I have been asked recently about installing guitar frets. Is it hard to do? Do I need to buy the expensive tools from the supply house? What specialty tools do I need? Help!!

Don’t fret (pun intended), you’ve come to the right place. I’m working on a neck right now, so lets walk through this together. Lets first talk about tools. Let me say this, you don’t NEED any special tools. You can do all this just using a brass faced hammer to hammer in the frets, and some wire cutters to cut them to size. While this process will work, it may not be the cleanest, and will probably leave you with some extensive fret leveling and cleanup later on. So what do I use?

Here’s my Fret Installation tool list. (full disclosure. these are affiliate links)
Fret Bender – https://amzn.to/37CSyDa
Radius Gauges (similar to mine) – https://amzn.to/2QMNYw5
Fret End Nippers – https://amzn.to/2QUbG9B
Fret Beveling File (not homemade) – https://amzn.to/2QNK85P
Fret Press Caul – https://amzn.to/2QNK85P
Arbor Press – https://amzn.to/35FyGNX
Fret Slot Cleaning Set – https://amzn.to/35F7SNN
Fret Leveling Beam (for after installation) – https://amzn.to/2OMHnPt

As you install more frets, you will quickly begin to figure out what tools you want to use to make the job go smoothly. You may enjoy hammering in frets and not want a fret press. That’s perfectly OK. You can mix and match to suite your needs. I like to try to make this process as easy as possible so I don’t spend hours installing frets. Some people enjoy the slow and steady process, and there is nothing wrong with that. For me though, I need to get it done and move on.

I’ve made a short video outlining my process. You can check it out below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you have done this before, let me know what processes and tools you enjoy. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Fretting.

Here’s my process as of this writing (December 2019)

Here are a few more guitar building basics videos you might enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNdbmad_HnZXWnCwPlV1PFNjlI67QWCOq