Refret

[burt777]

In my effort to know everything about my guitars, it's starting to bug me that the one thing i've never done is refretting. Most of the questions about refretting here are either about finding a luthier who can do it, or answered with "find a luthier who can do it for you". But i bet there must be lots of people here who can do it themselves.

I wonder if it's hard. Is it harmfull to just pull a fret out and put it back? Can you replace just a few frets?

I've seen a few tutorials. I'm afraid i'm pretty serious about this, but obviously still a bit insecure. Any advice?

[gu1tar]

Refretting is one of the most involved tasks on a guitar. It's not a trivial thing. For good how-to info: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting...VD,_video.html

I have the book: Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine as they show there and it is a good book but the DVD set is probably much more thorough on fretting.

I've personally never done any fretting but I've read about it and realized I don't want to; I'd rather pay to have it done by a pro. You may end up spending more on the tools you need than a refret job would cost you. But if you have many guitars that need refrets, and have the desire, go for it. Maybe you could find a local luthier and ask him to let you watch him do a fret job and/or teach you.

And once you do replace a fret or two, making sure you got the right size fretwire and didn't destroy the fretboard removing the old one(s) depending on how they were installed, it's likely you'll need to do a fret level and dress meaning you have to buy more tools, etc.

And spending the refret job time practicing will make you a better guitarist anyway.

[j.arledge]

if you dont have a lot of previous wood working skill or if you dont have the right tools , i strongly suggest that you find a luthier that know what thier doing . If you insist on tryin to re-fret the neck your self i'd buy a junker neck off of the bay and start on it before you screw up your guitar's neck .

It is extermly involved and does take know how, i personal dont think i'd ever do it myself, unless i have enough money to buy all the right tools and had some spare necks that i didn't mind screwing up , and even then i am not sure i'd do it to one of my guitars i play