Raising The Tone - Pain In The Neck

In His Second Article On Frets, Editor Jamie Dickson Finds Out What To Do When Your Frets Get Damaged Or Worn Out.

- Jamie Dickson

A few issues ago we looked at the basics of fret size and its influence on the tone and playability of your guitar. If you do a lot of playing or your gigs are all from the ‘hard knocks’ school of live performance, you’ll likely encounter some problems with fretwear or damage sooner or later.

“As frets wear, the playing experience suffers,” comments Scott Shiraki of Dunlop, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of fretwire. “Though many players can’t feel the minute changes over time, worn, uneven frets will make a notable difference in feel, playing mechanics and intonation. Chords will be out of tune and strings will start to buzz. It’s important to keep frets in good shape for the best playing experience.”

So, if your frets do start getting worn down, there’s every incentive to do something about it. The most drastic solution is a complete refret. That’s going to either cost you a fair bit of time and painstaking work, or a wedge of cash if you pay a tech to do it for you, which is the only serious option if you have no practical training or experience in this area. So, how do you know when a refret is what’s needed?