slowhand - Posted - 10/27/2009:  11:16:08

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When I bought my Martin D-28 used about a year ago, it showed very little playing wear. After about a year of daily use, the first, second and third frets have developed pretty deep grooves under the B string. The groove on the third fret is deep enough now to cause a slight buzz.

I'm thinking about buying my own set of refretting tools and replacing the first five frets myself, with Martin fret wire. Normally I would get a professional to do it, but if this is going to be a yearly thing, I'd rather not have to leave the guitar with a luthier for a few weeks each time.

Does anyone else wear out frets that quickly?

musekatcher - Posted - 10/27/2009:  13:39:32

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That was the same circumstances, that led me into doing my own adjustments, and eventually repair. When I was playing 5-10 hours a week, I could dig the frets out in months. I've slowed down a lot, and I have several guitars to rotate, so I don't need fret work that often anymore, but it saved me $$ and I learned a lot by building a collection of tools, and working my way up from cheap guitars to refretting my best ones.

I had problems chipping the fretboard during fret removal at first. Something I do to reduce it, is take a double sided razor blade, break it long ways, and push one under the fret on each side. As you pull and pry the frets loose, the blades are pushed down against the fretboard and reduce splintering and chipping.

Some folks do fret dresses, and some won't. There's some merit in the theory that a fret should never be dressed, but the fretboard should be levelled first, and then the frets installed and untouched, providing the most uniform frets. I dress them, to reduce the frequency of replacements, and wearing out the fret slots.

Another problem is a loose fret after two or three replacements. You can't tell its loose, but you can hear it after you string it up. It will sound dead or muted compared to the others. Some luthiers glue the frets to make them tight, and provide the max volume. Some will mix some glue and sandust, fill the slot, and re-cut. There's a lot of how-to guides out there, and a lot of advice and knowledge. I'd consider it a good value to invest $100 in fretting tools if you have the patience and time to learn your way into it.

Jim Holland
Athens, AL

slowhand - Posted - 10/27/2009:  14:14:10

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quote:

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Originally posted by musekatcher
I had problems chipping the fretboard during fret removal at first. Something I do to reduce it, is take a double sided razor blade, break it long ways, and push one under the fret on each side. As you pull and pry the frets loose, the blades are pushed down against the fretboard and reduce splintering and chipping.

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Thanks for that tip. I thought that might be a problem, and that sounds like a good way to prevent it.

I have an old Yamaha SJ-100 that I'll experiment on, if I decide to plunge in, and I'm leaning heavily in that direction.

jazzrambler - Posted - 11/20/2009:  05:49:14

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I'd consider dressing them first. It's a relatively simple task and if you don't like the results, you can yank the frets. I've done my own dressing once or twice. I don't mind doing it to my modern Strat or Tele, but I won't do my vintage stuff. I'm a big chicken.

slowhand - Posted - 11/20/2009:  14:00:57

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quote:

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Originally posted by jazzrambler

I'd consider dressing them first. It's a relatively simple task and if you don't like the results, you can yank the frets. I've done my own dressing once or twice. I don't mind doing it to my modern Strat or Tele, but I won't do my vintage stuff. I'm a big chicken.

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I had the frets dressed once on my old guitar, but that only bought me a little bit of time, and when I finally had to have to grooved frets replaced I had to have a complete fret job. The way I play, mostly first or second position, I figure I can probably keep the upper frets forever if I just replace the ones that I wear out.

SteveHowe - Posted - 12/01/2009:  02:45:51

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Inserting new frets is not difficult and you can buy precut fret sets at janika.co.uk. You can adapt a drill press with a block of wood grooved to hold a fret and apply an even pressure to the length of the fret.

slowhand - Posted - 01/06/2010:  05:30:19

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Well, the "Essential Fretting Tool Kit" I bought from Stewmac.com arrived the other day, and the fret wire I ordered from Martin came yesterday. I'm going to take the plunge this Saturday. The "slight buzz" I mentioned in October when I started this thread is much worse now, so I can't delay any longer. I'll report back on how it goes.

slowhand - Posted - 01/07/2010:  08:31:57

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I did a practice fret job last night, on my old Yamaha SJ-180, which I had mistakenly said was a SJ-100, and which I now refer to as my "cadaver" guitar. It turned out pretty well, all things considered. I'll feel much more confident doing it to the Martin this weekend. I replaced 5 frets, and only chipped the fingerboard a little on the first one I removed. The trick, I found, is to always have the end nippers pressed against the fingerboard and squeeze the blades underneath the fret top. Once the edges of the blades reach the tang, the fret will be raised enough from the slot so it can be removed without chipping. On the first fret, I did it like I was pulling a nail with a claw hammer, and that caused the chipping.

The fret leveling, rounding, end-dressing and polishing was not has difficult as I feared either. I'll do it much more slowly and deliberately on the Martin, however, because once you file metal off, you can't file it back on.

It was this video on the stewmac site that inspired me to give this a shot, and so far, I'm glad I did:

youtube.com/watch?v=st6ZlzmZAJE

Guitar-Gord - Posted - 01/09/2010:  20:58:43

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I recently had my 72 Martin D18 set up with stainless steel frets by Bryan Kimsey. This should eliminate fret wear problems that I have experienced for years (I play hard!). I can honestly say that I notice no adverse change to tone. Maybe a touch brighter on the trebles, but this is not a bad thing on a D18.