGHT help to hammer them. But if it's the frets ENDS that are are popping up you will usually not be able to seat them properly no matter how much you hammer them. You will most likely first have to remove the frets and bend them to an appropriate radius (I prefer a SLIGHTLY lower radius, more bended, than the fretboard radius) and THEN hammer them down. This way you should be able to seat the frets properly. It takes a bit of practise to get it right. Hammer too much or too hard and the fret ends WILL pop up.

Using a fret rocker is a good way to go insane. I will strongly advice against it. It will nearly always "rock" somewhere, even with perfectly levelled frets. Did you at least loosen the strings and adjust the truss rod for a PERFECTLY straight neck before you checked the frets with your small level? If not the result are 100% worthless.

Gluing the frets should only be done as a last resort IMO. I would only do it on an old instrument with very worn fret slots and even then only as a last resort. Gluing the frets shouldn't be necessary AT ALL if the fret slots are in good shape and the frets are properly installed. Using glue will only cause potential problems if/when the bass needs a refret in the future. I absolutely HATE it when I have to refret a bass where someone has glued the frets.

It's great that you are trying to learn these things and that you've got a cheap bass to practise on, which is a great start! The StewMac website is a great resource for learning different techniques. Check out their videos. They also have excellent tools for pretty much any guitar repairs (but their prices can be a bit steep...).

Good luck!

Yes, I ended up losing the truss rod as much as I could and I put a slight quarter turn in the truss rod just so it had some tension on it , I restrung it and played it for a month . Horrible A string buzz on the 1st 3 frets , same with the D string , first three frets and then a little buzz on the 9th fret .. so as I played with my action trying to get rid of the buzz for 3 weeks , I found my happy medium.
I have tried to play band mates instruments before and some had high string action and some really low ,. So that is when my 1st jump into sanding started .
Great advice , no glue , rgr . I ended up hammering the frets down with medium light taps using a piece of plastic and the small stainless hammer . It went ah, well ... I have taped the neck all off and also marked the frets with a sharpie ..
Just waiting on the fret sand and crown kit ,. Simply I was going to go over it lightly and then see where the high and low spots are ,. My thought was two complete sanding cycles ,. See where I'm at , make more decisions from there.
I assure you I will not go all out and just sand and sand ,. I really want to understand this process so I am going to start very slow and easy ,.

 

[New2bass2]

$ 10 battery power , plug in Amp

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Yes, I ended up losing the truss rod as much as I could and I put a slight quarter turn in the truss rod just so it had some tension on it , I restrung it and played it for a month . Horrible A string buzz on the 1st 3 frets , same with the D string , first three frets and then a little buzz on the 9th fret .. so as I played with my action trying to get rid of the buzz for 3 weeks , I found my happy medium.
I have tried to play band mates instruments before and some had high string action and some really low ,. So that is when my 1st jump into sanding started .
Great advice , no glue , rgr . I ended up hammering the frets down with medium light taps using a piece of plastic and the small stainless hammer . It went ah, well ... I have taped the neck all off and also marked the frets with a sharpie ..
Just waiting on the fret sand and crown kit ,. Simply I was going to go over it lightly and then see where the high and low spots are ,. My thought was two complete sanding cycles ,. See where I'm at , make more decisions from there.
I assure you I will not go all out and just sand and sand ,. I really want to understand this process so I am going to start very slow and easy ,.

There's no guarantee that the neck will be straight with the truss rod completely loose. LOTS of guitar necks aren't. You will need to measure the neck with a straight edge (or by eyesight, but that needs a bit of experience). Ideally you should use one of those notched straight edges made specifically for guitars. A standard straight edge will rest on the frets, rather than on the fretboard/neck. Thomann sell "Harley Benton" notched straight edges that cost a fraction of the ones you can get from StewMac, and they're just as good. For 25.5" you will need to get the "guitar" sized ones of course (these have Fender 25.5" scale on one side and Gibson scale on the other side). The bass sized ones have 34" and 35" (also available from Thomann/Harley Benton). For baritone scale and 30" short scale bass you will have to get the more expensive ones from StewMac as these are not available from Thomann.

I always prefer to use a notched straight edge, even though I can get VERY close by eye sight. The straighter I get the neck before I start levelling the frets, the less metal I will have to remove to get the frets levelled (unless someone has done a very poor job with the frets in the past). This means less work and the frets will last longer.

If this is that 25.5" kid's bass (and you use standard bass tuning) I don't think you will EVER get rid of fret buzz though, even with perfectly levelled frets. At least not unless you play EXTREMELY softly. The string tension with standard bass tuning will be extremely low with that scale length. Heavier strings will help a bit but there's always a compromise with short scale basses (even "standard" 30" short scale): Lighter strings = floppy/fret buzz. Heavier strings = weird "out of tune" overtones when playing higher frets, especially on the lower strings.

You can't get around the laws of physics and 25.5" is way too short for a bass guitar in standard tuning. I know some people play ultra short scale basses but they must have adapted their playing technique and done bit of experimenting with different strings. I know there's an ultra short scale club/thread somewhere here at talkbass. Maybe you could ask for advice on strings there?

Personally I find anything lighter than 45-105 (roundwounds) too floppy on short scale basses. With some stiffer types of flats I can use 40-100. Anything much heavier than 45-105 will do weird things with the tone on the lower strings when playing higher frets. And this is with 30" basses! A 25.5" bass would NEVER work for me.

Many flats are stiffer (less chance of fret buzz) than roundwounds and might sound like the obvious answer here but that's probably out of the question as most flats can unravel if you wrap the fully wound part of the string around the tuner shaft. And with 25.5" I think you will have to do that, at least with all bass strings I'm familiar with... Maybe someone can make you a custom set. Pyramid have been known to make custom sets and their "Golds" flatwounds are my favourite short scale strings. But they have a rather idiosyncratic tone that you may or may not like. And even Pyramid Golds will struggle with 25.5" scale.

It's great that you've got a cheap bass to experiment with but I honestly don't think you should expect excellent results unless you go for some alternative tuning. But 25.5" is too short even for baritone tuning IMO. Again: Do a search for that ultra short scale club/thread. You might find some useful information there.

The good news is that if you're experiencing fret buzz after you've worked on the frets it's probably not your fault. It's just the laws of physics.