Best way to dull the frets on new San Dimas

[Tricky]

Did you buy it locally? It may have came from an arid climate. If so & you live in a humid climate, it may take care of itself.

[spider murphy]

Since you brought this up, mr. Spider, what do you use for sharp fret ends?

Like others here have said, fret files and a very light touch(I've used a small sharpening stone a few times). It's not too difficult. just don't put too much pressure on the file and watch your angle(don't want to remove any of the finish). A few passes with the file and it should be cured.

[straycat]

A flat metal file will do the job just take it slow and knock the offending end down.

[javert]

Did you buy it locally? It may have came from an arid climate. If so & you live in a humid climate, it may take care of itself.

Nope, I picked it up in the states, in California to be specific, but the seller lived in Chicago, I think. It had the problem already when I picked it up in California. During the winter here the air actually gets really dry.

[javert]

Thanks for the suggestions spider and straycat.

[Tricky]

If you decide to file the ends yourself, I suggest practicing on a cheap beater first. If you have one lying around. San Dimas is pretty pricey.

[javert]

If you decide to file the ends yourself, I suggest practicing on a cheap beater first. If you have one lying around. San Dimas is pretty pricey.

It seems that the original poster is MIA. His was a San Dimas, mine is a SL2. But your point is still valid, of course. I have no intention of ruining this guitar

[Tricky]

It seems that the original poster is MIA. His was a San Dimas, mine is a SL2. But your point is still valid, of course. I have no intention of ruining this guitar

[javert]

wtf what?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Ha, so with all this talk of fret ends, here is my experience...

Like I said, I bought a couple of Warmoth necks. The fret ends are beveled but not dressed (corners are sharp) and so I've done those up. Comparing them to one of my Custom Shop Charvels, for reference, when they came out of the box they were sharp as hell. I worked on them until they felt good.

Now, last night, I compared it directly to one of my Charvels. The Charvel feels pretty crappy. I get my other Charvel out, and, it's even worse. Frets hanging over the binding like javert's, feeling like little knives on my thumb. :think:

Well, it is winter time, and I don't have a humidifier, it's pretty dry in the house... Uh-oh. So, I get my SL1 out... and it's like fucking butter. Beautiful, better than I've done on my Warmoths (understandable, since that was my first real try at it) and no frets hanging over the binding. So, I don't think the issue with my Charvels is the humidity...

I'm kind of disappointed with my Charvels now. Think I'm going to have to take care of that this weekend...

[Tricky]

wtf what?

Oh, no offense meant. It was just like, WTF, Where did I loose track?

[javert]

lol, ah, okay. The thread was hijacked by me before you entered the discussion The original poster never answered spider's questions and I got curious.

[spider murphy]

Ha, so with all this talk of fret ends, here is my experience...

Like I said, I bought a couple of Warmoth necks. The fret ends are beveled but not dressed (corners are sharp) and so I've done those up. Comparing them to one of my Custom Shop Charvels, for reference, when they came out of the box they were sharp as hell. I worked on them until they felt good.

Now, last night, I compared it directly to one of my Charvels. The Charvel feels pretty crappy. I get my other Charvel out, and, it's even worse. Frets hanging over the binding like javert's, feeling like little knives on my thumb. :think:

Well, it is winter time, and I don't have a humidifier, it's pretty dry in the house... Uh-oh. So, I get my SL1 out... and it's like fucking butter. Beautiful, better than I've done on my Warmoths (understandable, since that was my first real try at it) and no frets hanging over the binding. So, I don't think the issue with my Charvels is the humidity...

I'm kind of disappointed with my Charvels now. Think I'm going to have to take care of that this weekend...

Is your sl1 older than the charvels? Over time wood will stabilize a bit as it dries out and will not expand or contract as much as it did when new.

[javert]

Ha, so with all this talk of fret ends, here is my experience...

Like I said, I bought a couple of Warmoth necks. The fret ends are beveled but not dressed (corners are sharp) and so I've done those up. Comparing them to one of my Custom Shop Charvels, for reference, when they came out of the box they were sharp as hell. I worked on them until they felt good.

Now, last night, I compared it directly to one of my Charvels. The Charvel feels pretty crappy. I get my other Charvel out, and, it's even worse. Frets hanging over the binding like javert's, feeling like little knives on my thumb. :think:

Well, it is winter time, and I don't have a humidifier, it's pretty dry in the house... Uh-oh. So, I get my SL1 out... and it's like fucking butter. Beautiful, better than I've done on my Warmoths (understandable, since that was my first real try at it) and no frets hanging over the binding. So, I don't think the issue with my Charvels is the humidity...

I'm kind of disappointed with my Charvels now. Think I'm going to have to take care of that this weekend...

Sorry for ruining your guitars for you! Let us know how it works out, at least I'm curious to hear whether you experience any problems.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Is your sl1 older than the charvels? Over time wood will stabilize a bit as it dries out and will not expand or contract as much as it did when new.

I don't think so; they were all made around the 2nd half of last year IIRC, definitely less than a year difference.

Actually I bought all of them in early November or so (after all my guitars were stolen in October, except my Warmoth single-hum.)

I honestly was not too impressed with these Charvels from a workmanship point of view. They have a deep-routed neck pocket to get the fretboard down nice and close to the face of the guitar, for example, and they did not trim the binding on the fretboard overhang, so it was smashing into the face of the guitar (causing a rise at the end of the fingerboard) which I fixed immediately, and I had to level the frets on the red one.

I. Martinez. I get very wary when I see his name on the hang tag as the assembler. The guy works on Custom Shop guitars as well as USA Jacksons and I've seen him do nice work but I've also seen some stupid shit.

Sorry for ruining your guitars for you! Let us know how it works out, at least I'm curious to hear whether you experience any problems.

No worries, man. I've actually been dealing with it for a couple of months, working on the first Warmoth and trying to get them "un-sharp" and then more recently with another. I am certain that I can get them cleaned up (I already ground the ends down even with the binding) but, this is something I'm interested in doing/learning, already have a lot of the tools of the trade and some experience.

I'm going to practice on the lacquered Warmoth neck. If I ruin it, which I doubt, it will at least be replaceable (and I was considering replacing it anyway because of the lacquer) and try to get it from "pretty good" to somewhere close to my SL1. Once I can do that, I'll feel comfortable enough to attack the Charvels.