refret a mid level guitar with SS?

Chewie5150

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
Something I've been thinking about. Given the insane prices of guitars these days I don't plan on any purchases but considered making my mid level guitar that is already great even better. It's a MIM Charvel Pro mod DK24. I bought it used at a great price and I've already done a number of upgrades to it. Pickups, wilkinson locking trem. So its a solid guitar as is; however, the only thing that does bother me is the jumbo frets which just feel like rail road tracks to me. I'm guessing a few hundy I could get a luthier to refret to a more comfortable fret wire (medium jumbos perhaps) and might as well upgrade to Stainless if I did. Would make the guitar pretty fantastic...have a quasi new guitar without dropping thousands on a new guitar. thoughts? anyone do something like this. Not super serious at the moment about it looking for some feedback on this potential project....
 
Last edited:
If you are really not comfortable with the frets I would go for it.

Good fretboard work is not cheap, but it can completely change how the instrument plays.

I bought a $200 guitar from Amazon to practice my Lutherie skills. Out of the box it had high frets everywhere and did not play all that well. After pulling that cheap Chinese fretwire, sanding and leveling the neck and doing a complete refret (twice 🫣) it plays ridiculously well now, on par with my LTD Eclipse.

As you say, for a few hundred bucks you can take a good guitar and make it great….

Dom
 
Budda said:
Buy another neck ;)
Click to expand...
interesting....though I do like the roasted maple neck /profile on this Charvel. You mean like doing a Warmoth type thing? man if i could duplicate my anderson Tele neck that'd be even better! its the sweetest neck i've ever had. SS frets too. flawless
Ian Minogue-Corps said:
You'd be looking at $300 minimum for s/s frets and have you played any guitars with s/s frets ? serious question as they have a sound that not everyone likes
Click to expand...
good point. yes I've had 2 guitars (1 no longer have) with SS frets and like them both
 
paranoid said:
If I liked the guitar, it would not matter what it cost new. I would spend whatever to keep it prime. A guitar does not have to be expensive to be exactly what you like. Let the cork sniffers worry about price new, and resale value.
Click to expand...
Happy If You Say So GIF
 
paranoid said:
If I liked the guitar, it would not matter what it cost new. I would spend whatever to keep it prime. A guitar does not have to be expensive to be exactly what you like. Let the cork sniffers worry about price new, and resale value.
Click to expand...
totally agree. I'm not even thinking resale. This is one of those guitars that feels more expensive than it was and is a real player even as is. I have a feeling I'll always keep it as it's maybe my most used guitar other than my PRS S2 594. I have my beloved EBMM Axis (my oldest guitar that I have c.2002) and it sits on the stand mostly. great guitar but the neck/guitar just feels so small for me. This Charvel really fits me well and plays like butter for the most part.View attachment Charvel.jpg
 
Last edited:
Chewie5150 said:
That looks real interesting! Is carbon fiber the 'I can't believe its not butter' of guitar woods?
Click to expand...
I think it's just the neck thats CF! I would also look at Warmoth you might be able to find a good neck for $3-400 with SS frets. im a big fan of SS frets! The other 2 guitars I have will eventually get them.
 
Sixstring said:
I think it's just the neck thats CF! I would also look at Warmoth you might be able to find a good neck for $3-400 with SS frets. im a big fan of SS frets! The other 2 guitars I have will eventually get them.
Click to expand...
I guess it's a matter of a) picking a neck with SS frets that has a profile (on paper) that you like or b) use a neck you know and like and get refretted by rely on the worksmanship of a local luthier. I figure SS as it just lasts forever. The TA Tele that I acquired earlier last year which has a build date of 2003 and is still perfect. The TA neck for me is just amazing and oddly the frets are 'small' yet also feels very comfortable for me and I'm heavy handed. I'm not sure what size TA 'small' is relative to jumbo that are used on these charvel's.
 
Chewie5150 said:
I guess it's a matter of a) picking a neck with SS frets that has a profile (on paper) that you like or b) use a neck you know and like and get refretted by rely on the worksmanship of a local luthier. I figure SS as it just lasts forever. The TA Tele that I acquired earlier last year which has a build date of 2003 and is still perfect. The TA neck for me is just amazing and oddly the frets are 'small' yet also feels very comfortable for me and I'm heavy handed. I'm not sure what size TA 'small' is relative to jumbo that are used on these charvel's.
Click to expand...
Buy another one from TA!
You know you like it.
 
No guaranties that a new neck will resonate and sustain the same with your particular body. It's a bit of a roll of the dice when you combine necks and bodies. Some don't get along and you can sometimes end up with dead spots or weird resonances. It's also possible you might like it more. You won't know for sure until it's installed and played. No two pieces of wood are exactly the same.
 
Chewie5150 said:
I guess it's a matter of a) picking a neck with SS frets that has a profile (on paper) that you like or b) use a neck you know and like and get refretted by rely on the worksmanship of a local luthier. I figure SS as it just lasts forever. The TA Tele that I acquired earlier last year which has a build date of 2003 and is still perfect. The TA neck for me is just amazing and oddly the frets are 'small' yet also feels very comfortable for me and I'm heavy handed. I'm not sure what size TA 'small' is relative to jumbo that are used on these charvel's.
Click to expand...
Sounds like standard or "vintage" fret wire. A good quality SS fret wire like (Jescar) is the poopy as far as I'm concerned ;) one thing I can't stand is having to dress frets after a few dozen hours of play time. Both of my Carvin guitars have SS frets one is 15 years old the other is 13 and both of them look like they have barely been played with respect to the frets. The one in my Avatar I have owned the longest has countless sets of strings on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom