DIY or Pro Re-fret???

[jjasilli]

My '71 Martin D-28 needs a fret job.  Especially the early frets up to the sixth fret have pretty deep grooves on the treble side.  The hi E string is going dead @ the fifth fret. 

Pro's: I've been working more and more on guitars but have never done a re-fret. 

Con's: I'd need to get the right tools, which is an investment. This may not be the best guitar to learn on.  Experienced luthiers are readily available.

What do you guys think?

[sluckey]

Give it to the experts.

[Geezer]

Give it to the experts.

Ditto to that

I had the local pro (who does all the fretwork for Huss and Dalton at their factory down the street from me) re-fret my '91 D16H a few months ago.....can't believe the difference it made. The guitar is a pleasure now to play, where is was getting to be a real chore, especially as my hands aren't getting any younger and the action was really stiff anyway, but the bad frets made it hard work to get a good tone. 

Frets are one of those things I leave to the pros.

G

[rafe]

I wouldn't learn on a Martin....I always give my good guitars to a pro.....a highly recommended pro

[G._Hoffman]

Absolutely horrible instrument to try to learn on.  Far too nice to mess up, and believe me, it is VERY possible to mess up a guitar with a bad refret.


As for material, the vast majority of the time, I recommend nickle/silver.  It saves a significant amount of money, and it is more than adequate.  We have a few customers who play just one or two guitars a lot - like 6 hours or more a day - who were running through their frets every 18 months or less.  For them, the extra money for stainless steel made a lot of sense.  Certainly, nickle/silver is what your guitar would have had to begin with, and there are those to whom it would have a very negative effect on the value if you changed it to stainless steel.


Gabriel

[HotBluePlates]

Having never done a refret (which means my opinion may not count)...

I wouldn't attempt a refret myself unless the guitar I was learning on is worth less than the cost of a refret. In other words, the cost of having a pro do the job exceeds the value of the instrument I might butcher by doing a poor job. Having done some other less-invasive repairs, I can promise you'll screw up something on your first attempt (maybe even the first few attempts).

You'll also be less stressed if you learn on a throw-away guitar.

[jjasilli]

It's unanimous! Thanks, guys for the advice.  I'll leave it to my usual pro. 

[jjasilli]

Good call, guys. My Luther noticed that the bridge was beginning to pull-up, which escaped my notice.  The guitar's been in the shop about a week now.

[G._Hoffman]

Good call, guys. My Luther noticed that the bridge was beginning to pull-up, which escaped my notice.  The guitar's been in the shop about a week now.

Pretty much normal for a 70's Martin.  Ask him if the saddle is in the right place, by the way.  It probably isn't, unless it has already been fixed.  Martin put their bridges in the wrong place from about 1970 to about 1980.


Gabriel

[jjasilli]

Good advice, Gabriel.  Martin failed to fix this bridge issue after two attempts.  My luthier (Bob Jones, Brooklyn, NY) relocated the bridge  some years ago, but it started lifting a tad.  Gigged with the guitar earlier tonight.  It plays & feels great.  Major improvement.