Just finished frettin' a banjo neck I've been working on for quite a while.I hammered in some gold evo fret wire I picked up from an outfit that sells through Amazon. Don't remember what I paid for it, but it was a good value.I followed the recomendations on what size I needed according to the slot widths in my fingerboard.The wire comes pre-radiused. It goes on to explain how this helps the fret ends stay down against the bindings tight without any lifting.I might mention that I've got a flat fingerboard, but what do I know? It seemed to make sense? I guess I should have been working in better lighting conditions! Didn't notice 'til I got about the 4th fret hammered in that the arch in the middle of the wire was still arched up from the middle of the board. No amount of hammering would press it in place. In fact I can press it down flat with both thumbs exerting about 40 lbs. of force.However the fret ends are secure to the binding..... Now I assume no amount of super/cyro/glue is going to hold these down?I am once again assuming I or perhaps someone more qualified is going to have to pull these frets and give 'er a redo? The rest of the fretwire I straightened out before installing and it's seated just like all the other frets I've ever installed, including the ends! I have one or two frets on one of my other builds that when I installed it has kind of a hang nail effect on the treble side of board. Every once in a blue moon when I'm pullin' off the 1st string( probably with more than adequate force) the string stays hung up under the hang nail fretwire. That sure changes things up.I used to grind the ends of the tang off with a dremel grinder. Sometimes a little too much and when the fret is installed it leaves a very small gap between the binding and the wire. Not so much you'd notice without a pair of good magnifiers, but not exactly professional either.Usually a little bit of hammering will take care of it. I just bought a pair of fret-nippers from Stew-Mac and would HIGHLY recommend them. They save much work and leave only a trace amount of tang that needs filed down to bottom of fret!!! A little expensive for a hobbiest, but definitely one of the best inventions i've used in banjer building. Don't know if this was one of Dan Erlwine's inventions or not.but a great one none-the less! So, how about it. Should I get a fret-puller and try to remove arched frets. I'm so skeered I'm going to chip out the otherwise great looking board! I've already made more mistakes on this banjo than all the ones I've built up to this point. You'd think a guy would eventually get smarter and quit doing this!!!!!! If I would just be able to LEARN and remember all these mistakes I could probably write a book about what NOT to do!
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