Had major fret work done - the guitar is not the same.

[droptrd]

Short of brand new frets, my main strat had some major filling and reshaping done to it recently. The guitar had a lot for dead spots were the note would sound but it would have no sustain and sound dead. The frets were worn bad. I brought the guitar to my local luthier for some fret work. he did a fantastic job.

But now the guitar feels completely different and I dont like it. The frets lost alot of height. But it does function perfectly now. Im really freaking out about this. This is my workhorse beater strat for giggin. My only guitar I feel comfortable bringing to a club and playing a 4 hour gig with. And It rocks....well it did.

Im afraid Im going to either get a complete refret for it or just sell it off

Anyone else go through this?

 

[fishyfishfish]

Take it bake to your fret guy and tell him whats up. If you had to do a lot of work on the frets it will feel/play like a different guitar, as long as it plays o.k. it will take some time OR, have it re-freted and start over.

 

[Ayrton]

I have a guitar that I was really happy with, but the frets were too badly worn to save with a recrown. I refretted it, and was just not able to get it back to the same happy place.

I ended up refretting it again, and the second time was the ticket.

 

[threadkiller]

Refret. Sounds like your luthier did what he could with worn down frets. You want your big frets back. The only way to do that is refret. Or for a strat you could always order a Warmouth neck. Either way, it's a few hundred bucks. Bummer man.

 

[The Hoff]

Bummer man. I haven't had any of my instruments refretted yet so I don't have any suggestions but, I'd say bring it back in, see if he can do what it needs to bring it back to it's glory. Even if that means a complete refret.

Good luck!

 

[Greazygeo]

With badly worn frets all you can do is either level them down and lose fret height or refret. Todays frets are pretty large and can take a few levels before getting too low.

If its just a few worn frets, you can replace just those and level them without losing too much height.

Low frets are not my preference either. Time to get the wallet out.

 

[killertone]

.

Short of brand new frets, my main strat had some major filling and reshaping done to it recently. The guitar had a lot for dead spots were the note would sound but it would have no sustain and sound dead. The frets were worn bad. I brought the guitar to my local luthier for some fret work. he did a fantastic job.

But now the guitar feels completely different and I dont like it. The frets lost alot of height. But it does function perfectly now. Im really freaking out about this. This is my workhorse beater strat for giggin. My only guitar I feel comfortable bringing to a club and playing a 4 hour gig with. And It rocks....well it did.

Im afraid Im going to either get a complete refret for it or just sell it off

Anyone else go through this?

This is the exact reason I play ion guitars until the frets are at the point of no return. I'd almost rather do a re-fret than a fret dress/level because of the same thing you are talking about.

 

[droptrd]

The frets were defintaly "at the point of no return" The guitar was barely playable. Especially with clean tones. The guy charges $120 for a refret which isnt bad. And I just spent $60 for the reshape a couple weeks ago. He warned me about the low height but I didnt think it would bother me that much. I dont want to sell my baby. Shes ugly warn beat up nicked dinged and scratched but I love her.

 

[threadkiller]

$120 for a refret is a great price. I paid $300 to refret mine. All of the people in the area that I would trust to do it were in the same ballpark for price.

 

[Ayrton]

Go stainless, and you wont have to deal with it again.

 

[droptrd]

Stainless? Seems like they would take for ever to break in?

My guy only charges a $45 upcharge to go stainless

 

[rupe]

You need crystal frets

I don't get your comment about frets "breaking in"? Frets don't break in, they wear out, although SS frets probably won't wear out in your lifetime. I have a couple of guitars with stainless and I love them...they feel freshly polished at all times. Some people like that slippery feel, others not so much. You'll also hear different people argue about the effect on tone...I've found it to be negligible myself.

 

[Greazygeo]

Stainless? Seems like they would take for ever to break in?

My guy only charges a $45 upcharge to go stainless

As long as the ss frets are polished initially, they shouldnt really need or take any break in. I refretted my LP in 05-06. I don't play it much anymore, but its still smooth as can be.

 

[stratotone]

Stainless refret FTW.

 

[MrDan666]

Definitely take it back and get it refretted.

I just did the same thing with my '96 USA Strat. It had HUGE pits in the frets allover the neck and after i had leveled them enough to remove the low spots... It felt too low.

So now I'm going to just refret it with 6100's so that i get the larger fret size back. Big frets feel so much better IMO

 

[Ayrton]

You'll also hear different people argue about the effect on tone...I've found it to be negligible myself.

I noticed more of a "snappiness" to the notes more than a change in sound. However, that could easily be what others hear.

Personally I have no regrets on going stainless with any of my guitars, and agree the sound difference is negligible.

 

[ZachMN]

$120. is a great price and it might not feel that different. Too bad you didn't measure the good ones before he filed them down then you could have had a refret and brought them to exactly where the old ones were with no worn, grooved frets. Shouldn't be too hard to get the feel back with a refret and if the guy knows what he doing it will intonate better anyway. $120.00 is a good price but do your homework about what size you want.


I tried to find out what grade of "stainless" they use for ss frets. Most regular fret wire has nickel which is one of the ingredients used in stainless (which there are hundreds of variants of) but based on what I can tell they are using something that has been hardened to around what a file is .........I like smooth slippery frets but better make sure the guy has dealt with installing them as from the looks of it its usually more expensive to install.......gorgomyte is much cheaper.......

 

[MrDan666]

Stainless? Seems like they would take for ever to break in?

My guy only charges a $45 upcharge to go stainless

Go with Stainless! No worries of having to get them worked on again for years

 

[droptrd]

$120.00 is a good price but do your homework about what size you want.

Size? ah shit

 

[Ayrton]

$120.00 is a good price but do your homework about what size you want.

Size? ah shit

You won't be able to determine the original height of the current frets of course, but the width will give you a good idea of what they were as new.