Is it possible to refret without leveling and crowning?

[seahorse]

Before you say this sounds crazy, I was just thinking about all of those import guitars like Ibanez, ESP, Epiphone, Squire, etc.., that run in the $ 200 - $400 range. You just know the factories aren't spending a lot of time leveling and crowning....it's probably some machine that just stamps the frets in and then sends the guitars out by the truckload.

Most of these guitars have pretty good fretwork. Also, lot of refrets appear as if too much of the frets have been filed away before they're finished. It's like three years worth of wear on the frets before you've played a note.

In theory, if the neck is really straight; would just tapping in new frets be any different than what a high volume factory would do.

[pixelchemist]

i would say no... because no matter what the neck is made of wood and the frets are rolled out of a machine that I imagine has somewhat loose tolerances, especially on cheaper guitars that are using lower quality frets (they wear much faster in my experience) ... both will never be totally 100% uniform.

 

 

 

that being said there is no reason you need to take off half of the frets to get something level.

[schoolie1]

Sure, it's possible. I think most companies do some form of fret leveling on their guitars. It's a ten minute job to do a mediocre job on the frets. I'm sure that finishing is a bigger labor cost than fret L&C.

[ashasha]

I actually believe that in some cases that the new frets are installed and if the fretboard is right that there is no need to level them. I'm not certain, but I believe that I've seen it somewhere; probably youtube or how it's made or something.