What do you guys pay for refrets?

Matt300ZXT

Matt300ZXT

Well-known member
I have this partscaster that I love the body, pickups, and bridge on. Also, I have no problem with the neck, but the frets are crap. They've always had sharp edges and even after a friend and I worked on them, they never got too much better. It's a Chinese neck so even if we did the absolute best fret job ever, they're still gonna suck.

What do you guys pay for 22 fret Strat neck refrets? Also, does the shop need the whole guitar or just the neck to refret, level, crown, and polish?

Also, if anyone on here is a luthier and wants to PM me, maybe we can discuss business.
 
Matt300ZXT said:
I have this partscaster that I love the body, pickups, and bridge on. Also, I have no problem with the neck, but the frets are crap. They've always had sharp edges and even after a friend and I worked on them, they never got too much better. It's a Chinese neck so even if we did the absolute best fret job ever, they're still gonna suck.

What do you guys pay for 22 fret Strat neck refrets? Also, does the shop need the whole guitar or just the neck to refret, level, crown, and polish?

Also, if anyone on here is a luthier and wants to PM me, maybe we can discuss business.
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From what I've seen, it would likely run you close to a quality aftermarket neck with exactly what you want on it.
 
No idea. I just reach over and grab another guitar.
If it's a Chinese neck, toss it into the "closet of crap you don't want to let go of" and order up a tasty piece from Warmoth.
I'd send you to Brent Gutierrez for one of his amazing stainless steel fret jobs, but he is always busy now.
 
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Nothing! I am a tech and do them myself. I've learned from several up here who are considered the best of the best. They taught me well! I'd have to verify how many we have done per year at the store....I am thinking in the neighbourhood of 25-30 perhaps but it may be more? A small portion of those would be partials.
 
About three years ago, a reputable place in Central/South New Jersey quoted me a price of $320 "all in" so it was inclusive of the re-fret, set up and bone nut. By way of comparison (and around the same time) a guy in Northern Jersey quoted me over $600 - so DO shop around and don't over pay. This was for a 1957 AVRI Stratocaster with maple neck.
 
The last two I had done were when I was still in Portland, OR a few years ago. I had an explorer done for $590 and my Les Paul Custom done with stainless steel for $700. That's definitely on the higher end, but it's a pricey city and their overhead is high. You can get it done for a lot less in a less congested area. It just depends on where you are and who's doing the work.
 
I paid around 350-400, dont remember tbh around 3 years ago (have the invoice somewhere).
SS Jescar, bone nut, and setup.
 
I paid $450 for a Les Paul ‘no-nibs’ refret in December last year. But I had to take it back and wait another month and a half…only to receive a guitar with a buzzy af G because they cut the nut slot too low.

So be careful who you choose. I went to a local Music Store and went with who THEY recommended. I should have just driven up to Nashville and had Glaser do it. I paid for premium pro work and got student level.
 
At this point, it seems it may be better overall to get an aftermarket neck and hope the frets are already good and level and need no work out of the box. If only I could convince myself to stay with standard maple/maple like the current neck instead of wanting a wenge neck with 5a oiled birdseye for a board, driving the cost up 🤣
 
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I did mine myself after buying about $150-200 worth of tools. Didn't really know what I was doing but it looked easy enough. I did three of my guitars and they all came out great. It really didn't take all that long and wasn't hard at all. This was about 5 years ago and all three of those guitars are still great. They didn't play very well before and had a lot of string buzz but now there is none.
 
Paid enough last time, about 200-250 that the next time I will go the stainless steel route. The guy I had doing it said I had brought him a guitar for dressings/frets enough times that he recommended that. I wish he had told me that before. I don't know how it affects tone though but unless it's a total tone killer I would rather have the lifetime set.
 
SpiderWars said:
I paid $450 for a Les Paul ‘no-nibs’ refret in December last year. But I had to take it back and wait another month and a half…only to receive a guitar with a buzzy af G because they cut the nut slot too low.

So be careful who you choose. I went to a local Music Store and went with who THEY recommended. I should have just driven up to Nashville and had Glaser do it. I paid for premium pro work and got student level.
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You’re in the ATL area, right? Who did you use? I have a couple guitars I will ultimately have to look at refretting and the main recommendations I’ve had are Intown Guitar Repair and Maple Street Guitars. I know the dude at Maple Street used to be at Righteous Guitars and when he left a lot of guys followed him to Maple Street despite Righteous having the only Plek machine in the area.
 
Honestly, a refret only makes sense with a bolt on neck if there is something special about that neck. If it is a standard strat style neck and especially if it’s a dirt cheap chinese job, just replace it.

Anything you get from anywhere will still need some fretwork, whether you spend $400 at Warmoth or $150-200 for Allparts, WD Music, or Mighty Mite.

If you’re talking about sharp fret ends, that is also something you may find with any aftermarket neck but it’s relatively easy to fix if you have the tools. If you’re going to be doing partscaster builds, you need those tools even though some are expensive for what they are.

Sharp fret ends you take down with something like the Stewmac fret leveling file - the wood one with the metal rasp file. I would not usw it to actually level the tops of frets, but fret ends it’s great for. Tape off the side of the neck/board, then file over the tape. The sharp ends will come through the tape and you file down just until it’s smooth with the rest of the tape. Then you should use a fret end file to round them off.
 
Bardagh said:
You’re in the ATL area, right? Who did you use? I have a couple guitars I will ultimately have to look at refretting and the main recommendations I’ve had are Intown Guitar Repair and Maple Street Guitars. I know the dude at Maple Street used to be at Righteous Guitars and when he left a lot of guys followed him to Maple Street despite Righteous having the only Plek machine in the area.
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I’ll PM you the name. I had Maple Street repair an acoustic of mine and they did a good job.

The long version is I saw (in a Rhett Shull video) that Ben Calhoun? left Righteous and went to Big House and Ben had treated me right at Righteous. I had a couple of guitars PLEK’d there. So I went to Big House, Ben wasn’t in and they said they don’t do refrets and suggested the guy I went to. The guy runs a “luthier academy” and so I thought he must be good. I really think he had his students do it…that’s how bad it was.

Nashville Guitar Show is March 23-24 so you could take one up to Glaser and maybe they would ship it back. Then take in the guitar show. I might run up there with a couple guitars I could sell.
 
SpiderWars said:
I’ll PM you the name. I had Maple Street repair an acoustic of mine and they did a good job.

The long version is I saw (in a Rhett Shull video) that Ben Calhoun? left Righteous and went to Big House and Ben had treated me right at Righteous. I had a couple of guitars PLEK’d there. So I went to Big House, Ben wasn’t in and they said they don’t do refrets and suggested the guy I went to. The guy runs a “luthier academy” and so I thought he must be good. I really think he had his students do it…that’s how bad it was.

Nashville Guitar Show is March 23-24 so you could take one up to Glaser and maybe they would ship it back. Then take in the guitar show. I might run up there with a couple guitars I could sell.
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Ok yeah I've got my wires crossed it was Ben from Righteous who went to Big House and a lot of people followed him there for I guess more set up kind of stuff but Maple Street seems to be highly recommended for service in general - however they are very backed up. Intown is also highly recommended and I may take an acoustic to them for some bridge work next month. I've talked to them and they're a lot better about communication than luthiers/repair guys typically are in my experience.
 
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