1954 Supro Dual Tone Refret

I acquired this 1954 Supro Dual Tone recently, and documented the refret I did with this pictorial.  The guitar has a beautiful tone from these single coil pickups (that look like humbuckers!), solid body, and a chunky neck with a big aluminum core in the center. 

These have been used by a handful of classic artists, starting with Link Wray, who had an early rock n' roll hit called "Rumble" back in the 50's, and was pictured with a Dual-Tone on his album cover.  Frank Zappa used one in his early years, and currently David Bowie is touring with one.  Eastwood guitars also did a reissue of these recently. 

My only concern was the tiny vintage frets, which made bending a chore.  I decided to go ahead and refret it so that the playability would match its already awesome tone! 

The old frets, low and pretty worn.

Heating up the old frets with the soldering iron to make them easier to pull.

Pulling the old frets.

All the frets pulled...

Here's how the old fret slots look before prep.

Planing the fingerboard.

Nice smooth board now.  The rosewood is looking really great!

Cleaning the fret slots with my favorite saw!  This gets all the old crud out, and makes a nice clean slot for the new fret to be hammered into.

Look at these nice clean fret slots!  These are going to seat perfectly.

Bending the fretwire with my bender.  Fretwire ships perfectly straight and must be radiused to match the fingerboard.  Actually, it's better to have it more curved, so that when you hammer them in, they bite into the board a little.

Wiping down the board reveals a rich grain pattern.  I also love the slight marbling in the inlay... what a classy touch.

Installing the frets... I cut these to length and hammer them in.  I prefer this method over the press method since I can use the hammer handle to feel and hear how it seats.

Frets are installed, with a little overlap on the ends.

Cutting the ends flush with my fret tang nippers!

Using my coarse file to get the fret ends flush with the fingerboard.

"Blueing", or in this case blacking, the fret tops so I can see where I'm at when I level them. 

Using the sanding beam again to make the fret tops level.  I can see my black marks as I file, so I know what's high, and what's low.

These crowning files round out the tops of the frets, which were flat from the leveling process.  The top of the fret has to be round for good tone and intonation.

Polishing out the frets with sandpaper and steel wool.  The blue tape protects the fingerboard.

These came out so great!  Nice and thick, level, they are a dream to play on!

Got strings and a setup done on it... the Supro is rocking!!  This old guitar has been around a long time, and has never played and sounded this great!  It will be a treat to play on for years to come!