Fretboard Maintenance: Fret Polishing (Part 2)

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With all the theory and talk out of the way, we now move onto the practical! James and Chris take you through exactly how to polish up your frets in a step-by-step manner, specifically on a rosewood fretboard.

Summary: Checklist

Once you have all the equipment we spoke about in the previous lesson, we are now ready to start polishing frets. To give you a clear walkthrough guide, here is your checklist:

  • 1. Place the fret guard on the fret and pull it to the radius of the fretboard (wrap it so it slightly curves with the neck)
  • 2. Take your 1500 grit micro mesh paper and polish from side to side on each fret
  • 3. Don't take too long on each fret and try to do it evenly
  • 4. Once you've done all frets, take the next micro mesh paper (2400) and repeat the process
  • 5. Repeat this process all the way up to 12000 grit

By the end of this process, you should have even, shiny frets that your strings can glide over. This will improve how your guitar plays, meaning you will more than likely play it more! This massively helps to keep you progressing as a guitarist, so it's 100% worth it.

Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...

Cleaning Maple Fretboards

There is a big difference between rosewood (dark fretboards) and maple (light fretboards) when it comes to maintenance. In this lesson, James and Chris walk you through how to approach cleaning a maple fretboard properly.