It's got a bit of fretwear

SteveRobinson

I've never seen frets dressed level with the board before

This is a "veneer" board too, so only about 2mm thick. 

I actually managed a pretty decent refret (forgot to take photos though). 

Rox

Is this what they call a "fretless wonder"?

jd0272

Oh dear. It's quite impressive in that it actually exists tho! Any back story to it?

impmann

Eeek. That's bad...

LooseMoose

Gnat's cock?

thomasross20

How many years before frets need re-done (or "re-dressed")? I hear it's murder on an ebony fingerboard. 

JohnnyPlectrum

...bet it plays like butter...

guitargeek62

Please tell me that it's not an original '60-64 one?

impmann

JohnnyPlectrum said:

...bet it plays like shit..

Fixed that for you.

SteveRobinson

jd0272 said:

Oh dear. It's quite impressive in that it actually exists tho! Any back story to it?

It's a 76/77 Tele and used to belong to one of the guys in The Coral. I was asked to sort it quickly for its current owner as he was heading for the studio.

I don't know of course when the frets got to be like that.

ICBM

I think that's the worst fret dress I've ever seen.

Needs a new fingerboard really.

WezV

thomasross20 said:

How many years before frets need re-done (or "re-dressed")? I hear it's murder on an ebony fingerboard. 

ebony refrets just fine.  It tends to chip out a bit more than rosewood or maple but once you know that its easy to prevent it becoming an issue

how long they last - how long is a piece of string?  Or more specifically, how much do you play? how hard do you play? whats your vibrato technique like? where did your fretwire come from? how big is your fretwire? how much has it been leveled down already? do you have acidic sweat? etc....

WezV

SteveRobinson said:

I actually managed a pretty decent refret (forgot to take photos though). 

how did you go about it?  I have done what i consider major reconstructive surgery on fretboards before, but i would have written that one off and starting to think about re-veneering!

vasselmeyer

@SteveRobinson How on earth did you manage to refret that? Surely it would need a new fingerboard to get anything at all out of it.

SteveRobinson

My main concern was that the rosewood would break where the previous expert had gouged channels either side of the frets. Luckily that didn't happen and the frets came out cleanly after a bit of heat had been applied.

I only had a few hours to do the job so didn't have time to do any filling of those gouges. If I'd had another half a day I'd have used wood dust and glue to level them. As it was, I sanded the board using a radius block and was surprised how much of the damage I managed to remove with not that much sanding. The board certainly looked a lot better afterwards although not perfect of course.

There was still a fair amount of rosewood left and the fret slots *just* went into the maple by a few thou.

The new frets were wide and low so that I didn't change the feel too much as the customer liked the feel of the guitar before the refret and wanted it as kept as close as possible. I set the frets in with cyanoacrylate as time was short. A bit of heat next time will break the bond with no problems.

Basher

That's sort of an inverse-scallop I suppose. I quite like the extra fret slots in a demented sort of way.

You should start offering them as a setup option. If they help you write songs like The Coral, I'm booking my guitars in