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 Post subject: Strat "fret-out"
PostPosted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 3:07 pm 
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Location: Seattle WA
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I was getting typical fret out on 12 fret bends with 7.5"radius. So I shaped 12-21 frets to 9" and leveled each string path. Worked pretty good, although I think I should have used 10 or higher. Is there a standard that most use?

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 Post subject: Re: Strat
PostPosted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:19 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Location: Magnolia DE
First name: Brian
Last Name: Howard
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Zip/Postal Code: 19962
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So basically you created a compound radius fret board. Yours goes from 7.5"-9", most compound radius fret boards are 12"-16" . Without changing the board and just working the frets you are limited on what you can do by the height of the frets. By my math you needed to lower the center of the higher frets about .014" to do what you did, 10" would make that .019" and 12" would be just over .030". So the question is how low are you willing to grind the center of the high frets?

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 Post subject: Re: Strat
PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 10:58 am 
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B. Howard wrote:
So basically you created a compound radius fret board. Yours goes from 7.5"-9", most compound radius fret boards are 12"-16" . Without changing the board and just working the frets you are limited on what you can do by the height of the frets. By my math you needed to lower the center of the higher frets about .014" to do what you did, 10" would make that .019" and 12" would be just over .030". So the question is how low are you willing to grind the center of the high frets?

Thanks Brian. Yes and actually 7.25 standard vintage Fender radius. Seems like I took off about .010 but the middles were already worn down from years of bends. It still feels ok at about .027. I did level the upper fret board too because I had many divots and I think you would need to anyways because if you didn't there would be a big drop off.

It's my personal guitar and I love the 7.25 for chording but was tired of fretting out at a few spots. Just wondering if this was any kind of a standard procedure. They don't fret out now, but on the biggest of bends they just start to contact. So if I did it again, I would go with 10".

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 Post subject: Re: Strat
PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:01 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Yes, that is actually a very common procedure for vintage radius strats/teles, and also bass guitars with an extreme taper to the fretboards from the nut to the end of the board.

I call it a "compound fret dress" when describing it to my customers.

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