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Should I be concerned about "flattened" frets?
- Thread starter BigKD
- Start date
Oh, geez.....They may have used a PLEK machine to do the leveling, but they never finished the job with the crowning and polishing steps. It's a cheapskate job. If you paid a Luthier/Tech to do a fret dressing/leveling job, and it came back like that, you'd have good reason to complain. The leveling may be okay, but they didn't finish the job. Frets are supposed to be crowned (rounded) on top to get the intonation correct, and they are supposed to be polished. There should not be file marks or grinding marks.
This shows again that simply having a PLEK machine does not guarantee good fretwork. It takes skill and procedure and some actual work to operate it.
Turnaround
Commercial User
I have a Lakland that has what i perceive as pretty level compared to my other axes.
It gets along just fine but i would say. It doesn't look flat like yours.
It gets along just fine but i would say. It doesn't look flat like yours.
I can't say I know much about plek machines other than some videos I've watched explaining how they work and are run, and then showing how they do their work. But I do work with metal everyday and can with most assurity tell you the marks that are on that fret were done by hand.
Actually, I think those marks were made by the PLEK machine. During the leveling step, it uses a fairly coarse grinding wheel, which runs at a shallow angle to the line of the fret. But they do look a lot like hand file marks.
Without seeing this in person I'll admit I could be wrong, as who knows what possible micro distortion could have been introduced into the photo by a dirty or otherwise distorted lens or too lengthy of an exposure time. My Initial opinion was due to seeing the grind/file marks not all parallel to each other. Some appear off angle by a degree or 2 from neighboring lines, as well as some lines appearing to have slight curvature. Though I suppose it is possible for this to happen in a machine if the grinding wheel mount had play in it or the mounting of the instrument left room for that kind of movement during the grind. Though if either of the latter were the case there goes your precision.
Bruce, sincerely not wanting to come off as argumentative. Just sharing my thoughts based off my experiences in metal finishing.
I'd also like to be clear that regardless of the Fret marks being done by machine or by hand, it is an unfinished job no doubt.
Bruce, sincerely not wanting to come off as argumentative. Just sharing my thoughts based off my experiences in metal finishing.
I'd also like to be clear that regardless of the Fret marks being done by machine or by hand, it is an unfinished job no doubt.
Yeah, to me it looks like the grinding wheel was chattering. Too much cutting load and the bass neck was bouncing.
Thanks for the info, guys. I will be calling the retailer asap. It was an online purchase with shipping involved, which makes this more complicated. I'd like to keep the instrument if possible, as it is otherwise fantastic. Maybe somebody local could finish the job?
Retailer says that the PLEK machine only recently gained the ability to do fanned frets, and the machine cannot crown fanned frets. So this is how they've been shipping out fanned fret instruments that get PLEK'd. Either going to return the bass or see if they'll comp me for having somebody crown the frets locally.
So I reached out to PLEK yesterday (via contact form on their German website) to see if this is really how a fanned fret bass is supposed to look after a PLEK job. My interest was piqued by what the retailer claimed and how it contrasted with my previous experience with a PLEK'd instrument, and my BS meter was getting louder and louder. Let's just say that PLEK was quite unhappy about what they saw in the above photo, and I already received a voicemail from their USA rep. Seems like this kind of stuff is damaging to their brand, so they take it pretty seriously. I'll post back when I hear more.
So I spoke to the PLEK rep. He said that there is currently a software limitation of the PLEK system that does not allow for automated crowning of fanned fret instruments. The training for PLEK operators is to crown the frets by hand after the fretboard is leveled via automation. So what you see in the photo included in the first post is not how a PLEK'd fanned fret instrument should ever reach a customer's hands. He recommended that I return the bass to the seller, since it is a new instrument. Not sure if I am going to ask them to crown it and return the bass to me or not. It has one of the nicest necks/fretboards I've ever seen and is a unique/fun instrument to play. It's just that their original shoddy work makes me wonder if they even leveled the instrument properly or took off too much material from the frets during leveling. I've also been playing the bass here and there for a few hours. Can really tell that these flat/rough frets and the strings are eating each other alive, as there are dark wear marks already forming on the frets.
Like I said above, the retailer with the PLEK machine didn't finish the job. It doesn't appear to be screwed up or damaged, it just isn't done. The PLEK machine needs some modifications to be able to crown fanned frets. Until then, PLEK machine can be used to grind the tops of the frets level. But then someone who knows how to do fretwork has to manually crown and polish them.
It's not a big job. If you brought it into my shop, it would be about a half hour job to crown and polish those frets. I'd probably charge you $30. The retailer will probably offer to reimburse you to have a local Luthier clean it up.
