Brian May Red Special Guitars Zero Fret Wear Reasons and Replacement

This video is a follow-up to my 2021 short which illustrated strings pinging in and out of grooves worn into the zero fret of my Burns Brian May Red Special guitar.

I discuss the various factors which cause and exacerbate this issue and remove and replace the zero fret with Jescar FW57110 stainless steel fret wire. The crown is 2.8 mm wide and 1.45 mm high which is a good match to the jumbo 3 mm size fitted to this Burns Special.

I upgraded this guitar as follows:

- Gotoh SG381-01 MG-T Locking 3L/3R Chrome finish
- White pearloid small ‘butterbean’ tuning pegs (set of 6)
- Adeson “Original BM/Guyton Specification” Tri-Sonic pickups with DC resistances and inductances within 1% of the original Red Special (middle RWRP)
- Custom designed pickguard CNC cut from 3 mm gloss black perspex, 45 degree bevelled outer edge, manually polished.
- Custom designed pickup surrounds CNC cut from 2 mm thick gloss black perspex, bevelled edges, hand polished
- Custom designed rear cover plate from perspex (Red Dark Gloss 433)
- Roller bridge saddles
- Brian May Guitars (BMG) aluminium control knob set
- Vintage Burns style chromed brass strap buttons
- Bourns PDB181-GTR02-254A2 audio (log) taper potentiometers at 236 kOhm, remaining stock selected from 2014 Farnell order to match the original Red Special.
- Vishay MKT1813 Polyester capacitor, 33 nF 400V, selected from a large batch to match the capacitance of the original Red Special
- Switchcraft 46200 LRX series DPDT parallel slide switches mounted on a custom designed perspex carrier plate
- Rotosound British Steels BS9 super light string set

For further details, please check out the following section of my website:

https://dsgb.net/projects/burns/

Time Index of Chapters

00:00 - Introduction.
00:12 - Review of the comments on my original 2021 YouTube short on string pinging.
00:37 - 2020 project: Burns Brian May Special BHM 4787 upgrade.
01:00 - Montage of some of my YouTube video thumbnails.
01:22 - Illustration of the string pinging phenomenon.
01:38 - Factors which cause zero fret wear (1): tremolo sawing action.
01:48 - Factors which cause zero fret wear (2): string bending and finger vibrato.
02:01 - Factors which cause zero fret wear (3): string tension.
02:16 - Factors which cause zero fret wear (4): budget fret wire alloy composition.
02:32 - Factors which cause zero fret wear (5): use of harder (e.g. stainless steel) strings.
02:47 - What can be done to alleviate zero fret wear?
03:02 - StewMac (Stewart-MacDonald) fret work content (Fret Work Step-By-Step) book.
03:26 - Will fitting roller bridge saddles help reduce zero fret wear?
03:36 - Will fitting a roller nut help help reduce zero fret wear?
03:49 - Why is the issue worse on commercial (Burns, BMG) Brian May Red Special guitars?
04:22 - Zero fret replacement: Measuring the fret wire.
04:43 - Tools for removing existing fret wire.
05:26 - StewMac fret arbor press cork lined neck support caul.
05:36 - Inspection of the fretboard bass side at the zero fret.
06:11 - Heating the existing zero fret with a soldering iron chisel tip to soften the glue.
06:30 - Pulling out the existing zero fret with small pliers.
06:35 - Inspection of the zero fret slot after removing the zero fret.
07:16 - Inspection of the removed zero fret for blind fret tangs.
07:30 - Radiusing the new fret wire with the StewMac fret bender tool.
07:44 - Cutting the new fret wire approximately to size with StewMac cutters.
08:02 - Off-neck fret wire preparation with a custom oak fret preparation jig.
08:22 - Use of a diamond coated cutting disc with a rotary multitool to prepare the fret tang.
08:40 - Use of a diamond file to manually de-burr and square off the fret tang.
08:50 - Checking fit against the guitar.
09:03 - Discussion of the disadvantages of bevelled fret ends. Guyton RS Transporter fret ends.
09:31 - Bevelling the ends of the new stainless steel fret wire.
09:49 - Checking fit against the guitar.
10:02 - Applying cyanoacrylate superglue into the fret slot.
10:32 - Carefully positioning the new zero fret onto the slot.
10:40 - Options to insert the new fret (1): Squeezing with a radiusing block.
10:57 - Options insert the new fret (2): StewMac fret arbor press.
11:20 - Reviewing the completed work.
11:56 - Outro 1.
12:05 - Outro 2.

#BrianMay #RedSpecial #zerofret