Gibson Les Paul Custom re-re-fret

This turned out to be interesting, challenging and surprising in equal measures. The simple info is that this is Mark's Gibson Les Paul custom - that he acquired in (I think) 1985 or 1986. Around that time he had it re-fretted (the nibs were definitely long gone)... and I have to assume that during that treatment some other strange things happened to it which you'll encounter along the way in this video. The first of these is that the fingerboard somehow went from 12" to 9.5"... yes really. And when I came to remove the frets I found that all of them had been 'hand-nipped' in an attempt to make them wider and grip the slots. I also suspect that the fingerboard and new frets had been sprayed over at the time of that fretting in the '80s; either way it was starting to fall off.
As a start point, Mark wanted the guitar re-fretted and a new DiMarzio pickup fitted in the bridge (while moving the existing bridge Seymour Duncan to the neck). We agreed that while the fingerboard finish was very flaky (and definitely already coming off) we would leave it 'as-is' to preserve the 'road-worn' feel of the rest of the guitar.
So this video shows me starting off with the re-fret. You'll see me removing the old frets, discovering the strange 'tang nipping' before trying to carefully clean up each individual fret's 'footprint' in order to have the best possible surface to fret onto. But this wasn't easy - the old finish was piled up under the original fret crowns in rucks of crunchy material. In addition, someone had used a ton of superglue to keep the frets down and this crunchy residue made cleaning out the slots very difficult.
Eventually I got the slots cleaned out and the surface as flat as possible and proceeded with the re-fret. This by the way was a STAINLESS STEEL re-fret which means the wire itself is as hard as hell to cut and everything takes longer while destroying your tools just a little bit more. The video shows me preparing all the frets - including cutting and hand-bevelling the top 6 or so to perfection (necessary because there's no way the end-bevelling file will get up to that area without damaging the guitar's finish). By the time I finished tapping in the frets I was thinking two things: 1) I wasn't 100% happy how some of the frets were sitting... and 2) oh look, more of that brittle flakey finish had come off.
So we discussed options. I had warned Mark that it was possible (if not slightly likely) that more finish would fall off during this process so he was aware already of my Plan B - which was to refinish the fingerboard. However, doing this with the same frets on that I'd just tapped in would be a load harder than if I pulled them and re-did everything on a freshly re-finished board. I had plenty of spare SS wire so I pulled the frets I'd laid and sanded the board back to wood. I then set about re-finishing. My first approach was a light dusting of vintage amber nitro from a can followed by coats of satin nitro from my HVLP sprayer. To be honest, I've never liked that vintage amber in so far as it's too dark by default. It's almost impossible to use it without ending up with a 'too dark' amber colour which is favoured by the Chinese but doesn't look in any way naturally vintage aged.
So I stripped that all off again (I should have called this video 'Re-re-fret and re-re-finish') and this time I used some diluted amber spirit stain directly on to the fingerboard wood followed by coats of diluted clear satin nitro.
After a decent interval I set about re-fretting for the 2nd time. This time the frets went onto the flat surface nicely and the slot fit was much better as well. After that I was able to end-bevel the frets followed by touching up the finish scraped by the end bevelling file by hand. This touching up is pretty much the last thing on this video as I lost the subsequent re-assembly, action-setting and precision levelling part of the whole operation! Sorry about that but once I'd got the refret done to my satisfaction the actual set up part (including new Tusq nut) was pretty standard; at least, like all my other set up videos.

[@18robsmith]

Those final shots of the finished Les Paul show what can be done when doing a tasteful clean-up on a well used guitar - it looks great, worn, but cared for. And I bet it plays like a dream 🙂

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Thanks Rob. I think the hardest part was trying to fret over the crunchy finish. That careful sanding of the strip either side of the slot eventually cuts through the weak finish IF you get it smooth; if you don't you get occasional slight unevenness like I did. So for the sake of the re-fret it was desirable to re-finish the fretboard and tbh this is always the case (from a tech's point of view).

[@jfiery]

I own a 2020 60s USA Standard that took me nearly 30 years finally be able to afford and I love it very much. I had several Epiphone prior to that that I also loved very much and it's true that the finish on both my Epi's (A Pelham Blue Standard and a Honeyburst Plus Top) were flawless. Whereas my Gibson has a slight ledge along the lower E String binding between the 3rd and the 6th fret and another spot around the lower bout where it was scraped too deep. But I love that guitar because it does have the feel of being less consistent and sterile. And there's also the sense of accomplishment and Prestige I suppose of finally achieving a long-held goal. And despite the fact that it seems to get dings anytime I look at it I do greatly prefer the nitro finish because it isn't as thick (but Id likely enjoy a poly just as much if it was applied thin enough). Having said all of that I don't understand why people get up in arms when you or anyone else makes a statement of fact that they are not ten times better instruments than anything coming out of the far east these days. To me it's just small people making issues of things because they have nothing better to do than to be outraged.

