Somebody sent me a link to this YouTube video showing a loon fashioning a fret file to fit into a saber saw.
DON’T DO IT!
I nearly spat out my coffee when I saw what the video was proposing. I’m not including a link because I don’t want to help this misguided YouT’uber (term edited several times until nice enough to print) to get more views.
But, in short, this is what’s wrong with the premise of automating your crowning work –
- A. It only takes about ten minutes to crown frets manually. 10 minutes.
- B. You want full control of the process, control that only your hands can give.
- C. The saber saw would remove material so fast that you’d likely be removing fret height – the height you just so carefully leveled to!
- D. You’d wear out your fret files so fast that the time it takes to fashion the end to fit your saw would quickly overtake the time you think you’re saving with the saber saw.
- E. If a customer ever got wind of you doing this, he’ll not only steer clear of your shop but he’ll warn everyone he knows!
Now, only the future will tell which one of us is on the wrong side of history – the guy who wants you to automate your fret crowning process or me, the guy advising you to keep the file in your hands.
But it does bring to mind a warm summer day in Pine Lake Park, N.J. around 1958. I was nearly twelve and word was going through our little village that the town mayor (who was also the richest guy around) had just bought a lawn mower that had an engine on top!
People doubled over laughing, we all thought that was so funny! Well, you know what happened. Today, nobody wants a lawnmower that doesn’t have one of those “silly” gas engines!
So, maybe the future will bring us automated fret crowners. But they won’t be anything like the monstrosity shown in this dang YouTube!
Thanks for posting about this. It’s good to see that you are open to the possibility that reservations on this method may prove over time to be on par with objections to gas powered lawnmowers. I say this genuinely, I respect that, and I absolutely understand your reservations – I held all of the same concerns myself through the course of developing this.
If you’ll allow, I’d like to clarify some things which I hope may shift your opinion. First is that this is not an “automated” process by any means, but simply a mechanical aid to address repetitive strain injury for lifelong career luthiers, while potentially increasing precision by allowing the operator to better focus on critical angles rather than being distracted by fatigue and physical force.
If i may address your A-B-C-D-E concerns point by point,
A – On average, perhaps, though for full time repair shops regularly dressing out extreme wear or unevenness, 10 minutes might be a bit optimistic. When servicing over a thousand guitars a year as we do, this work can add up to affect the body.
B – I do wish you had the opportunity to try this tool first hand, where I’m confident you would find that it can actually increase control beyond what the unassisted hand can deliver on its own. By consistently taking care of motion in the Y-axis, it allows the operator to better focus on the angles and pressure.
C – There is always of course potential to remove too much, whether by hand or with mechanical aid. Considering that the lowest speed of this device runs at about 6-8 strokes per second, only 2-4 times as fast as the hand alone might do (with much shorter strokes mind you), it is not nearly so aggressive as it might seem. Plus, it comes with the benefit of being able to redirect focus on things like lightening pressure, which is a factor worthf considering.
D – 10 strokes is 10 strokes, whether at 3 strokes per second or 30. I set up a FLIR thermal camera in the process of testing this initial concept, and observed no significant temperature increases beyond hand leveling, so even thermal effects on bond of the abrasive are ruled out.
E – I shared this video with the customer who owned the featured guitar, and they dropped off two more when they picked this one up. Their impressions were quite opposite what you may have expected, and they were so impressed with our innovation and detailed explanations of how technology can be integrated to improve a traditional craft, that they value the privilege of having access to our services even more.
I’m sure not everyone will embrace this so readily, but that’s fine. As it is we accept less than half the work we are approached with, and if this helps weed out those who would try to tell us as leading edge experts how we should execute our tasks, all the better.
I brought this tool to a recent seminar with many of the top luthiers in the world a few weeks ago, and while the initial reaction was understandably similar you yours, once my colleagues got it in their hands and saw first person how it actually performs, it was much more widely embraced.
I thank you genuinely for your perspective, and truly value your input. If this ever becomes a commercial product down the road, this kind of feedback will be invaluable in helping understand concerns and finding ways to address them appropriately.
And for what it’s worth, our fret work process has been refined to hold to tolerances within 1/10 of 1/1000!of an inch, tighter tolerances than a Plek, and we would never compromise such standards simply for efficiency. This tool is certainly not an essential component to achieving such precision, but I assure you that we would not consider using it if it could not maintain these standards.
Thanks, and cheers!
I’m impressed by the thoroughness of your response and the fact that you responded far more politely than my post deserved.
In my defense, the Canadians absolutely revere their loons and have even pictured them on their dollar coin, which they call a “looney”. Though a bit of that reverence may have been lost when the two-dollar coin was introduced, which they quickly anointed the “tooney”, but getting back to the subject of fret crowning…
I remember well, the days when I did only a thousand jobs a year, back when I was a one-man shop. But, to be honest, those were a total of jobs done throughout the year, not the number of fret crowning jobs and not even the number of guitar setups, which did approach that number.
Crowning frets with a crowning file is absolutely a ten-minute job in my shop. We come back with various grits of sandpaper on a special tool to finish the frets and prep them for Dremel polishing. I had arthritis in both hands before going full-time into guitar tech business about a decade ago and my hands are no worse off. I can think of other tasks that are harder on the hands than crowning.
I’ve read your thoughts three times over and perhaps I’ll review them again when I have more time. I do appreciate that you took the time to write them and I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to make advancements for guitar techs. I had no idea who you were or your background when I posted my blog, having come in late from the shop, tired, hungry and then receiving a link to your vid from one of my techs. I was way overdue in posting and was grateful for an easy target.
While you have not changed my mind on a single point, I’ll try to remain at least a little bit open-minded and we’ll see if your idea goes the way of the Segway or the lawnmower.
– Cheers!
that you called someone as well-respected a luthier and guitar repair instructor as david collins a “loon” is revealing more of you than of him
I have attempted to redeem myself as far as the “loon” thing goes (see my reply to David). As far as his idea – being a famous, well-respected, successful person doesn’t mean every thing you do is correct. Charles Lindbergh advocated for the Nazis in WWII, Thomas Edison delighted in electrocuting dogs and even elephants. I could go on, but I have a guitar shop to open.
But I appreciate your comment.