Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone built and used a Fret Buttress Jig Drawings by Luthier's CoolTools?
Just wondering how much support you get from the birch ply arms from the shock load of a dead-blow hammer on the FB extension.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hey Colin - this has been brought up here before and since physics doesn't change neither will my answer.

As you already suspect the shop made fret buck doesn't have the mass of the commercial ones. We have the Taylor one and although I'm home at the moment it's around 30 pounds IIRC. It's this mass that counters and resists the hammer blows.

The very concept of making one out of wood says to me that the designer did not understand the physics of how the mass of the commercial bucks resist the hammer shock and blows. The wooden one will still have the clamping affect but not the mass to resit the blows.

I would not trust it with the valuable personal property of others (or myself).

FWIW, I use a small ziplock bag filled with birdshot which is duct taped like snot to form a tight but loose little bundle of shock absorbing goodness. I hold it inside under the extension when fretting and it does a great job of absorbing the hammer shock. Much less cumbersome than the fret buck and much less likely to ding the soundhole...

FWIW that's what I've been doing. Works OK but I feel a little risky as I need one hand to lift the shot bag and guitar and the other to hammer, in a small shop.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hesh, pretty much as I suspected, I've ordered a buck from stewmac, $50 off just now.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The two things that work for me are a handheld block of wood or a bean bag under the extension, and a fret tang that has been thinned down a bit so you don't have to hammer as hard. I thin the barbs down with a homemade fret barber.

I’ve had my eye on that gizmo for a while and spotted the year-end sale. Trouble is, I’m currently vacationing in NZ and won’t be able to accept shipment (at a border receiver in Vermont) for another 3 weeks. I’ve contacted SM to see if they’ll delay shipping while honouring the price. If not, I guess I’ll wait.


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Lead shot bag - works great because it works on all guitars. Everything. And no chance of damaging anything while wielding 30 lbs of steel around multi thousand dollar instruments. I did build the fret buttress, which worked fine. I have used the Taylor tool, works well. In a busy repair shop with a great variety of guitars, I have found the bean bag to be hands down the best solution. To make the bean bag, a heavy bag can be used (like a small ziplock, or a few of them), you can wrap or seal with duct tape, and place in an old sock and tie off.

If I need to "tap" a fret in I get a small lead block that we keep around after putting on a nitrile glove while handling lead. It's over kill I know but I'm Felix Unger here so I wash my hand as soon as the block gets put away.

But what I wanted to add since that's why I'm posting is that we press frets even over the neck block and on the extension of an acoustic guitar. The students here on the OLF that we've had to our place know what I am talking about because they pressed their frets too. We have created a few simple jigs that are already pictured here on the OLF that permit us to use the SM fret press at any point on an acoustic guitar's fret board. So with this methodology no fret buck or lead block or any other method is required for us to press our frets home, bill the client, next.

The buck is from the days before folks were pressing frets and our's rarely gets used.

And I've had someone else saying the buck is a blessing when he has a refret on a multi thousand $ Martin to do.
I have been using a bag of shot for years, but find waving a guitar about with the bag inside, keeping a fret tang vertical and hammering the fret in in a crowded shop a little nerve-wracking.
Just want to try the buck.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

FWIW I make those fret slots wider and glue them in with fish glue and just a few gentle taps. I used to hold a block of steel in there but it just felt too risky. The shot bags sound like a good idea as they ill conform to the bracing.

Colin, that makes sense. I'm not sure about the waving guitar around, at least that is not how I do it. When over the body, I set the fret at the fretboard edge with a light tap. This aligns the fret to slot. I then simply run my hand inside (I just leave the shot bag in there), lift up the bag, and tap away. Guitar lays on the bench (carpet sample for the body, and gun barrel rest at the neck). It's fast, smooth, and uneventful. I've used this method on a few hundred guitars, of every type imaginable - some 100 years old. Never had an issue. I should also mention that I always set my frets with 192g hot hide glue (belt and suspenders). On classical partials, I often chop off half the tang and set with CA. No point in driving off a chunk of ebony fretboard.

Lead shot bag for me too. Widen the slot slightly with the triangular file. I do lift the guitar off the bench while hammering.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Thanks guys, I have, as I said earlier, been using a bag of shot for several years. Use fish glue in the the slots with the edges eased, and reduce Tang widths as necessary on the FB extension.
Just want to try an alternative method, if it don't work for me, I'll ditch it.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I’m wondering what size lead bag folks use? How heavy?
Thanks,
David


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1 kg, 2.2 lbs here.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Here's one other option for a weight under the fretboard extension to absorb hammer blows. It's a sheet metal dolly that weighs 1 3/4 lb. The narrow flat face (which is actually very slightly convex) goes against the underside of the top. It's compact enough that I can wrap my left hand fingers around the curved end of the dolly to hold it in place under the fretboard extension while extending my left thumb over the fretboard to hold a fret in position while setting it with the first wack with the hammer. I got it at a local hardware store.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter