All this talk about I do not have the tools or tools are expensive. I did my first fret level with a sharpie, steel wool, carpenters level with 320 grit sand paper rapped around it(still do this today) and masking tape. My first refret job, the only tools I used was a pair of end nips, claw hammer, block of wood, triangle file, sand paper, masking tape, sharpie marker. All those fancy tools make it easy, but they are not needed if you have a little imagination. Buy a cheap pawn shop guitar and have a go, if it turns out try on a little more expensive guitar.
Can it be done without diamond files? Small repairs yes, but not a 37 year old guitar that’s on it’s 3rd and final fret resurfacing. It takes 16 hours with the right tools.
Try to remove grooves, and reprofile frets that have large flat areas with sandpaper?
even if you can the accuracy will be way off.
Cant imagine going from 320 right to steel wool either.
The goal to me, is to make the guitar as good as new, and set it up as well as any custom shop.
I check the whole neck w a fret rocker, and digital depth caliper first.
I use a diamond Stew Mac Zfile and or center file to re-crown the frets first, otherwise the intonation will be horrible. Ever play a guitar that’s in tune with an open G, but a s soon as you play open D it’s not? That’s what RE-crowning fixes. It’s from all those 2nd fret bends and squeals, but it also happens all over the neck.
After that I calculate how many hundredths, I can remove from all 24 frets to have one even plane, without removing too much fret wire.
Thats when a sharpie and a radius profile block come in. Different radius block for every guitar. I start with self adhesive 220 grit, then 320, then 400, until the frets are one continuous plane.
I reprofile the frets again, lightly, then switch to a special fret end file.
Back to the sharpie, but this time 320, to 400, to 600, to 800, to 1000 grit self adhesive sandpaper.
After that, fret erasers starting with 400 grit, 600, 800, 1200, 2000, 4000, finally 8000 !
One last pass with special fret polish, and the frets look like glass.
I just restored a 37 year old Carvin DC200, and it plays like new. The action is very low without a single buzz anywhere.
minimum of $800 in tools to do it right, lots of time, a massive mess of filings to clean up at every step, all while protecting the guitar. Re-fretting is A lot more expensive tool wise. A good press, with profiled jigs Just for starters. it’s not fun, and it’s very easy to make critical mistakes. I’ve got plenty of practice, and made all my mistakes 25 years ago on cheap guitars.
