If you read the directions on a Micromesh kit, they'll tell you to alternate the direction of your strokes by 45° each time you go up in grit value. So your coarsest grit might be along the fretboard, your pass with the next highest grit might be 45°, the next pass with the next highest grit after that would then be 90°, the next after that at 135° and so on until you've made it either to the highest grit in the kit or you decide your frets might get _too_ smooth and shiny... The reason for alternating angles is to more quickly smooth out the grooves from the previous lower grit out of the surface being polished.
Great info. My first teacher used to buff frets to a shine using a cloth treated with jewelers rouge, but it took a lot of elbow grease and had limited results. Excited to try some of these techniques. It looks like something I could actually do without destroying anything. And the Dan cameo is priceless!
Great video! I’m always looking for new ways to polish frets. That metal polish with the leather strip is brilliant. I’ve heard Greg Voros talk about doing that too before. The pick slide “ if you hear it you feel it” is brilliant as well
For years I used very fine steel wool to polish frets. You just have to take care to keep the dust from the steel wool out of electronics, cover sound holes and mask around any pickups as the magnets will attract the steel wool particles. use some tac cloth or masking tape for clean up. Similar to what you did, strip of tape on either side of fret, then just polish away! Never had any issues with it and it worked quite well.
I tried this out and it did work very well. Observations: 1. The tolex strips tend to slip around on the stick, which can be a problem when they the expose metal stick. I did degrease the sticks but will do it again. 2. The leather and polish step worked wonders! 3. If on a hard surface, the tolex sheets can slip around while cutting if you try using an Xacto knife. Be safe and consider using low tack tape to secure the sheet.
Tolecut also offers sheets not cut into smaller blocks. This way you can cut longer strips (a bit longer than a guitar fret) and go over a fret in just a few swipes. You can still fit two per tool.
I don't waste time polishing frets. It takes me like 5 minutes to get a mirror shine. Get out the drill, polishing pad, and blue Dialux polish. Load up the pad and polish the frets. Done. That alone will take out 300 grit Z file scratches and leave a mirror shine on my guitars but I think my frets aren't as hard as Fender or Gibson. So I don't even mess with anything else anymore.
Flitz and a Dremel made mine beyond shiny. I used what I had to clean the fretboard which was isopropyl alcohol then used Stemac boiled linseed oil to treat it then once it cured i taped it up. The actual fret buffing took less than five minutes. With the Flitz metal polish my frets looks ten times better than the factory shine. P.S. i used fret erasers as well and rounded the edges of the fretboard and used a fret file to dress the fret ends as well as smoothing the edges and took care of any sharp fret ends. I used 0000 synthetic steel wool on the neck back to bring it back to a satin finish
Greats video! Not to be negative... but I work in a kitchen and we are always thinking about minimizing picking up and putting down our knives when doing big prep jobs, for example. It would be interesting to see how much time you save by taping every fret first, then do every fret one grit at a time. Every time you put down the tape or flip the file is a few seconds. Times 24, then times 4 grits. Or maybe there's a good reason for not doing it this way? Cheers.
Thanks for the video! My frets tend to dull up again like a week after polisging them. Is there a way to make polishing last longer? Original fender frets, standard central european climate if that matters.
I’m curious. The piece of leather you are using with the flitz. Like is it a piece of craft leather or raw leather or just a piece of an old belt? I’m one of those guys who needs specifics lolol. I just bought the flitz because of this 😂
Wonderful instructional video, thank you. I have watched the spot with the fret eraser at 6:15. Is that fret not seated properly? I have watched it a few times and at slow motion. To me it looks like it's bouncing up and down at the fret end.
Can you use these same items for stainless steel frets? I mean, I'm sure you can but is it way more effort? Is there a better way other than polishing compounds and a dremel?
I don't understand how a fretboard got this way. Every time I play, I wipe down the whole guitar before putting it away. And when I change the strings, I use a polish for the rosewood fretboard and Dr Duck wax for the maple fretboard
Low-budget guitar for a beginner player who doesn't know the ins and outs yet, maybe? Or it may have gone into storage for a while, allowing the fingerboard to dry and the frets to oxidize a bit.
It still will happen and will be worse if you're in a humid area too lots of people play for some days at a time and like leave the guitar in a corner and forget sometimes. Life happens and then the frets can get dingy like that then you go back and see that well it happened to the frets. It also doesn't have to get REAL bad a little corrosion on a fret you'll feel it and it will still look fine.
@@photondebuger45 my acoustic is in a gig bag. My strat a hard case and my tele is in a gig bag, even my budget guitar is in a gig bag. If I'm not playing, then they go back in the case or bag. My acoustic has a humidifier ( wet sponge) I put in the bag in the winter time.
