The Infamous Fret Nibs
I once overheard a guitar sales dude upsell a Les Paul to an unsuspecting customer by using the bound fret nibs as a luxury upgrade. I get it, it looks cool and if I didn’t know any better I’d probably fall for it too.
What is it?
Fret Nibs are the little bit of binding that cover the fret ends on Gibson bound fretboards. They look great, they feel nice but here’s the thing…
They don’t serve a functional purpose and Its nothing more than a time and money saving building procedure for Gibson. I’m not throwing shade at them either, it’s just how they make their guitars.
#losethenibs
Alright, so eventually every guitar needs its frets replaced. The ‘Nib’ presents a problem in that the only way to replace the frets is to precisely measure each fret and install (which I’ve done and its very very expensive). I usually try and talk the client out of it for the following reasons.
1. The fret never goes in exact and filling is required.
2. The fingerboard is prone to seasonal changes. When it expands It leaves gaps where the string catches and cracks in binding when the board shrinks.
But Most important!
3. Sometimes doing a refret is the best solution to numerous issues that come from seasonal changes. Planning a fretboard and giving it a fresh start is sometimes the only way to remove warps and inconsistencies in the fingerboard. Leaving the nibs in place makes it almost impossible to do it properly.
4, It’s just a lot cheaper.
Smooth Like butter
So the trick is to definitely make the fret ends as smooth as possible. if done right, the player won’t be able to tell the difference and it’ll feel just like before. Flush with the binding and round so the hand barely feels it. Any skilled luthier should be able to do this for ya.
Tadah!
This Les Paul was in pretty bad shape but its always so dope to be able to get it back to the original condition, minus the nibs of course ;)
#loseyournibs
FIN