Worst fret wear you’ve ever seen?

SquireJapan

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

earwighoney

SquireJapan said:

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

 https://imgur.com/a/REoI8qE.jpeg

My Hagstrom is worse

On that note, I took a trip to a shop in Tin Pan Alley asking about a refret and the guy looked at me said 'Are you sure it needs a refret, we'd rather not'. 

Weird thing for a repair shop to say!

Stevepage

Willie Nelsons guitar has terrible wear but he likes it like that

earwighoney

Stevepage said:

Willie Nelsons guitar has terrible wear but he likes it like that

The huge chunk out of the fretboard at the 7th fret!

FelineGuitars

earwighoney said:

SquireJapan said:

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

 https://imgur.com/a/REoI8qE.jpeg

My Hagstrom is worse

On that note, I took a trip to a shop in Tin Pan Alley asking about a refret and the guy looked at me said 'Are you sure it needs a refret, we'd rather not'. 

Weird thing for a repair shop to say!

It doesn't bode well for a repair shop to shy away rom refrets or fret dressing or say that they would rather not unless it was specific to that guitar or for reasons of affecting "vintage value" which should lead to a discussion of what the customer wants.

springhead

SquireJapan said:

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

When I bought my old Les Paul Special, about 30 years ago now, it had some similarly deep fret wear.  It was setup for slide with a high action and I thought maybe the fret grooves were from the edge of a steel or brass slide.

earwighoney

FelineGuitars said:

It doesn't bode well for a repair shop to shy away rom refrets or fret dressing or say that they would rather not unless it was specific to that guitar or for reasons of affecting "vintage value" which should lead to a discussion of what the customer wants.

Exactly. The guy behind the counter said doing a refret was more work than it's worth and they'd rather not.

IMO, I do not understand 'vintage value' and frets, frets are like strings - if they are worn they need to either be dressed or replaced.

JerkMoans

FelineGuitars said:

It doesn't bode well for a repair shop to shy away rom refrets or fret dressing or say that they would rather not unless it was specific to that guitar or for reasons of affecting "vintage value" which should lead to a discussion of what the customer wants.

Yeah: hardly reassuring.  

Bit like hoicking your car in for a service: 'sorry mate, we don't do brakes'.

DB1

earwighoney said:

Stevepage said:

Willie Nelsons guitar has terrible wear but he likes it like that

The huge chunk out of the fretboard at the 7th fret!

Looks like the start of a Cleartone Conversion there.

ICBM

I have seen worse, but not often.

The absolute worst was a 60s Gibson Hummingbird that was down to the tang at one place, like Willie Nelson’s at the 2nd fret 1st string - I’m pretty sure the 3rd fret 2nd string on this one, along with all the other ‘cowboy chord’ positions - and there was no wear anywhere higher than the 3rd fret! The owner had had it from new, and I jokingly asked whether he played country, or western... he seemed surprised how I would know . The only reason it was playable at all was because the neck was so bowed that the strings still cleared the 4th fret. Very easy repair though - replace three frets, tighten truss rod.

carlos

Stevepage said:

Willie Nelsons guitar has terrible wear but he likes it like that

Nice Cleartone Conversions side scallop at the 7th fret there. Helps with the thumb over technique, I've been told.

SquireJapan

What’s odd is that it’s most worn in the B string, down to about the 5th fret (less so on the G). 

I bought it from an online “pawn shop” in the US, so no idea of the previous owner. 

Would love to know what they were playing - the bridge is worn through the Cosmo black (it’s an Ibanez PGM), polished to a silver, then a few spots through to brass underneath. So it’s been played a LOT. 

I said project neck, it’s really a project guitar. 

axisus

I had a bad Fender strat once. I bought it off the internet from just looking at pictures and it was a very good price considering that it had Kinman pickups. He started that the guitar was in good condition, but the frets were a disaster! Someone had used a stone on the frets to try and level them but they didn't flatten the neck first! All the middle frets were flattened. I thought it was unsavable at the time (didn't know much about guitars back then) but I took it to a pro and he managed to get it playable.

idiotwindow

Stevepage said:

Willie Nelsons guitar has terrible wear but he likes it like that

That wear is incredible, especially on the treble side, it being a nylon string guitar. I guess any two surfaces rubbing together, given enough time, will cause wear.

Philly_Q

SquireJapan said:

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

The guitars I've owned from new have hardly got any fret wear, which won't come as a great surprise to anyone...

I did have a Strat with wear similar to that - not so extreme - but only on the first three or four frets, not all the way up to the twelfth and beyond.  From the wear and the way it was set up, it seemed like the previous owner spent nearly all of his time playing cowboy chords, like @ICBM described above.

sweepy

I wonder if thats a Mexican Strat, the fretwire is as soft as a slap with a soggy cod

Grumpyrocker

SquireJapan said:

I was looking at a project neck I’ll get refretted at some point and thought “how much worse can frets get”. These are pretty bad. I can’t take a photo of it, but it’s like a valley when you look down the neck. 

Can you chaps do any worse?

That's what my first (and for decades only) guitar was like just before the trem finally fell apart. Never really bothered me as I didn't know any different. I'd worn it down. 

skunkwerx

Never noticed any of my guitars getting worn at all lol.. 

Except an Epiphone plus top les paul I had briefly, which had frets so soft they may as well not have been there. 

Philly_Q

Willie Nelson's guitar looks like the frets have melted and then been allowed to cool back down.

hollywoodrox

My epiphone  Les Paul 

Bod

hollywoodrox said:

My epiphone  Les Paul 

Is that inlay how it came from the factory!?  It looks like someone left a 2-year old with a Dremel.  (runs and hides in case you did it - in which case good job!)