Should I try fret skimming myself? Or pay a Pro?

ToneControl

My gut feeling is that fret skimming (to fix worn frets) for myself will cost so much in tooling, and carry enough risk that I should leave well alone, and stick to more basic guitar maintenance, given that it's not something I need to do very often

any thoughts?

WezV

Depends how bad they are.

Sometimes they need very little material removing and look worse than they are.   It's a skilled job, but can be done with care.

ToneControl

It's not often I buy a guitar with worn frets, I never seem to wear them out myself

Power-Beef

Yes, it can be done IMO. But at the same time, probably not a good idea.

I bought one like that with the frets all decapitated. The last person shaved down the frets but never re-crowned them. I have polished them well enough to work but comparing that to one that's been set up by a pro, the difference is quite clear.

BillDL

Levelling / stoning / skimming, can be done with improvised an improvised sanding beam and strips of fine wet & dry paper if the beam is absolutely level, you are very careful and consistent with the strokes, and most importantly know when to stop. Having taken the apex off the frets to level them down and reduce the relative height of worn divots or to take some high frets down in height, so you then need to reshape the profile back to the rounded shape with an apex.  That again can be done using improvised tools with grooves in them and sandpaper or triangular files.  You then need to dress the ends, which can be done with a fine triangular file, and polish the scratches off the crowns with various grades of wet & dry paper, wire wool,  and other propretary fret polishing compounds and tools.  Having lowered your frets you may then have to cut the nut slots slightly deeper, and that requires very fine cutting files that you wouldn't normally have lying around as everyday tools to improvise with. 

Doing this kind of job without prior experience using improvised tools is much more likely to damage your guitar or do a substandard job than buying the right tools and watching how experienced people use them.  There comes a breakpoint in whether you enjoy doing it enough to justify potentially spending almost as much and possibly even more money for tools than a professional would charge to do the job.  If you intended using the tools again and again on other guitars they would no doubt pay for themselves eventually and you would get better results with practice.  In fact, you would probably be best to practice on necks from really cheap scrapper guitars first.

You could save money using improvided tools but I would say that the prerequisite is knowing how to do the job properly with proper tools already before resorting to improvising tools to try and do the same job.  It's a catch 22 really.

I have only ever had two guitars professionally set up and only one levelled and recrowned.  From an early stage of playing I read loads of books and magazine columns and learned setup, refretting and fret finishing by practicing on junkyard 70s and 80s guitars that were worthless back then but would now sell as "rare vintage made in Japan" gems for hundreds.  I did learn by making and adapting my own tools and improvising with everyday tools because I couldn't afford the proper ones, but I also made a real hash of quite a few that did end up in the scrap.  Only after I knew I was good enough did I try it on my better guitars.

I would say that if you have enough money and a particular guitar is important to you, just spend the money and get a professional to do the job.

BlueStrat

The cheapest option is to get a pro of the caliber of Feline or @SteveRobinson ; to do it for you, rather than to buy the tools, screw it up and then pay for it to be done properly

M1ck

I don’t know where you are but I made a worthwhile trip from Newcastle upon Tyne to go to Shuker guitars - Jon runs sat morning workshops occasionally (suspect demand plays a part) but if you go you’ll gets hands on with one or more of your own guitars in a fully equipped workshop and leave with enough knowledge to tackle basic maintenance yourself including fret dressing.

Sporky

It's worth learning to do if you want to learn to do it.

If you just want your guitar(s) to play better, get someone who does it a lot to do it. 

ToneControl

M1ck said:

I don’t know where you are but I made a worthwhile trip from Newcastle upon Tyne to go to Shuker guitars - Jon runs sat morning workshops occasionally (suspect demand plays a part) but if you go you’ll gets hands on with one or more of your own guitars in a fully equipped workshop and leave with enough knowledge to tackle basic maintenance yourself including fret dressing.

ahhhh, only 70 minutes drive away from me
what is the fee for attending?

M1ck

ToneControl said:

M1ck said:

I don’t know where you are but I made a worthwhile trip from Newcastle upon Tyne to go to Shuker guitars - Jon runs sat morning workshops occasionally (suspect demand plays a part) but if you go you’ll gets hands on with one or more of your own guitars in a fully equipped workshop and leave with enough knowledge to tackle basic maintenance yourself including fret dressing.

ahhhh, only 70 minutes drive away from me
what is the fee for attending?

I don’t recall the exact cost but I’m pretty sure it was around £100-ish, he only has a small group so you’ll get the attention you need, there’s enough time to do two or three guitars depending on each ones needs and how quick you pick it up. Give Jon a ring and ask about availability!