Who Is This Moron ?

[FunkMetalBass]

Here's the thing, regardless...... If you had him do a fret level, without seeing this video and you got it back, and the playability was flawless, the frets were level and clean, does it matter his technique?

I say no.


After saying this, there are probably folks that would not agree with the way I do it...... Radius block (to the proper radii) lightly with 80 grit, then 220 (mark all the fret tops), recrown and polish, but everyone has their way of doing it.....

That's how I do it. Takes much of the guess-work out.

 

[Stone Age]

He's obviously never heard of the Mohs hardness scale. Steel (the vice grips) is harder than nickel-silver. Hitting nickel-silver with steel= dents/scratches in frets.

I've never heard of it...but I know enough to get the proper tools for any job. It took about 30 seconds of research when I was starting out. These videos can't be serious. Can they?

 

[bassbenj]

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy........{sigh}
It wasn't so much the method as the execution. If someone used one of my good (read $40-$90) files in such a ham-handed manner my temper would expire instantly. Files only cut one direction and dragging them backwards ruins them fast. Every competent craftsman who files metal precisely knows this...when you're learning it's one of the first things the crusty old guy yells at you for.

You said it! And did you hear the NOISE that file made as he went over those frets? EEEWWW!

 

[Diogenes]

From the "using vice-grips as a hammer" segment: "...it's metal, you're not going to hurt it..."

LOL!!
This has got to be a series of joke videos he's doing.

 

[robobass]

No wonder local players were bringing their Strats to me for setup work when I was only sixteen years old. That was the competition?

 

[billio]

Ha, what a gem! I just watched his other videos - I spat coffee everywhere with the "use whatever tools will get the fret out" statement

What a dickhead...

 

[Diogenes]

Here's the thing, regardless...... If you had him do a fret level, without seeing this video and you got it back, and the playability was flawless, the frets were level and clean, does it matter his technique?

I say no.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly but this guy is a hack. His method of fret leveling appears pretty arbitrary so I really don't see him getting great results with such a half***ed approach... acceptable maybe or an improvement over production line factory standards but certainly not on the level of someone who actually might care about his/her work.

As for his misuse of tools... a pair of vice-grips is not an acceptable alternative for a good plastic, wood or leather faced dead-blow mallet. You get less control over the type of impact and location to seat a fret but more importantly, a fret will deform before tool steel will. His inability to acknowledge this is proof of just how clueless he is... or callous at the very least.

After saying this, there are probably folks that would not agree with the way I do it...... Radius block (to the proper radii) lightly with 80 grit, then 220 (mark all the fret tops), recrown and polish, but everyone has their way of doing it.....

We differ in that I start out out with 400 grit wet/dry. Maybe it can be argued that our method may not be typical or that it differs from convention but we obviously take a well thought out and methodical approach to ensuring that all frets are evenly leveled and retain a consistent radius along the entire length of the board (I move in only one direction and cover the entire length of the FB... my goal is consistency).

The hack in the videos seems to put as much care and diligence into the fret leveling/dressing process as he would a crap-shoot and then obviously is proud enough of it to post "instructional" videos.

 

[Ric5]

So I have a cheap Korean bass with a cheap Chinese neck. It was buzzing badly on a few frets. I have an old flat file. So I figure what the heck. I tried that fret leveling with a file. To my surprise it worked pretty well. The bass is playable and the buzzing was pretty well fixed. However to finish the job the frets should still be individually finished with crowning, and polishing.

I don't think this is the best way to level frets but for a cheap bass you can de-buzz it in a few minutes.

 

[darkstorm]

Gives him his award for how to do it vids. Lol.