How long have you had the guitar?

Just had my 64 mustang done at andy mcgibbons, needed a refret, AND WOW, Andy and his guys really did it well..... had it on and out in 7 days... cost me R1500, for some quality work and all frets (fretwire) REALLY thats the best option I think.
R1500 for a few good years of frets.... Or you may just need them filed correctly whic his 600 in the deluxe setup

Dressing can usually be done two to three times before a refret is needed - unless you absolutely need to have your frets as high as possible (for a more scalloped feel, where you don't feel the fingerboard under your fingers). Even then, you should be able to get them dressed once with no issues.

If you do have it refretted, inquire about stainless frets. They will cost more to install, but once they are in you can forget about them for the next few decades (if you use nickel wound strings). More importantly for me, it means I don't have to spend any more time dressing them to perfection.

guitarboy2828 wrote: How long have you had the guitar?

Not insanely long, since December. But the previous owner, Darthmort, said he had something like 13 or 12 guage strings on an extremely low tuning and I think he had it for a reasonable amount of time. That did its damage, I have the biggest problems around the 3rd, 4th and 5th frets and then on the last 4 frets from about 18th onwards. And its not always a buzz, for instance, if I hit on or slide from 3rd to 4th on the high E I get a strange almost liquidy sound which resembles a buzz but not really. It's the worst on the higher strings (High E and B specifically)

MIKA the better one wrote: had it on and out in 7 days... cost me R1500, for some quality work and all frets (fretwire) REALLY thats the best option I think.
R1500 for a few good years of frets.... Or you may just need them filed correctly whic his 600 in the deluxe setup

The cost of music surprises me everyday! They told me it might be expensive to redress them and R600 is a little more than I expected. And I guess it's only logical considering the cost of fret wire, removing the old frets, installing the new ones etc but geeeee, R1600.... I think I'll just redress them.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Dressing can usually be done two to three times before a refret is needed - unless you absolutely need to have your frets as high as possible (for a more scalloped feel, where you don't feel the fingerboard under your fingers). Even then, you should be able to get them dressed once with no issues.

At the price of a refret, I'll go for this option. I just want to make sure what they do when they redresss them. Do they just file all the frets down properly to level them out and stuff?

D-Man wrote: I just want to make sure what they do when they redresss them. Do they just file all the frets down properly to level them out and stuff?

It's a lot more labour intensive than you think - usually the biggest and the most important part of a refret is the dressing and there is a bit of an art to it. There are three steps to dressing - levelling, crowning and polishing.

Refretting looks crazy hard. Even redressing looks like a lot of expert work. There's a guy I follow on flickr who does a lot of refretting. It's a lot of work. No doubt.

Given the amount of pretty skilled labour, I'd say R1500 really is a bargain.

But it does make it a tough choice on really cheap guitars. I've got this Korean Squier that looks really good, but it has always had egregious fret buzz. Do I have the frets redressed and try to sell it for R1200. Or do I just offer it to someone for R500 who really wants to have a guitar for modding?

Much less bother to just flog it for R500 and let the person who actually wants the guitar handle the fret issues.

Well I'm sure the money is worth it if it's really needed. I didn't think the price difference would be so large. I wouldn't have imagined it going over R1000 but then again, for such a crucial part of the guitar and such a labour intensive art form I'd rather pay the money for a good job than have someone mess up my neck or guitar. I think it's obvious for me right now, I'll be getting them redressed. That should solve the problem for quite a long time.

That's settled for now.

I did however purchase another guitar recently for modding, experimenting etc. The frets aren't very worn but reasonably. Maybe you would've seen in my other thread that the guy tried to repaint it. Now I don't know if it's paint or corrosion but the last few frets have slightly changed colour. Maybe I could practise some fret dressing on this guitar and later try refretting a guitar so that I could save myself some money in the long run by repairing my guitar's frets myself.. I saw on Stewmac that the fretwire isn't expensive at all but the tools like the files and things are quite pricey. What would you need to redress frets and how exactly does one go about doing it?

Are you sure you have set the relief and intonation correctly as well as checking if the neck itself is not damaged? i have found that most rattle on guitars that i have set up was caused by it being poorly setup before.

Just a suggestion to take it to someone who you know knows what they're doing, many times the guy behind the counter at music stores is not the best choice (dont mean to dis guys that work at music stores as there are many that are brilliant)

Well the guy I took it to is actually like a guitar tech that works at the music store and I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing. He does seem to get a lot of business and he has made a significant improvement in the way that my previous guitars sounded so I do trust him and I don't have the money to take it in to a professional...

The tops of the frets are actually flattened so ja...

Hi D-man. I aree with your sentiments to rather pay for a decent fret job. If it is done properly it can be a revelation how good your guitar can feel under your fingers. I have read that Thomas Blug (German guitar player extraordinare) says that his guitar feels right only 6 months after a refret, but for me it has always been great from the first go.

Seems I'm going to have to live with it for now... I don't have nearly enough money to spend anything on a refret.