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'Reviews by a common man' |
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No matter how much you love your precious guitar or guitars, one fact remains. If you play them, you will wear them out one day. Don’t fret. It takes many years to reach a point where you will need to have your guitar re-fretted. In the meantime, all you may need to do is have your frets dressed, or leveled, so that you don’t get any of those dreaded string buzzes or groves. With the Thomas-Ginex Fret Refinishing System, it’s even possible to do it yourself. Dressing your own frets is not really a job for a novice. However, if you already know how to setup a guitar and understand how to adjust the truss rod, string height, and intonation, you’ll be able to handle using this system. Think of it as a natural extension of your guitar setup skills. The system itself is extremely easy to use. Simply follow the instructions and you will get excellent results. You don’t even have to take the strings off. First, you loosen the strings and insert a cardboard protector card at the first fret. Then you insert their specially designed string lifter and twist it. With the strings lifted off the nut, you tune the guitar to the proper pitch.
I also used a pencil to mark the tape around the frets that I know are giving me the most problems. This way I can be sure I've devoted the proper amount time to the problem areas. After putting abrasive #1 under the strings and the leveling plate with the ridges up on the abrasive, you fold it up on the sides and just start leveling away. You rock the plate from side to side to make sure you have covered the entire fret board at the proper radius.
You then switch to abrasive #3 to further smooth out the frets, and at this point you’re pretty much done.
After completing the steps above, it is possible to remove the string lifter and everything else, tune it up, and start playing it right away. Instead of doing that, I recommend polishing the frets further. Thomas Ginex now makes a fret polishing kit that will bring your frets to a brilliant shine. I’ve also been told that they will soon release a combo kit with elements of both the fret refinishing and the polishing kit in them. Also coming soon is a light duty kit with lighter abrasives. If you’ve never dressed your frets before, be over-cautious at first. The real beauty of this kit is that you own it, so if you need to take more off, you can simply repeat the process again. No shopping and no extra charges. My test guitar was a Made in China OLP MM1 with an extremely bad buzzing problem at the 7th fret and between the 12th to 15th frets. I actually did the leveling process on this guitar four times to finally get it right. During the final time, I took special note of the problem areas and made sure enough time was spent on those sections. The results were truly amazing. It went from a guitar that I disliked, to one of my favorites. There are no detectable buzzes anywhere and is a true pleasure to play now. Fret
Refinishing Kit - $21.95 |
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At
this point it’s recommended to tape off any parts that
may be damaged by the system’s abrasives such as pickups,
pickguards, and intricate inlay work. I’d recommend
taping the wood between the frets also. It’s a bit time
consuming, but when you peak, or round the frets off, there
is a chance your fretboard will show signs of abrasive wear.
I just feel a bit more comfortable taping the entire board.
Call it paranoia, but I think it’s “better to
be safe than sorry”. 
When
you think you have taken enough off, you change to abrasive
#2 and flip the plate so the ridges are now down and are parallel
to the frets. Then you just run the abrasive over the frets
again. This process, called “peaking”, rounds
the edges of the frets. This needs to be done for as long
as you like until you’ve reached the degree of roundness
you want.
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