Semi-Hemispherical Fretting

sylvan · Post by **sylvan** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:58 am

I have finally decided to divulge the technique of "semi-hemispherical" fretting to the guitar maker community. For those who do not know the technique, the frets are placed precisely on the fretboard about .010" shy of the edge. All ends are completely polished off the fretboard so, there is no cleanup of ends once the frets are installed and very little leveling of the frets required. Most of my students can complete an incredible fret job start to finish in 90 minutes or less! Once you get the hang of it, the process can be incredibly fast! For more info on the technique go to http://www.wellsguitars.com/Articles/articles.htm. Your guitars will never play the same again!!!

Bob Connor · Post by **Bob Connor** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:27 am

Hi Sylvan and welcome to the ANZLF.

I noticed your post over at the OLF and I'm fairly interested in this myself.

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:55 am

Um er...what's the password??

acousticpassport · Post by **acousticpassport** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:28 am

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:45 am

Im sure its a great system...but Im never going to find that out unless someone tells me the password to access the articles on the website.

Or am I missing something???

Postscript: okay I did miss something...I have to pay for the password.

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:52 pm

Geez Sylvan,

Don't you think it's a bit rich to join our forum and make your very first post here an attempt to spin a buck for yourself?? Sorry mate but with all due respect the ANZLF was founded and remains based upon the principal of 'free and open' sharing of information because we seek to promote the craft of stringed instrument building, not Sylvan Wells or any other individuals.

Besides, why should anyone pay you $25USD to see your method when a tutorial already exist here at the ANZLF which does exactly as you claim your process will do, only this one is FREE?? Please don't bother answering that as I do not want to be seen as having invited you to continue to promote yourself at our expense.

For any interested in 'free' information demonstrating how to achieve "semi-hemispherical" TM fretting, just click on the attached link. It deals more with using a dental lathe however the same can be achieved with other tooling and the alignment process is explained which is the crux of the matter.

viewtopic.php?t=793

Sheesh

Kim

Taffy Evans · Post by **Taffy Evans** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:54 pm

Kim, I'm with you, $25.00 he must be joking. I thought exactly the same as you, but I feel your words are better than I would have used.

I have also been using a similar method you showed for years, with some slight changes [never had a name for it though. I use a small Makita bench grinder, expensive but runs quiet and true.

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:04 pm

Sorry Sylvan, nothing personal but Im with the other guys on this one. Theres a basic etiquette we try and follow in here....one unwritten rule is you dont arrive on the scene with all guns blazing and make your first post an advertisment.

Fortunately for you we also allow for such breaches of etiquette with a standard fine system consisting of one of the folowing:

1. a waiver of the $25 fee or at least a discount for ANZLF members.
2. a $25 donation to the Victorian Bush Fire Fund
3. handover of either your stash of tonewood or your wife and daughters

We are reasonable people....

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 6:16 pm

That's $25 I'd prefer to give to my local CFA firies thanks.
Well deserved too.

Thanks for reposting the ANZLF tute link, Kim.
That's all I need and it's clear enough for even me to follow !!!

Now if anyone wants to deposit $25 into my account, I'm happy to show
the real reason I wear clothes in public. It's only a small photo

cheers, Stu

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:50 pm

acousticpassport wrote:Hello Folks,

I happen to be one of those students Sylvan mentioned and I can attest to the fact that the fretting system is indeed revolutionary. I've never fretted a guitar in my life until I met Sylvan and I was blown away by how simple, efficient and effective it was. I recently built a guitar in Sylvan's workshop and I'm amazed at how this guitar feels and plays.

I highly recommend that you check it out. You will not be disappointed

Rick

Unfortunately Rick I am dissapointed. Disappointed that your first post on this forum is an advertisment.

acousticpassport · Post by **acousticpassport** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:17 pm

DarwinStrings · Post by **DarwinStrings** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:10 am

Hi Rick
If Sylvan would have posted prior to "very recently" I would have had a look. If you didn't mean to sound like an add then you are a natural.

Hi Sylvan
Maybe next time try wording it like this..... I have finally decided to divulge ( for a fee) the technique of "semi-hemispherical" fretting to the guitar maker community....... I would like to thank you though as the replies to your thread made me grin a big grin.

I would like to hear your words Taffy.

I have a friend here Stu and she is asking for your bank account details.

Martin

I had this vision of you scratching your head looking for a password like a misplaced set of car keys.

I sometimes wonder why Kim bothers making guitars when he has has such a well tuned pen.

Jim

Dennis Leahy · Post by **Dennis Leahy** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:47 am

I got caught too. I clicked the link thinking Sylvan was offering this one as a free tutorial.

