Fret Leveling, Set up Frequency?

[Anxiety Serum]

I know it depends on a lot of factors, but how often do you guy set up your guitars and how often should you need a fret leveling vs. a refret?

I see lots of old guitar on reverb with original frets with no wear (maybe never played, but 10-20 years and no wear?). But after a year and a half, I've started seeing some wear on my primary guitar. Is that normal.

For reference: With my Les Paul, I play 52-10s, play a hour or more most nights at home, and rarely use a capo.

So what's a good ball park range for how often you need a

1. Setup
2. Fret leveling
3. Full refret
4. And how many levelings can you get before you need the full refret.

 

[glip22]

Fret leveling is a touchy area for me. The way to do it correctly takes a very long time so no one will do it this way. They will use a sanding block on all of your frets and then recrown and dress. I hate this because it removes way more of your frets than is needed. I double tape my board and then use a pencil to mark all areas that are high. What I have found after doing many levels is that most frets will only have a portion of them out of line with the other frets in a line. You only need that area of that particular fret addressed, not the entire fret. It only takes a few swipes with 220 to make a big difference so you have to go slowly. It takes me three - four hours to do a board but my results are perfection with not a single rock anywhere. You cannot use this method if you have a lot of divots and wear. Then you need the block method. With either you want a very slight back bow in the neck before you begin.

 

[Anxiety Serum]

Fret leveling is a touchy area for me. The way to do it correctly takes a very long time so no one will do it this way. They will use a sanding block on all of your frets and then recrown and dress. I hate this because it removes way more of your frets than is needed. I double tape my board and then use a pencil to mark all areas that are high. What I have found after doing many levels is that most frets will only have a portion of them out of line with the other frets in a line. You only need that area of that particular fret addressed, not the entire fret. It only takes a few swipes with 220 to make a big difference so you have to go slowly. It takes me three - four hours to do a board but my results are perfection with not a single rock anywhere. You cannot use this method if you have a lot of divots and wear. Then you need the block method. With either you want a very slight back bow in the neck before you begin.

Thx, I am gonna let my luthier do any work needed.

More interested in what is normal length of wear and maintence timing. That way I know when to expect these costs and if I need to be doing something different in-between to prolong the life.

 

[glip22]

Thx, I am gonna let my luthier do any work needed.

More interested in what is normal length of wear and maintence timing. That way I know when to expect these costs and if I need to be doing something different in-between to prolong the life.

There's no real timing because each person will have different mileage depending on the factors. It could be years in between. If your tech uses a sanding block you will get much less life out of your frets than with my method. I only remove a very tiny amount in most cases and you would probably not be able to tell I even touched them.

 

[Anxiety Serum]

There's no real timing because each person will have different mileage depending on the factors.

I get it, much like tires, depends on each person, but just trying to get a ballpark (like they should last 30-50K) If tires go out in 5K miles they are crap or you drive in gravel every day at 80mph.

Is 1.5 years too early to start to see any fret wear on a brand new guitar or is that within normal tolerance?

 

[gtrwun]

I get it, much like tires, depends on each person, but just trying to get a ballpark (like they should last 30-50K) If tires go out in 5K miles they are crap or you drive in gravel every day at 80mph.

Is 1.5 years too early to start to see any fret wear on a brand new guitar or is that within normal tolerance?

I do my own leveling and refret work.
I have a pretty light touch and have never had to refret one of my guitars due to play wear.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If your not experiencing fret buzz/playability issues, I wouldn’t worry.

I don’t think this can be broken down into a time frame.

I do tweak my setups a lot. Things change as wood dries and your neck will move in unexpected ways.

 

[creep66]

My fender frets wear out fast, like a couple of years. My gibsons seem to last longer. I put about 8 years on my last gibson before it needed a refret. I think fender uses softer metal.

 

[ccn]

If you play 8 hours every day of course you will experience more fret wear than you would if you play 1 hour a day but I think worrying about fret wear is a complete waste of time .

