Hey,

I would like to polish the frets on my American Standard Strat. It has a maple fret board. I did a bit of research and found out that I can polish the frets using some "0000" steel wool. I read that using masking tape on the maple fret board might harm the finish. What do you guys think? How should I go about doing this?

I'm in the same situation. I have a couple of rough frets I need to clean up (also have a maple board).

I think I'll actually invest in a proper "fret polishing kit". They apparently come with a template with fret cutouts which you put around the fret you are polishing. That way you won't damage your fret board.

If you still want to go with masking tape, try a "painters tape". Should have less stickiness and shouldn't leave any residue behind.

Cheers.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

Drafting Tape, it used for taping blueprints and such and can be easly removed even from the paper but you still have to be carefull on old finishes but its the only way to do it unless you have a fret guards which you can buy from Stewart MacDonald for like 12.00 and you can still put a small piece of tape on them to hold while you polishing with 0000 wool. They get in the way if you have to do any leveling though so at that time I use only the tape.

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never tried this but read good things about it.

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/77488

Seems like its designed for people new to fretwork.

http://store.daddario.com/category/152498/Fret_Polishing_System

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No no and no

Yep that's the stuff I want to try. Have read good things about it.

Cheers.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

I have tried both the Daddario fret polishing kit and steelwool.
They both work fine. it is a good idea to tape the fingerboard with maskingtape if you are afraid of scratching it because there will be small sanding marks. I have found a great way of polishing the frets for lazy people (like me). I use mu dremel equipped with the small polishers that usually are included in the sets you buy with them. This gives a great result of clean and skiny frets. but can give some ugly spots on the fingerboard if you dont cover it with masking tape.
It can work fine with steelwool to freshen up the fingerboard wood by cleaning out old dirt. Ofcourse it dont work on lackeured fingerboards.

Its widely credited as holding up the fabric of western civilization mate. Watch the glue on rosewood though.

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No no and no

+1

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