Fret leveling and dressing Needed?

My uke build book does not seem to address the need to level and/or dress the frets when completed. If done properly I assume there is no need since the action is relatively high and the uke fret wire is smaller than guitar fret wire. If I am wrong, please enlighten me. I am building a tenor. Thanks

In theory that could be true. In practice frets need to be leveled. If you have a setup in which you can give all the frets at once a final press as they do in a factory operation you might get away without leveling occasionally. I have done something similar with a caul made from slab of granite and sometimes don't need to level if I use a similar caul to glue the board to the neck. If you are just pounding and pressing in frets you will need to level.

Leftypeter said:

My uke build book does not seem to address the need to level and/or dress the frets when completed. If done properly I assume there is no need since the action is relatively high and the uke fret wire is smaller than guitar fret wire. If I am wrong, please enlighten me. I am building a tenor. Thanks

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Thanks Michael. I was afraid that might be the answer

Maybe I've been "lucky", but I've gotten away with not leveling the frets on the last several I've made. No buzzing or anything. Well, there was one fret on one uke that didn't quite seat right which caused a bit of buzz at the previous fret, but I just fixed that one with a crowning file. Two caveats...these were sopranos, which probably makes a difference I think, and also I don't attempt super low action. 1/8 to 3/32 inch at the 12th is fine for me. And I pound them in, too. As they say, ymmv.

Now dressing the ends, you gotta do that, and it takes practice.
If you do want to level, it's not that big a deal, but you'll want to recrown the frets and need a good crowning file. I got the one from lmii that has three different size heads, and it's great for dressing ends round too.

Sorry, just noticed you said tenor..so maybe would require leveling...

Here is a quick and dirty way to level high frets: Take a piece of flat melamine (or whatever as long as it is perfectly flat), tape down a couple sheets of 600 hundred grit sandpaper, take a black magic marker and paint every fret, lightly place the neck on the sandpaper and rub gently back and forth barely sanding the frets. Check where the magic marker is gone shows the high fret(s). Now take a piece of hardwood, place on the high fret(s), support firmly and give it good WHACK or two with a hammer. This will often seat the fret a partially seated fret correctly and no leveling or filing is required. Done. Nice when that happens... Hey sometimes you do get lucky.

I made my tenor with soprano wire because I thought the vintage Martins looked nice but found that with the higher bridge, you needed to put your fingers closer behind the frets. This got fatiguing very quickly. I'll go a size up next time.