Fret wear

Often, if we play our guitars enough, we might find fret wears on the frets of our guitar. What this is, is groves on the frets created from fretting too much. I remember the first time seeing at my first fret wear on my first guitar, it shocked the hell out of me. My first resolution to the problem was to refret the frets that has grooves, or so I thought.

I didn't do much to the frets until much further and later on, when it started buzzing unless i set my action really high. I wasn't that into DIY at that time and so, I brought it to a guitar repair shop (#03-09, Bras Brasah, Guitar Workshop) and asked for a refret. After taking a look at it, the boss told me, actually, I can opt for a fret leveling, which is actually better than re fretting in this case.

So I went ahead and got my frets level and my guitar came back with zero buzz while able to setup to a super low and sick action with zero buzzing. What I would like to share to my readers out there from this post is:

1. Do not panic when you see grooves on your frets. It is normal if you play your guitar alot.

2. Just because there are groves on a few frets, replacing new frets on just those frets will solve the problem. It actually doesn't because at the end of the day, you will need to level the new frets to the height of the older frets anyway.

3. Fret leveling is actually a very viable option and in fact, I do it to a lot of my own guitars, especially to those that I would like to achieve the low and sick action. It does not necessarily need only to be done of frets with grooves but it can also be done on guitars with uneven frets which causes buzzing and fret-out when bending.

4. Unless you are a professional performer and play 3 sets every night, chances are, you won't be needing to replace your frets anytime soon.

5. There isn't a real need to level or replace your frets with grooves, unless it buzzes real bad and prevents you from playing the action that you are comfortable with.

6. Although playing with old and rusty strings might save you money in short term, it actually wears out your frets a lot faster. Rusty strings and sharp and it cuts into the fret (Think filing) when you are fretting your finger board.