Come some of the work gets kind of hard This ain't no place to be if you planned on being a star Let me tell you it's always cool And the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool At the car wash, ooh-ooh Talking about the car wash, yeah 🙂
*Scuffing pad, aka scotchbrite, with an instrument safe oil or other compound will take that right off and you don't even need to tape up the fingerboard.* After that, a 600 grit or finer paper turns the crowns into a mirror with no reason to go any further. *I also swipe petroleum jelly on my strings every couple weeks which greatly extends their life, reliability and all around performance.*
The old school Gulf station attendant hat was worth the time here. Oh, and picking up needed fretboard maintenance skills also. 😁🤣
Gene is so comfortable on screen, love watching this guy!!
Thank you!
If you read the directions on a Micromesh kit, they'll tell you to alternate the direction of your strokes by 45° each time you go up in grit value. So your coarsest grit might be along the fretboard, your pass with the next highest grit might be 45°, the next pass with the next highest grit after that would then be 90°, the next after that at 135° and so on until you've made it either to the highest grit in the kit or you decide your frets might get _too_ smooth and shiny... The reason for alternating angles is to more quickly smooth out the grooves from the previous lower grit out of the surface being polished.
I use a cheap set of nail buffers, they come in 3 grits and give it a nice shine
Dan at the car wash was hilarious!!! 😂
He's the best🤣
Great info. My first teacher used to buff frets to a shine using a cloth treated with jewelers rouge, but it took a lot of elbow grease and had limited results. Excited to try some of these techniques. It looks like something I could actually do without destroying anything. And the Dan cameo is priceless!
Nice! Lots of repair guys used to use jewelers rouge back in the day...Thanks for watching!
Great video! I’m always looking for new ways to polish frets. That metal polish with the leather strip is brilliant. I’ve heard Greg Voros talk about doing that too before. The pick slide “ if you hear it you feel it” is brilliant as well
Thank You!!!
Dang! Clean frets are always satisfying, especially when they've seen better days!!
Hahaha Dans car wash cameo was perfect 😂
Great vídeo!!! Here in Brazil we don't have this tools, but we used similar tools.
Thanks Gene👊
I love you guys. This was great. Please don’t ever stop making awesome videos.
Thank you for the amazing video Gene. Always a pleasure to see your work. More please!
Thank you for watching...Yes, much more to come!
For years I used very fine steel wool to polish frets. You just have to take care to keep the dust from the steel wool out of electronics, cover sound holes and mask around any pickups as the magnets will attract the steel wool particles. use some tac cloth or masking tape for clean up. Similar to what you did, strip of tape on either side of fret, then just polish away! Never had any issues with it and it worked quite well.
great, informative vid, gene! thanks .. .
Great video, and great shout-out to Rupert Holmes!
I tried this out and it did work very well. Observations: 1. The tolex strips tend to slip around on the stick, which can be a problem when they the expose metal stick. I did degrease the sticks but will do it again. 2. The leather and polish step worked wonders! 3. If on a hard surface, the tolex sheets can slip around while cutting if you try using an Xacto knife. Be safe and consider using low tack tape to secure the sheet.
I use micro-mesh, then Rolite polish and a dremel buffer. To me it’s the best method.
Thank you sir, great work!!
Thanks for watching!
excellent methods
Tolecut also offers sheets not cut into smaller blocks. This way you can cut longer strips (a bit longer than a guitar fret) and go over a fret in just a few swipes. You can still fit two per tool.
I tried this and realistically you end up using mostly the front inch or inch and a half of the stick. I withdraw this suggestion :)
I don't waste time polishing frets. It takes me like 5 minutes to get a mirror shine. Get out the drill, polishing pad, and blue Dialux polish. Load up the pad and polish the frets. Done.
That alone will take out 300 grit Z file scratches and leave a mirror shine on my guitars but I think my frets aren't as hard as Fender or Gibson. So I don't even mess with anything else anymore.
EXCELLENT...Thank you!
Flitz and a Dremel made mine beyond shiny. I used what I had to clean the fretboard which was isopropyl alcohol then used Stemac boiled linseed oil to treat it then once it cured i taped it up. The actual fret buffing took less than five minutes. With the Flitz metal polish my frets looks ten times better than the factory shine. P.S. i used fret erasers as well and rounded the edges of the fretboard and used a fret file to dress the fret ends as well as smoothing the edges and took care of any sharp fret ends. I used 0000 synthetic steel wool on the neck back to bring it back to a satin finish
Nice! Thanks for watching!
