Ok, thank you. Can you elaborate a bit on each part? For the fret leveling beam, what grits do you use? For polishing after crowning/dressing you use 320, 600 then micromesh? Any links to the specific micromesh you use?
I’ve watched enough videos that I think I’m comfortable trying it on the Squier I paid $149 for. Super gritty frets now, so it can only get better. I’m also thinking that with Stainless, as long as I’m gentle I’d really have less risk than nickel silver frets, right?
Finally, on the crowning file, I’m tempted by one of the Stewmac Z-Files, simply because it seems like you can’t mess it up. But I’ve got 6105, 6150 and 6100 frets. Will the Z-File hog away my wider frets to give them all 6105 profiles?
Sure, happy to elaborate. I forgot about the sandpaper on the leveling beam. Mine came with adhesive strips of 220 and 400, but I haven't used the 220 b/c that feels too rough. I like to take it slow. It's why I haven't tried a power tool of any kind on fret work, or on scalloping a fretboard. I'm sure people can make a Dremel work well in both contexts, but I feel like I have much better control, and a much larger margin of error, if I go slowly with my hands.
I don't think you're really running much, if any, risk of making your frets worse even the first time. You'd have to be pretty heavy-handed and aggressive to do real damage. The amount of material you're removing is pretty small, the work is all about replacing each successive set of scratches with increasingly finer ones, to the point where they're effectively gone because you can't see or feel them any more.
I haven't tried the z files. Checked it out just now, and that sharp angle inside looks pretty aggressive! I don't think I'd want to shave that much off the sides of my frets, and as you say it might just turn anything into the narrow/tall shape. I also don't understand why you'd want it to be so triangular near the top, rather than smoothly curved. I like the much more rounded shape of
this Stewmac crowning file. I've used this one (in the wide size) on 6150 and 6100 frets, it's worked well for both. It's reversible, with I believe a 150 and a 300 grit end. I only use the 300 end, it does plenty and leaves scratches that are much easier to remove at the next stage, with sandpaper. Just a few fairly light passes is usually enough to recrown each fret.
That's one of two tools that I decided to spend the "big bucks" on by going w/Stewmac. The other is
this fret dressing file, which is great--and thankfully not that expensive.
I bought this set of
micromesh sheets with a soft pad on Amazon and it's lasted very well. To some extent, it's even cleanable, but eventually I've preferred to just replace the whole set after it's been used a bunch of times. I guess I've polished the frets on more necks than I remembered. Looking this up also reminded me that I've stopped bothering with the 600 grit paper. Once I've got the leveling and crowning scratches removed with the 320 paper, I move on to the micromesh because that starts at the equivalent of 400 grit (which they label as 1500). The pad that comes with the sheets is really handy, especially for going over the top of each fret, but I also work each sheet with my fingers to get a little further down each side of the fret.
Practicing all of this on a Squier neck is a great idea. I bought a couple of even cheaper necks just for the purpose of learning fretwork and scalloping. Neither of those necks was ever attached to a guitar, but they were well worth the price to mess around with before having at it on a "real" neck.
There are a lot of helpful videos on this, and I remember watching a lot of very different approaches. My two cents: Some folks do a pretty quick + shoddy job, others take a lot more care. I've come to think that the neck, and the frets in particular, are by far the most important factor in how well a guitar feels and plays, and also that doing as good a job as you can is worth the time (or, if you're farming it out, the money) to be done well. Yes, there are really quick and easy ways to level, crown, and polish frets, but when you put them under a magnifying glass you can see a huge difference. More important, when you put them under your fingers you can feel the difference. Again, just my two cents, but personally I'd much prefer to put in two or three hours on a great fret job and then really enjoy playing that guitar for years! I'll even admit that I've come to enjoy working closely with my 15x magnifying class, with that little light on it, to check every fret to ensure there are absolutely no scratches left, just a perfect mirror shine. It's really satisfying!