Tarnished frets - polished them with a polish and they have gone from a kind of slight brass colour to a silvery colour should I be worried?

[shoulderpet 135]

As per the thread title I have some tarnished frets on a bass, the frets are naturally a kind of slight brass colour (they have a very slight yellowish brass hue to them) , have polished one of the frets with some silver polish (just the one to test it) and the fret I have polished has gone from a slight brass colour to a silvery colour , should I be worried?  I am guessing not since during a fret dressing abrasive material would also be used ?

[Andyjr1515 5,302]

No - you won't harm frets with polish although, depending on the polish, it might not get down to the metal and just react with the surface.

Is the 'silvery colour' shiny?  If so, the frets may be Evo Gold. They dull down to a brassy gold colour but freshly dressed are actually much more silvery.  What's the bass?

Best polish for frets is probably Autosol, but you must mask the fretboard when you use it because it's a bit of a messy white paste that is an absolute devil to get out of fretboard grain.

[warwickhunt 419]

What bass?  

If it is a Warwick they are a brass alloy and should be that colour... except for the early ones... or some basses in different ranges... or if they've been refretted.    

 

[shoulderpet 135]

Thanks I thought it should be ok after all bass strings are surely more abrasive on the frets, is an Ibanez mezzo bass so I would be doubtful that the frets are any kind of gold , I will have to get some Autosol

Edited December 5, 2020 by shoulderpet

[PaulThePlug 448]

Silver polish cloth will be fine...

Autosolve... Mask the fret board , a smear on the frets, allow a little time to darken / blacken - by the time you have done the last the first will be ready to polish off.

I use a little white mop on a dremmel, lowish speed, couple of passes back n forth across the width of the neck / length of the fret, not pressing down to hard...

Then a quick wipe with cloth, remove the tape, n clean the fretboard, lemon oil for wood, polish for laquered mapel.

Edited December 5, 2020 by PaulThePlug

[Matt P 280]

the slight brassy colour is usually just a mixture of tarnish and general grime and is quite common, there are brass frets available and the Evo Gold but the frets on your Ibanez will just be regular nickel silver i'd expect, so when clean they should be a nice shiny silver colour.

 

Matt

[shoulderpet 135]

Thanks for the replies I have used some T-Cut today and that seems to have done the trick, one more question, bit of buzz on the lower frets(frets 1-3), not bad but enough that I wouldn't want to lower the action lower than it is at the moment, loosen the truss rod slightly?

[A.G.E.N.T.E. 27]

On 05/12/2020 at 13:09, shoulderpet said:

 loosen the truss rod slightly?

That should be enough 

[shoulderpet 135]

24 minutes ago, A.G.E.N.T.E. said:

That should be enough 

Thanks, have loosened the truss rod a little and the buzz is still there a little bit but has lessened, I'm guessing they must come from the factory with the truss rod tightened quite a bit

[MoonBassAlpha 390]

Might just be worth checking the 3rd or 4th fret isn't a tiny bit high. You can check this by rocking a credit card on the lower frets, spanning 3 adjacent frets at a time.