1950s Gibson L-48 Bracing Repair

Make It Stand Out.

Welcome to another addition of luthier rants with Dom! Today's sponsor is @alvarez_guitar, and their incredible glueless frets! One of the only guitars that I know of that tightening the truss rod loosens and unseats the frets! Right out of the box! All joking aside, this instrument came across my bench today after being purchased at a certain nameless large Fort Wayne based music store. The customers issue was... you guessed it buzzing frets! Evidently, new Alvarez guitar frets are simply pressed into the fretboard without glue. A fretboard is, in reality, a kerfed piece of wood. Any knowledgeable woodworker knows that kerfing a piece of wood causes the wood to be flexible. All fretboards have some degree of flexibility to them. Gluing frets in during installation increases the rigidity of the fretboard, making a properly planed fretboard less suseptible to drastic changes from string tension and truss rod adjustment. (I often tighten truss rods into a backbow during fret removals to widen the fret slots and necessitate easily removal) Tightening a truss rod widens fret slots slightly depending on the degree to which the rod needs tightened. If frets are glued in, the material tolerance of the glue can accommodate these fluctuations. If they are only pressed in, the frets are likely to become unseated. That is what occurred with this brand new instrument. Despite an inspection process that is pure PR at best. I advised the customer to return the instrument. Manufacturers and retailers need to be held accountable for poor quality control and deceptive sales tactics. Music can be a wonderful lifelong journey and gift. A poorly made instrument can potentially stop that journey from ever occurring. It is wrong to prioritize profit and the bottom line over your customer base.