| Guitar Restorations: 1965 Gibson ES355 Guitar--Dressing the Frets |
From "Handmade Music"
episode DHMM-303 |
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1965 Gibson ES355 Guitar: Dressing the FretsA Gibson ES355 is a great guitar. A Gibson ES355, made in 1965 is a valuable guitar, and that's why Matt Grimmer is on the job. This one came to the experts at Gruhn's Guitars in pretty good shape, but there's still room for improvement. "Sometimes the most important thing is what we don't do" according to George Gruhn, and with most of this one in original shape a fret-dressing is all that's required. Materials: steel wool
dry erase marker
sandpaper and blocks
crowning file
linseed oil
Steps:- With steel wool in hand, Matt Grimmer scrubs the frets to remove "gunk" that's built up from years of play.
- Matt marks the length of each fret with a dry erase pen, and runs a sanding block up and down the length of the fret board. As he hits each fret the dry erase marks will disappear. When all marks are gone he knows he has evenly distributed his sanding. He continues until he levels all the frets.
- With a tool specific to lutherie, Matt reshapes the frets with a crowning file.
- Each fret is smoothed again with 400 grit sandpaper. This eliminates any scratches left from the previous step.
- Matt applies linseed oil to the fret board. This brings out a beautiful luster to the ebony board.
- Leveling the frets left each with a lower profile, which affects the "action" on the instrument. Filing string slots in the nut will correct this and return the "action" to its optimal string height.
GUESTS :
George Gruhn
Proprietor, Gruhn Guitars
Nashville, Tenn.
www.gruhn.com
Andy Jellison, Vintage Instrument Repair Specialist
Gruhn Guitars
Nashville, Tenn.
www.gruhn.com
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