Play your guitar much? Is it a year old or more? You may have a PROBLEM!
Your new guitar came with brand-new frets, of course. When you play on new frets, strings contact those smooth frets at random places under the strings and fret wear starts slowly.
BUT, once you get a tiny little wear groove, the strings no longer contact frets in random spots. Nope – they’re gonna hit the bottom of those grooves everytime and you’re frets start to wear exponentially faster.
How long does it take to wear new frets? We have a customer who wore his frets out so badly that he needed a total refret within just four months!
Admittedly, this was an unusual case, since this customer says he plays an average of six hours a day!
But those frets probably could have lasted him a couple of years with just a little maintenance. Since the average refret costs over $400, including setup and strings, you may want to read on and see how you can add years of life to your frets while going easy on your wallet!
You probably already know that getting regular setups will save your neck from damage and keep your guitar playing great, but did you know that a Complete Setup from Hank’s Guitar Shop, or any Guitars Done Right shop, will prevent premature fret wear?
Not only does our Complete Setup do all the things you expect – adjust truss rod, saddle heights and nut slot depths, clean and condition your fretboard, check hardware for looseness, clean and polish your guitar, etc. but we go much further by also
- File sharp fret ends
- Ensure all frets are level
- Eliminate mild fret wear
- Polish frets
“Eliminate mild fret wear?”, you ask. “How do you guys do that?”
We’re glad you asked! 🙂 Our totally (un) patented, Fret Renewal tool that Hank invented stole from a luthier in Houston back in 1970, removes mild fret wear while retaining and even improving the fret crowns.
So, by getting regular setups at Hank’s Guitar Shop, you can likely increase the life of your frets by five-fold or more!
How often is a “regular setup”? About every four string changes, if you’re properly changing strings every 100 hours or every three months as recommended. So that translates to every 400 hours or every twelve months, whichever comes first.
Regular maintenance not only increases the life of your guitar, but it will play better too. And that means you’re gonna enjoy playing it more.