Greats video! Not to be negative... but I work in a kitchen and we are always thinking about minimizing picking up and putting down our knives when doing big prep jobs, for example. It would be interesting to see how much time you save by taping every fret first, then do every fret one grit at a time. Every time you put down the tape or flip the file is a few seconds. Times 24, then times 4 grits. Or maybe there's a good reason for not doing it this way? Cheers.
Thank you.
Very interesting, thanks. Would you recommend a different approach to polishing Gibson guitars given the nibs over the fret ends?
Dan the Ham. LOL!!! 😆
Thanks for the video! My frets tend to dull up again like a week after polisging them. Is there a way to make polishing last longer?
Original fender frets, standard central european climate if that matters.
very nice!
Good tips. It's a crying shame I was forced to watch advertisements during what was essentially a Stewmac advertisement.
I’m curious. The piece of leather you are using with the flitz. Like is it a piece of craft leather or raw leather or just a piece of an old belt? I’m one of those guys who needs specifics lolol. I just bought the flitz because of this 😂
DAN!!!
Wonderful instructional video, thank you. I have watched the spot with the fret eraser at 6:15. Is that fret not seated properly? I have watched it a few times and at slow motion. To me it looks like it's bouncing up and down at the fret end.
good eye! ;)
Great observation!
I love the 2 hr method - it's just not always easy to get clients to pay 2 hrs labour for fret polishing before other work 🤔
Can you use these same items for stainless steel frets? I mean, I'm sure you can but is it way more effort? Is there a better way other than polishing compounds and a dremel?
top video👍
What’s the best method to remove tool marks on frets? That’s what I struggle with the most
Great info. How many frets can you polish with one strip of Kovax Tolecut?
Great question...We get about 3 to 4 frets per strip before we change them out. Thanks!
@@stewmac can’t wait until you get the tool in stock! I am a little bit obsessed with smooth like glass frets.
Thanks
@@toddknaster9731 We sold out fast...we have more on the way!!!
0000 steel wool is my go-to for polishing. Just tape off the pickups first!!
Great advice, They are magnetic after all and will attract metal dust.
that's very much a matte finish, not a mirror finish.
No StewMac Fret Polishing Wheels being featured?
Polishing wheels are great too, they are very popular and can give you excellent results, but they're not one of Gene's preferred methods. Thanks!
Any particular leather for this final step?
Not really, but thicker pieces work better. This is a scrap piece of tooling leather, but an old belt or anything similar will work fine.
@@stewmac thank you for this info. I’ll definitely give this a try 🎉
I don't understand how a fretboard got this way. Every time I play, I wipe down the whole guitar before putting it away. And when I change the strings, I use a polish for the rosewood fretboard and Dr Duck wax for the maple fretboard
Low-budget guitar for a beginner player who doesn't know the ins and outs yet, maybe? Or it may have gone into storage for a while, allowing the fingerboard to dry and the frets to oxidize a bit.
It still will happen and will be worse if you're in a humid area too lots of people play for some days at a time and like leave the guitar in a corner and forget sometimes. Life happens and then the frets can get dingy like that then you go back and see that well it happened to the frets. It also doesn't have to get REAL bad a little corrosion on a fret you'll feel it and it will still look fine.
@@photondebuger45 my acoustic is in a gig bag. My strat a hard case and my tele is in a gig bag, even my budget guitar is in a gig bag.
If I'm not playing, then they go back in the case or bag. My acoustic has a humidifier ( wet sponge) I put in the bag in the winter time.
@@OgamiItto70I take the 2nd one. .I always took care of my guitars
@@iamanovercomer3253 that's great and all but other people who don't know much don't do that like at all
🙂👍🥂
I use detergent with hot water, i wash my acoustic guitars inside and out
Stainful steel frets are a thing apparently
Come some of the work gets kind of hard
This ain't no place to be if you planned on being a star
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool
At the car wash, ooh-ooh
Talking about the car wash, yeah 🙂
the epiphone doesnt get played ,i've never had that happen.
"How to Polish Frets to Perfection" umm that's code.
It amazes me how much crap Stew Mac can come up with to sell, they remind me of old time snake oil salesmen
"if you can't hear it, you can't feel it"
( or you might be going deaf )
*Scuffing pad, aka scotchbrite, with an instrument safe oil or other compound will take that right off and you don't even need to tape up the fingerboard.*
After that, a 600 grit or finer paper turns the crowns into a mirror with no reason to go any further. *I also swipe petroleum jelly on my strings every couple weeks which greatly extends their life, reliability and all around performance.*