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Glad you got the guitar YOU wanted; at that point it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks or says :) This guitar wasn't only a Gibson Les Paul... it was the additional 40+ years of life that Mark had with it; all those experiences and all those memories. In addition, the fact that somehow it became a 9.5" radius was only important in so far as THAT'S how Mark knew it and now loves it. That's why there was no way on earth I was going to re-radius it to the 'correct' 12" to match the bridge.... because to do so would have turned it into a guitar he didn't recognise.

[@vayabroder729]

Sam, your thoroughness and attention to detail are amazing. This is such a beautiful job and your client will be very very happy.

[@ericcrawford9827]

Etcetera.

[@melonhusk-kt5ys]

THNX for the vid sir. mad respect for the work you do on old twangers!

[@rickpapineau2704]

Hello Sam, Just wanted to give you a "heads up" Stew-Mac just dropped the price of their 300 grit diamond fret file to $51.10 on their Reverb listing. I just grabbed one with free shipping.

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Heads up EVERYONE! Funny part is that the quality of mine was so good I literally don't need to buy another one! :) Thanks for the heads up.

[@mototakahe836]

I agree entirely with your outlook on life. Live in the moment. I also love your videos, striving always for perfection. If I want some Zen time as you phrased, it I watch one of your videos.Loved the ending today I was ready to see you dealing withhSSfrets and ah well no footage. Zen. see you next time.!

[@paintbox48]

Hi Sam..Still enjoying your videos. I thought I’d share a couple of fretting hacks I’ve used. First one is to make a set of saws from feeler gauges - just grip a group of varied sizes in a vice and file teeth on them with a triangular needle file - group some together so the very thin ones don’t distort. File off the rounded front of the gauges to a sloping point and they can be used to scrape out various sized fret slots etc. I initially made some for sawing nut slots. The other hack is when buying pre shaped frets. If they don’t immediately fit your fretboard width just slide the whole set up a fret or two, and resize spare larger frets for the nut end. I use a dremmel with a fine grindstone held in a vice to round off the ends of frets - quicker than sandpaper. Cheers keep up the good work.

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Hi - I like the variable width feeler gauge idea. I made a couple of toothed scrapers for this job but they were all one width. I've got a load of old (scrap) Hiroshima nut files of different thicknesses that I ought to dremel cutting disk some teeth into... I never buy pre-cut frets but I DO sometimes find myself switching one or two around when I've undercut one and overcut another! Note to self - try the grindstone! Don't know why I haven't... does it make the frets as hot as the sanding drums do?

[@paintbox48]

Hi Sam - It's great to have spares of things lying around you can convert into other things, like the Hiroshima files. I never throw anything away!🙄 I don't find the dremel grindstone overheats things a lot - just have to go carefully. I have seen where somebody actually grooved his grindstone to accomodate the fret shape. I don't do that many refrets as a hobbyist, so I tend to buy pre cut frets, but I do spend ages experimenting with gadgets to make things easier or more consistent. E.g. I don't have a tang nibbler, so I've made a gadget to hold a fret so I can easily file off the tang end.

[@marktimson943]

She plays a dream, sounds amazing and yep, fell in love all over again. Thanks for doing an amazing job Sam. And was great to watch the video and see her come to life once more.

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Thanks so much Mark - sorry I lost the set up part of the video. There was a good bit with me muttering about the mismatch between the neck radius and the bridge radius - it took me right until the end to realise that would be the case even though I knew from the outset the fingerboard was 9.5” !

[@R3TR0R4V3]

Love that big honkin' volute! 😍

[@RGBloke]

Should have called the video Divn't Fret Pet - love the buddhist philosophy. Going to add Bobby McFerrin "Don't Worry Be Happy" to my playist and play it at the end of my drive to work.

[@glennsophie3235]

Hi Sam, hope that you are recovering. Just to say that I encountered a bad string that I identified by your 'trust the pattern ' for intonation advice. Set the bridge as you suggested and put on a new set of strings. Nearly perfect intonation straight off. Cheers.

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

Proof of the pudding Glenn - thanks for sharing that!

[@user-vn1qx1hy2w]

In 1978 I purchased 2 items - 1 a black Gibson Les Paul custom and 2 a Rolex GMT master - both had similar prices - today the watch is worth around 4 times more than the guitar

[@ergohogg]

Workshops and dining tables always have to be organised chaos or something is wrong ;-)

[@ericcrawford9827]

If a 'beginner' gets hold of a U.S. Les Paul, does it make them a pro? I'm annoying, for a reason.

[@joeballs5669]

thanks...very informative .

[@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars]

You're welcome!