Fret leveling + crowning

A guitar is absolutely no different than a bass, except for the length of the fret board and possibly the size of the frets. A leveling beam is an unnecessary cost, you can just buy a 2 foot aluminum level with a machined bottom surface.

If its only one or two frets that are high, make sure they haven't lifted and are fully seated in the slot. If they are seated correctly, you can just address those frets individually without the need for a full fret job. If they are uneven across the board, it would be best to level the whole thing.

 

I have an $80 junk bass I'm using to practice fretwork on, if I screw it up, no biggie. +1 on the level as a beam too, I have an old high quality aluminum level that I'm using, its as straight as I can measure. Bass frets are often wider/higher than guitar, so you may have a little more leeway in how much you can take off, otherwise the same process as guitar. My local hardware store has some aluminum angle stock that's very straight tested against my good straightedge, but you have to cherry pick a little.

 

Fixing one fret so you can get the action down often leads to other frets buzzing. You may as well do the whole job. I can't believe the guys in your area can't do a simple fret job.

 

Flea market guitars that are essentially destroyed can be purchased for a song. Or twenty dollars. Doesn't matter if they're acoustic or electric, just that they have frets. Guitars are more plentiful than basses, and acoustics more so than electrics. Guitar strings are cheaper, too. Buy a few and experiment until your work looks as good as the factory does. Then you'll be ready to start perfecting your skills.

As far as the aluminum level goes, a precision straight edge will tell the tale. If you have a table saw with a reliably flat cast iron top, 600 grit sandpaper can be taped on and it can be used for flattening the flat of the level I beam. Failing that, find a machine shop with a decent sized surface plate and have them lap the surface. The charge will be minimal and the tool will be spectacular. Just remember that it is now a dedicated tool. It can no longer be used for deck building or concrete work.

Most importantly, the first ten or twenty attempts should be performed on things you do not care about.

Repeat the mantra: Practice on scrap.

 

That's the spirit! If you get good at it, you could probably make a few bucks on the side doing it for other people, but make sure you practice on some junk first! There are tons of cheap Indonesian guitars and basses out there with terminal fret sprout, but otherwise playable. Some of them simply don't level the frets at all, as on my $80 "P-Turd", possibly the worst P-Bass clone in existence by Austin.

 

My first ever full fret level/crown was part of my first ever full refret...on my 69/70 Gibson ES335.
I was brave, dumb and broke at the time. Could have been luck, but it turned out well.

 

I learned to do this from Rob DiStefano, whose pups I just put in a J build recently, BTW.
Tele Neck Refret

I use 3M 77 spray adhesive on a piece of marble about 18 inches long to hold the sand paper.

There is something called "fallaway" that many people recommend, where the the fret level from fret 12 to the bridge end has the fret 12 slightly higher to prevent buzzing. It seems to work.

Good luck. Be brave with a junk neck at first!

 

No not at all

 

Look into these books:

Fret Work Step-By-Step | stewmac.com

Guitar Player Repair Guide | stewmac.com

 

12th fret is not higher but there is a SLIGHT ramp built in to the last frets. We're talking thousandths of an inch. You put a layer or two of masking tape on the fret at around the 15th fret and use the resultant angle to create progressively lower frets to the end of the neck. You also adjust accordingly if it's something like a 24 fret neck. Be careful. Research all this. Practice on a cheap bass. Know what you're doing

 

Less stress is put on the various components if you have a bit of backbow or at least a striaght neck, but it's really not important one way or the other. Either way you can still adjust it.

 

definitely the longer one. for my money a shorter leveling beam just means you're sanding "up the hills and down the valleys", while the longer beam hopefully means you bridge the valleys, knocking down the high spots while leaving the low spots alone.

after all is done none of that matters, string it up and adjust the rod to where it's right.

 

Make sure that you measure and level with the neck completely flat. That means removing the strings and adjusting the truss rod until the neck is perfectly straight.

(I know there are some who might disagree with this, but I think it works fine, especially when you are starting out and don't have fancy machines to simulate neck pressure. Also, if it is old, you might not be able to get a flat neck with string tension- I have a couple ol' junkers like that.)

If you measure and sand with the neck bowed or with relief, you are going to mess it up.

Other than that, Godspeed. The worst that can happen is that you will learn how to install new frets

 

I partly agree with this. And partly not. Here's why.

Yes it is best to get the neck flat before levelling the frets. But if the neck has bent to the point that you have to tighten the truss rod significantly to get it flat you are starting out in a negative zone. The truss rod should be used to counteract the tension of the strings, and shouldn't have to fight a neck into flatness without the strings on.

And there's the problem. If the neck isn't close to flat with the truss rod loosened and the strings off, you need to deal with that underlying problem. And that's pretty well a job for a specialist, not a hobbyist. We are talking about how to flatten a bent neck and that usually means heat treatment, compression fretting or the like and those take a lot of skill and experience. If the wood in its relaxed state isn't flat, you need to get it to that equilibrium or the problems will just come back.

So adjusting the truss rod to get the neck flat when the strings are off is not really the best approach if you are not mindful of any residual tension exerted by the rod.

Don't mean to be picky, just forwarding best practices.