I have a 1990 Les Paul that still hasn't had it's first fret job , I recently took it to a luthier and he said the frets have mild wear but nowhere near in need of a fret level and polishing let alone a refret .

A fret leveling and polishing isn't insanely expensive anyway . When the time comes you bring it in to get it done.

I have had my guitar setup twice in 30 years .

 

[RockyStar]

As stated, no set timeframes. Each guitar and its wood, materials will act as they do. Some guitars settle in and stay, others move a bit more while some can shift a lot and often. This depends on weather, humidity, a lot of things really. Once your guitar is initially set up and dialed in like you like it then the following tweaks are usually on the lighter side so long as your string gauge and tunings stay the same. Any time you go switching things up your guitar can and usually will react. Once you are familiar with how you like your guitars to be it is pretty simple to identify what is wrong and what is needed to get them to where you like them. Aside from that, if you have the proper tools to work with it doesn't take long to check things out once you know what works for you. You can do this on string changes or every couple of string changes just to see how they are doing.

 

[Anxiety Serum]

Just to help others (if anyone searches this). Just picked mine up from a well regarded Luthier in my area. He told me, as other did here, no set time frame. But to give some numbers on it: He has one guitar that this 30 years old, played a lot and never refretted (maybe not even leveled, can't remember which he said). He also has a client who teaches and plays every day for hours and has to get a leveling every 6-8 months.

So my 1.5 years of play time and needing a leveling while earlier than some, is not unusually.

 

[Matt300ZXT]

Fret leveling is a touchy area for me. The way to do it correctly takes a very long time so no one will do it this way. They will use a sanding block on all of your frets and then recrown and dress. I hate this because it removes way more of your frets than is needed. I double tape my board and then use a pencil to mark all areas that are high. What I have found after doing many levels is that most frets will only have a portion of them out of line with the other frets in a line. You only need that area of that particular fret addressed, not the entire fret. It only takes a few swipes with 220 to make a big difference so you have to go slowly. It takes me three - four hours to do a board but my results are perfection with not a single rock anywhere. You cannot use this method if you have a lot of divots and wear. Then you need the block method. With either you want a very slight back bow in the neck before you begin.

This is how in doing mine at a friend's house right now. Check for level with straightedge, rock 5 positions on each fret, sharpie the affected area, hitting those spots with 320 and constantly checking....all the frets that needed it probably took me about an hour by hand. Now moving to the next step.

 

[Code001]

1. Initial setup to my liking right when I buy it. This is a full setup from tweaking the nut, bridge, action, truss rod and so forth until I can get it dialed within my specs. If I can't, then I go to step 2. I do small tweaks every time I notice something feels off which is through natural playing and the environment.
My exact specs are usually 1/32'' at the high e and 3/64'' at the low E measured at the 12th fret with about 0.004'' of relief measured at the 9th fret. Nut height is usually as low as I can get it while still having a slight gap on the 1st fret when holding down the 3rd fret. I think it's around 0.005'', but it's been awhile since I last measured.
2. I have a light touch, so frets tend to last longer for me. For stainless, I have yet to even think of another fret level and some of my stainless guitars are nearly 15 years old. Not even a dent on those frets. For nickel, I can get about 10 years out of them. For play time reference, I play about 1 hour to 2 hours a day, but I have 8 guitars I rotate through, so wear isn't as extreme as if you just had a single guitar.
3. Full refrets are done during extreme measures for me. Either the instrument is a very old or beat up one, or I need to drastically change the radius so I can achieve what I'm looking for in step 1, and the only way to do that is by flattening the board (which, in turn, requires new frets).
4. I can get about 2 to 3 fret levels from jumbo frets before I start to think about refretting. Depends on how picky I'm being with the guitar and how I want it to feel. Also depends on how high the frets are to begin with.

 

[psychodave]

I don’t do much fret work, but I setup my guitars almost on a daily basis. I’m constantly tweaking the truss rod and bridge height for weather changes (mostly humidity changes). I like my guitars to play a certain way, so I have to tweak them. Of course after tweaking, I need to check my intonation. It’s a pain, but it’s worth it.