Alvarez RD12CE guitar and the lost fret…

An unexpected project! This pretty Alvarez RD12CE guitar, entrusted by a music store, arrived at the workshop with a missing fret… Weird 😉
But everything has an explanation…

Overview of this Alvarez RD12CE

One fret less, then! But why?
It’s actually quite simple. The neck was broken in half, about a third of the way up the fingerboard. The fingerboard was also broken and the break fell on a fret slot.
The customer glued the neck back together (um…), as best he could (um, hum…), but lost the fret which was at the level of the break. And the fret slot left after regluing was… let’s say… not very usable….

Work completed

We start with cleaning the guitar and maintaining the fingerboard.
Next, you need to check the alignment of the handle, given the way it was glued back together. And there, surprise, it’s not so bad. Not perfect, but passable.
Next, we move on to repairing the fret slot. Refill the “trench” that was left, correct the alignment and redo the slot.
It’s not over! Now, you have to search the bottom of the drawers to find a fret identical to those already in place… Miracle! I still have a piece of fret wire of the right size 😉
You can install the new fret: bend the fret to the correct radius, glue the fret to the press, cut, file, sand and partially redo the fret leveling in the area.
It remains to polish the other frets, which appear very dull next to their new friend.
Then, we put on a new bridge nut (which had also been lost), new strings and off we go for the adjustment.

Conclusion

A guitar that has come a long way! But in the end, despite the small misalignment which had a very slight impact on the pitch (we are talking about less than half a millimeter), it remained right at the octave thanks to a compensated nut. And it sounds great!! 🙂

Photos

The Esprit Guitare workshop

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