Refretting a Yamaha APX-10

[Mr Stringmeister]

Here some photos of a nice Yamaha APX-10 from the early nineties. It needed a refret, so some pics here.

Here a couple of photos of the frets how they were before - not much left....






Removing frets using a soldering iron to heat frets before pulling them out.




Some gluey bits coming out of the fret slots...




All frets out, adjusting the truss rod so that the neck is perfectly straigh...




New frets in. The fret tang nipper tool from Stewmac is a 'must have' for necks with binding. SO much easier and faster!




Fret ends done, ready for leveling...




Frets leveled, crowned and polished. Fretboard oiled.




I wasn't happy with the plastic saddles so decided to cut some bone saddles and lower the saddles as the same time by about 1 mm. Here a photo of the four plastic saddles and the bone one still in one piece.



Continued in next post...

[Mr Stringmeister]

Bone saddle finished apart from cutting it into four pieces.




Ain't that nice




And now some photos of the whole 'beast':










It plays beautifully without fret buzz and now has a lower action. The observant reader will have noticed that I did not say anything about the nut....

After refretting a guitar you will have to make another nut to accommodate for the new fret height. I have not done that yet and for now I have just shimmed the (bone) nut with a thin sliver of bone. A new nut will be done when I feel like it.

Cheers