Recently, I had clicked Sylvan's link on the OLF only to find the entry fee. Sorry, but with hundreds of luthiers sharing hard-earned techniques, jigs, plans, ideas, concepts, tutorials, etc. for FREE, it is bewildering why someone would create a fee-based site to do the same. I have no problem with the idea of a luthier school - hands-on training is very valuable. Actually, I have no problem with a fee-based online luthier tutorial site, but wherever that site is mentioned, it should be prominently be mentioned that it is a fee-based site. Also, the author may want to offer some samples - maybe edited video clips - to show the value and production quality of the tutorials. Finally, if the author was disgusted by a bunch of freeloaders accepting the tutorials but never hitting the tip jar, then perhaps there is smarter marketing than a blanket $25US to peek in the door. For example, $2 or $3 per tutorial, and you could pick the one(s) you want. Even then, it would be good to see at least a few seconds of each video to be drawn in by the quality of the presentation.

FWIW, my $0.02

Dennis

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:08 am

They sure do talk slow down in them there colonies.....

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 6:50 am

smiles from matthew ...

ozziebluesman · Post by **ozziebluesman** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:46 am

Yep Sylvan, your first post was bad taste! The other members have said it all but I just had to have a say and voice my thoughts.

We have a mutual friendship and respect for each other on our forum sharing guitar building methods, mistakes and ideas at no cost to each other. You see we love exploring the art of guitar building and learning how to build better guitars!

Take the time and have a look at the fine instruments built here mate!

Alan

kiwigeo · Post by **kiwigeo** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:53 am

matthew wrote: smiles from matthew ...

Very diplomatic

Taffy Evans · Post by **Taffy Evans** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:08 pm

What put alarm bells in my ears was the comment..."only 90 minutes".
Now I don't consider a fret job complete until the guitar is strung up set up and buzz free, 90 minutes hmmmmmmm, am I too slow or just too fussy. I'd have to see that, but it looks like I'm not gonna.

There are costs/time involved to many of our members when sharing on the forum, like detailed photo's of projects, arranging bulk buys, time taken to research something to help someone elses query, not to mention administrator time and effort. And I was quite happy with my dial up internet until I joined the forum, now I need Broadband.........sh t more outlay, I'm gonna have to charge you's all or cancell my membership. Only joking I like it the way it is. I have been paid by the number of jobs I get from people [guitarists] who check out the forum and call me or drop into the workshop.

Hesh1956 · Post by **Hesh1956** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:36 pm

Sylvan my friend since this is your first post here it might be helpful if someone points out to you that these guys can be very expressive in how they speak to us counterclockwise flushers.

But rest assured that these are the finest folks on earth and they would give you the shirts off their backs................. for $25

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:53 pm

Taffy Evans wrote:And I was quite happy with my dial up internet until I joined the forum, now I need Broadband.........sh t more outlay, I'm gonna have to charge you's all or cancell my membership.

Yeh, my invoice is in the PM's ya'll as well,

But rest assured that these are the finest folks on earth and they would give you the shirts off their backs................. for $25

You wanna buy my seester..... verrry niiiccce..... for the nice Meester Hesh, Im doing special group buy.

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:06 pm

Hesh1956 wrote:us counterclockwise flushers.

Yeah, first thing I did when I got off the plane in San Francisco was to go and flush the crapper (after making a small deposit, that we don't need to discuss here), and the bloody thing did go backwards!

Welcome to the forum Sylvan, I have used some of your ideas in the past and they've all worked out pretty well.

The problem with your post is that we've had to stomp on people in the past who've tried to sell us stuff in their first post and the feeling amoungst the mods here was that we can't make any exceptions to that rule lest we open the flood gates, or be accused of hypocrisy.

But you are welcome to hang out with us and talk guitars.

Cheers,

Paul

graham mcdonald · Post by **graham mcdonald** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:38 pm

For those of you still curious about semi-hemispherical fret ends and who didn't feel so inclined to fork out US$25 for the excitement of finding out, here is a page from Alan Dunwell in Colorado which explains it

http://dunwellguitar.com/Fretwork-SemiH ... miHemi.htm

It is interesting to note that Mr Wells does credit Harry Fleishman for developing the idea in the first place (if you hunt round for a while on Mr Wells website) and perhaps Alan learnt about it from Harry when Harry was still resident in Colorado. In any case the info is offered free of charge and is a link off the Colorado Luthiers site

http://www.coloradoluthiers.org/

Presented in the interests of the free exchange of information

cheers

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:28 am

Admittedly I cant do it in 90 minutes (much like the ab king, it's supposed to only take 5 minutes a day 3 times a week to give me washboard abs) but I didn't need to spend money to find out how to do it.
The original Selmers had rounded fret ends so I just nutted out the best way to do it with what I had (needle files and some stainless fretboard protectors from StewMac). End result......

Method free for anybody that's interested

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:33 am

Nice one Nick

sebastiaan56 · Post by **sebastiaan56** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:33 pm

Do they file em the other way around in the northern hemisphere?

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