catdriver said:
Some makers, notably Fender use a fret with a "T" shaped base, that will destroy your finger board if they're not pressed out from the edge of the neck. You might try to use a nailset (very small), a hammer and tap the fret untill it sticks out from the edge of the neck. Then you can grab it and pull it sideways out of the neck as opposed to trying to pull straight up out of the fingerboard.
Oh and since I'm new here and someone has already mentioned this sorry if I repeat old news.
Terrrrible advice here, just terrrible!
The
STANDARD fret in use today by everybody - not just Fender, has the fully rounded top with a perpendicular "tang" attached below. The tang has barbs molded into each side of it to help hold the fret in place in the slot. These aren't shaped like a fishhook barb. They look more like a shallow diamonds. They are merely designed to provide friction in the slot, not to "hook and hold" the fret in the slot as has been alluded to. Why don't they need to to be so severely shaped? Because frets are prebent before installation. The preshaping relieves most of the tension that would lift the fret from it's moorings. Only the ends usually are left to be glued down. And, YES, gluing a fret down is a very common thing, especially when a slot is a little too wide to grip the tang. There are even entire techniques built around gluing frets in.
Now, onto the idea of pushing a fret out the side of the neck. This is wrong in so many ways I don't know where to begin. The poster mentions using a nailset to punch the end of the fret so the opposite end becomes exposed to grab and pull. If one were to attempt this, one works against all of the strengths and advantages the fret has in this situation. You are pulling against ALL of the tangs at the same time and they are all engaging the neck wood at the same time. This makes it extremely difficult to pull. What that means, and this comes from doing this kind of work and being able to foresee the eventual, is that there will be some kind of accident if you loose your grip. Not good. Another problem is that as you pull, and assuming the fret is going to cooperate, you must pull in line with the contour of the arch of the fretboard to avoid lifting the entire edge. This is because as the fret slides out of the slot, it will naturally feed down as it's curve relates. If you don't pull that way, the remaining fret in the slot will cause lift the fretboard at the sides of the slot.
So, all in all, there's a lot working against you when you attempt this method. It's not a wonder why the world's reknown repairman Stewart MacDonald recommends doing it the other way...
Lifting the frets staight up offers many advantages. First, the builder only has to clear about 1/8" before the fret tang clears the slot - not an inch or two as the tang is being dragged along the slot. Second, only a short portion of the fret is lifted at a time. This means that it's easier to lift being that the resistance is cut into a fraction of the resistance the other method presented. Third. if done correctly (like ANY procedure) this won't damage the fretboard at all. In fact, I just removed the frets from a Fender style neck. Nothing at all wrong with the frets, I just wanted to replace the fretboard material so removing them was the first step. Using my specially modified straight cutting dykes (like the StewMac version) I was able to lift each fret out by grasping it in the middle of the fret and jerking it in one swoop. Each fret came out perfectly undistorted, without ANY damage to the fretboard and I was able to save the frets for use as repair fodder should I need them later. Of course, THEN I totally destroyed the fretboard getting it off the neck but that was going to be the case anyway
So, be careful about what you read and what you attempt. Always measure from who and where your information comes from and if it fly's in the face of what sounds like logical, sound advice, get another opinion and even a third if that's what makes you comfortable. Guitars and cars have so many myths, legends, and wives tales told about them that it's devilishly difficult to tell the truth from all the rest.
