fret leveling with strings on™

It is now common knowledge that the strings exert a longitudinal compression on the neck. Such compression does alter the shape of the neck, sometimes enough to create buzz. The "old school" struggled to figure out why leveling the frets without the real string tension often doesn't work as expected and needs further touch ups...

By leveling the frets with the instrument in playing condition (at least with the strings on, tuned to pitch and the neck straight; much better if in total playing condition and position: strings on + relief + vertical position) the job is done in an ideal state. Once the string are put back and tuned to pitch, after crowning and refinishing operations, the neck will be back to same shape it had when it was leveled. Today, countless luthiers and players everywhere in the world are witnessing the benefits of this fret leveling technique. The image above made history. It has been on Rectify Master front page since 2010. It has been seen by hundreds of thousands among luthiers and players from around the globe and discussed in many forums. It is a simple but very powerful image. It encloses the core of fret leveling with strings on™ in intuitive and clear drawings that helped countless people to understand the concept and embrace it right away.

The first R.M.LITE