When you wake up one day and your frets are gone?

Guildedagain

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Playing my DC5E the other day, noticing that the G strings hangs up at the 2nd fret, and when I had a look, Holy Cats, my 2nd fret is massively dented, as well as my 1st, and 3rd, and the 4th and 5th on the A and low E strings.

Am I fretting too hard?

I've had the guitar for a year, a year of obsessive playing, fingerpicking, very little capo use actually.

I just found out capos destroy frets under the unwound treble strings, so do watch out for that and get capos that have adjustable tension, like the Shubb.

At any rate, I've got major fret problems on my #1 guitar, so this is a huge problem.

Looks like it's time to learn about leveling and crowning frets, eventually learning refretting.

My experiences going to a shop to get this done is I'll be better off spending the money on tools from Stu Mac, and learning a new skill. All of my guitars need fret leveling, which I usually address by raising action so maybe it's time.

Anyone have harrowing tales of dented frets and DIY home fret work?
 
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swiveltung

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It can happen fairly quick. But one year? Was the guitar new?
I have replaced just the lower frets before with identical size frets. It worked out fine. On acoustic especially nothing above about fret 10 seems to wear...
 

adorshki

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Playing my DC5E the other day, noticing that the G strings hangs up at the 2nd fret, and when I had a look, Holy Cats, my 2nd fret is massively dented, as well as my 1st, and 3rd, and the 4th and 5th on the A and low E strings.

Am I fretting too hard?
I've been accused of that because I've had my D25 (which probably came with the same fret material your DCE5 did) completely re-fretted twice now.
I play with a fairly heavy hand, so pinning 'em hard is necessary to get cleanest possible tone, ie little or no buzzing or muting.
Since I bought it new, I was acutely aware of the fact that I'd notched 'em up pretty good in what seemed like an unreasonably short time, about 18 months and what I calculated to be about 300 hours of playing time.
When I took it to local Guild authorized shop was advised that frets were considered a "normal wear" item and not warranted.
At the time I wasn't aware of the finer points of getting 'em "re-crowned" but probably would have passed anyway since I liked having that high crown, it aids in cleaner tone.
Later on found it confirmed by Frank Ford:
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/GenSetup/Frets/frets01.html****
And I NEVER use a capo.
And yes it's the B &E that do the most damage up in the first 3 frets.
My experiences going to a shop to get this done is I'll be better off spending the money on tools from Stu Mac, and learning a new skill. All of my guitars need fret leveling, which I usually address by raising action so maybe it's time.
Yes it's critical to find a guy you can trust, the first job was actually not quite right and I didn't realize it for years until I finally took it in to a different guy for the second job and it came back perfect.
There were a couple of little technique tricks I'd do up around the 7th-9th frets on the high E that were getting muted off after the first job, I thought I was just getting weak and sloppy.
When it cam back from the second guy, voila! It was just like it was when it was new again.
Anyone have harrowing tales of dented frets and DIY home fret work?
No DIY horror stories but knowing what I do now, even if I did have a nice workspace and tools I'd probably leave it to a pro anyway, even just leveling/re-crowning.
Or at least wouldn't attempt it on one of my babies until I'd practiced on a few sacrificial lambs.
So many ways to get 'em out-of-plane by just a few thousandths, and it'll come back to haunt ya.
That may not be as critical to someone who doesn't play all over the board.
FWIW, the last refret, about 2007 I think it was, ran $275.00 here in high-cost-of-living Silicon Valley:
Full refret, set up, strings, new saddle, returned cleaned and polished, and post-op check-up/adjustment included if needed
The only thing was the "D" nut slot was just the tiniest bit too shallow, I could feel it was a tad high when fingerpicking, it was "out of plane" with the A and G.
I was happy I was able to address that myself with some folded finishing grade (ultra-fine grit) sand paper, it fit into the slot perfectly, and only a few strokes needed.
Saved me having to take it back in, and lucky it was one of the wound slots or I wouldn't have been able to do it myself.

****In counterpoint, I can recall in mid-to-late '70's it was not uncommon for guys to level down the jumbo-sized frets and lower the action on their acoustics to enhance bend-ability and a more electric feel in general.
Guild used to use that larger wire back then and we've seen a few of 'em showing signs of that process.
So the type of fret wire one wants to level plays a role as well.
 
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Guildedagain

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There's great videos out there, Duncan Wallace on youtube, I can do this.

The D5CE was used, of course, but I never noticed any fret problems, and now come to think of it...have you ever obsessively played Dust in the Wind? :)

It's just a gateway drug... but what I realized right away was that you don't just have to play a chord perfect for a split second, you have to hold it, perfect, as long as you're fingerpicking it, and yeah, when you're new at something, you try way too hard, probably push too hard.

Overthinking leads to overplaying.

And then one day you realize, hey, this is easy ;)

Yes, a lot of guitars have very flat frets, many of mine... a quick read through the preliminaries of fret issues and fret work and you quickly find out that improperly crowned frets (not crowned) cause into nation issues, and a lot of things begin to make sense.

Luckily, I have a lot of guitars to practice on, but overall it's simple. Get the neck flat, level the frets, then crown and polish.

If I was to pay a guy to do this to all the guitars I have that need it, plus pickup Andropov (cold war era pun), it would run in the thousands... The last time I had a guitar in, I was minus the guitar for a year, then sticker shock when I picked it up, then found out it wasn't right, took it back, another eternity, got it back and it's not right, and I should have done the job myself.

If I learn to do this right, I could pick up work.
 
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Br1ck

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Randy Shartiger and Jerry Rosa both have many videos of fret leveling. It is not rocket science but I started on my less valuable guitars. I even bought a cheap mandolin to practice on. It really is the tools. I used a regular aluminum level before finally buying a leveling beam. You will need a machinest's straightedge (18'), fret crowning files, and nut files too. Then there is feeler gauge set and sandpaper from around 400 to 2000 grit.

I have a luthier I use every now and then who won't do a setup without a fret level. I bought an old cheap archtop to do a full refret on before fretting my mandolin build. I'm a believer of practicing on a beater. I've done it a dozen times now and feel comfortable with the process.
 

Guildedagain

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Sounds awesome, I already have the nut files, so there's that. There's that notched straightedge too, that lets you see the actual flatness of the board itself. And the three fret rocker, although substitutes are easily found.

If the board is not flat, that's another issue altogether, surgery...

I'm looking forward to playing properly leveled and crowned frets, plus the feeling of satisfaction of having done it yourself, priceless.
 

Rayk

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If you refret go with Evo golds . That's what I requested for my Ben Wilborn guitar.
 
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