Guitar Refret

[koolaid]

I have a strat that I just took in to get the picks up changed to dimarzio areas and I was going to get the frets redressed and a compound radius past the 12th because it was fretting out on bends.

So I got a call today saying that the frets were made of two different metals which he had never seen...I believe he said it was bronze and nickel but not sure.

He said if he filed them then the frets would be two toned referring to the actual color and sound. And if I were to bend then I would be bending across the seam of the two metals.

So I suppose I will get a totally new sets of frets put on and he quoted me 250...is this a good price?

 

[RR]

Does this $250 cost includes the compound radius?

$250 is about the going rate of a fret job. If your guitar neck's fingerboard is ebony, and is bounded then it could cost as much as $400.

Adding a compoud radius is more involved.

 

[camsna]

Um.

He's going to re-radius your fretboard?

 

[Anonymous]

am interested in that topic as well, esp for the strat

will they refinish the polyurethane gloss as well? at my strats the maple necks and frets are totally covered , only the fret tops are pure metall surface.

looks difficult to pull out the old frets and fit new ones in without damaging the gloss finish ... ?

best regards
jp

 

[RR]

am interested in that topic as well, esp for the strat

will they refinish the polyurethane gloss as well? at my strats the maple necks and frets are totally covered , only the fret tops are pure metall surface.

looks difficult to pull out the old frets and fit new ones in without damaging the gloss finish ... ?

best regards
jp

To remove frets from a maple fingerboard, the repair person / luthier will cut the lacquer or finish with a razor blade around the fret before pulling the fret off. They'll usually heat the fret with a solder iron so the fret will expand a little and will loosen a bit. Then with a special design plier, remove the fret. Oh, this "special design" plier is no more than a small grounded nipper plier.

related topic:
If you never refret / redressed a fret board, don't try it on you axes you cherish. This is not for unexperience diy-er. Practice on an inexpensive guitar neck. Takes experience to refret your a guitar.

 

[koolaid]

so I found out that there is nickel plating on top of another which i forgot but i think it was bronze. So this is why on top and where the frets arent worn they are silver...but in the worn in areas I see gold. So the tech said filing them down would be giving the frets two tones tonally and two tones visually (color). Should I try it or just go get a new neck which is what I have been thinking about.

 

[fishyfishfish]

You could get a new neck, but if there is a enough to re-radius and you don't mind the different colors, get some miles out of it before refretting.

 

[hamer_fan]

Glad to see this one since I was considering re-fretting my Hamer. It's a bound fretboard which I realize makes things a little more complicated.