Fret work?

[Honky-Tonk]

Hello everyone in this forum.

 

I've been tinkering with my guitars for several years now, and am comfortable messing with wiring and making setup adjustments, swapping out parts, drilling new holes, tampering with finish/paint, etc... My strat is starting to show some substantial fretwear and I was tempted to buy the files to do the work myself. Most of the frets from the third to around the twelfth are worn down slightly, from heavy bending, but doesn't seem to cause a problem. The first and second fret are starting to develop "valleys" where the strings press in and tend to make a little noise when bending.

 

Based on my limited knowledge, I would assume that I need to "crown" the worn frets with a little bit of light filing. But I know nothing of the process, and have never seen anyone do the work. Is this a simple process that I can learn relatively quickly, or should I pay someone to work on my nice strat and practice a few times on a cheap guitar?

 

Here's the first and second frets, with the pits.

 

 

Here's the upper frets. I couldn't seem to get a good pic of the fret wear but it isn't that bad yet. Give it about five more years.

 

[mrbrown49]

Depending on how deep they are, you could probably get away with a fret level and then a recrown. Its not hard, but you need some tools, and a little know how before you start. Check out some of this guys threads on refretting and fret leveling.

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1681716

[tedmich]

I took the plunge and refretted with SS, Bernie at Ebay:

http://stores.ebay.com/Guitar-Tools-Frets-n-Supplies-Guru_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm

was a real help; lots of advice and tools.

 

He used to jump bikes on the cover of MBA and is super cool.