Electric Guitar Neck Fretwire and Body Finish

I received a question about guitar neck fretwire, and guitar finish.

Rob asks:Hi, I enjoyed the The dissection of a Highway One Fender Stratocaster guitar. Can you remove the frets and the finish to show how that's done? Thanks.

one of the things I have not delved into is replacing worn out fretwire. From what I've seen the process requires some specialized tools which I do not own. Quite honestly I have not worn out a set of frets on an electric guitar to the point they need replacement.

If you're interested in swapping out some frets, I would suggest typing in a question on Youtube. I've seen luthiers actually do it there so I'm sure it exists.

As far as finishing a body I have done two, one was completely natural, the other a deep maroon. Both bodies were finished using about a dozen light coats of lacquer, followed by about a month of drying, then wet sanding starting at 400 grit, up to 1500, then buffing, and polishing. It's a very rewarding process, but it is very time consuming, and you must have a place to spray the lacquer because the fumes are terrible. I purchased colortone stain at Stewart MacDonald, and water based grain filler, at Rockler woodworking.

If you're looking to swap out neck fretwire, I'd suggest practicing on a junk strat neck first. As far as finishing, I don't plan on doing any more bodies in the near future. But there are multiple videos on Youtube as well. There is also quite a bit of info at the Stewart MacDonald web site, and the rockler web site too. I wish I could be more helpful, FYI I just bought a beautifully finished Fender vintage light green body from mighty might for $139.00., it's hard to beat the Chinese in labor. Good Luck, J.B., 3-25-11

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