Should a re-fret take 3 months?

[kmb]

Howdy,

Took a chance and brought a valuable guitar of mine to a local shop that I'm not familiar with because of their reputation and selection of high quality gear. I call every 10 days or so to check on its status and get the runaround, "Yea, I'm goin' to my luthier tonite. No problem man. Have it back by the weekend. Thanks, Dude."

Am I right to be worried?

[Alpine86]

Personally, Id get it back and try someplace else. Stuff like that is the reason I taught myself how to do those things on my own.

[photoweborama]

I would find somone else.. I hate that kind of stuff.

[Tele-Bob]

I have a guitar body that took 3 months to do a nitro finish on. The guy did my carved top Tele and does excellent work. When I asked why it takes so long, he saud that the humidity and temperature need to be just right when spraying nitro or it will blush. Then it needs to sit for a few weeks and dry before it can be buffed.

So, if your neck has a nitro finish on it, this may be the case if the guy has to re-spray the fretboard.

If not, 3 months is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for a fret job.

[Richard Hayes]

I have a guitar body that took 3 months to do a nitro finish on. The guy did my carved top Tele and does excellent work. When I asked why it takes so long, he saud that the humidity and temperature need to be just right when spraying nitro or it will blush. Then it needs to sit for a few weeks and dry before it can be buffed.

So, if your neck has a nitro finish on it, this may be the case if the guy has to re-spray the fretboard.

If not, 3 months is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for a fret job.

What this guy said.

[moonpie]

The second time he lied to me about when it would be ready would be the last.
3 months is way, way, way too long. If the tech is backed up with work, at least be honest about it. If it takes magic atmospheric conditions, pass that on to the customer.

Alpine has the best solution with Spose's proposal as the runner up option.

[skywriter900]

i dont let shops deal as middlemen unless the repairs are being done by them.kinda leaves ya at their mercy........I went to 1 music shop and they told me like a 6 month turnaround on a retube, rebias and once over on my amp.......went to another shop that had their own amp tech...........and he said 10 days ............it ended up taking 3 weeks to a month , but at least he called me every week on my cell and let me know what was going on............................I was quite satisfied...............

[Alpine86]

I could see if it was an issue with a respray for the fret job, that would be understandable. I think the biggest issue is the guy keeps tellin you it will almost be done. Ive had repair work done that has taken that long before, but I knew it would up front, or was at least kept in the loop as to the reasons. This guy is just stringing you along.

[sabby]

Personally, Id get it back and try someplace else. Stuff like that is the reason I taught myself how to do those things on my own.

How long did this take you and how did you go about learning?

It looks like I'm facing this soon. I'd love to have Dan Erlewine do it, but I'd rather not wait the wait and pay the bill. Both I guess to be significant.

[Alpine86]

I started out slow and read whatever I could find on the subjects and talked to alot of people. Started out with rewiring, moved onto refinishing, and the refretting. Eventually I started building my own parts (highly addictive..). I bought all those Erlewine books from stew-mac and they arent too bad. A nice starting point.

My first refrett was on a 78 strat that had a pretty messed up neck. I studyied up on what I needed to do for about a month, during which time I bought the neccesary tools I would need (which was about what I would have paid someone for the refret anyway) and just jumped in and did it. Turned out good, learned a couple things from it but overall it went smooth. Plays great andI havent had any issues with it at all. Ive done about 10 refrets since then.

[Kap'n]

Rather than having crap take a month to do, I try to make appointments.. "If I bring in the guitar in three weeks, will it be done a week later?"

I also bring it to the repair person directly, rather than being at the shop's mercy as a middle-person. Count on losing at least a week while they handle it...

[Alpine86]

Rather than having crap take a month to do, I try to make appointments.. "If I bring in the guitar in three weeks, will it be done a week later?"

I also bring it to the repair person directly, rather than being at the shop's mercy as a middle-person. Count on losing at least a week while they handle it...

Always a good idea, however the success of that really hinges on the integrity of the repair person. Ive always made appontments and gotten completion estimates, but I have found too may people that will tell you anything, just to get the thing in the shop, betting that once its in, you wont take it back until the work is done.

And definitly if you can deal directly with the person who does the work vice some guitar shop middle man.. by all means do so..

[fender23]

I sent my '79 from CA to Joe Glaser, the King of refrets and strat repair in TN, and it took 4 - 5 weeks shipping time included. Too long and too much line of BS.

[soapbarstrat]

but I have found too may people that will tell you anything, just to get the thing in the shop, betting that once its in, you wont take it back until the work is done.

You hit the nail on the head with that one. I hate for someone to do that to me, so that's why I don't do it to customers. If I already have 2 fret-jobs lined up for the next couple of weeks, I tell them to contact me in a couple of weeks, rather than send the neck/guitar right away.
If there's a delay, I give the exact reason.
The re-spray on the maple boards is usually a reason for a big delay, but they should tell you if that's what's going on. Other than that, the only times I have long delays where I have the neck/guitar, but can't proceed with the work, is when I had to order fret-wire, and the fret-wire supplier is having a huge delay from the fret-wire factory. But in every case like that, I had told the customer I'm not sure when I'll get the wire, but they wanted me to take the neck/guitar anyway.
(I spent over $1,000 on fret-wire last time, to help keep this from happening)

My biggest problem is that I use a string tension jig (neck jig) to do the fret-work, and only have one of these jigs (want to make another asap) and if it's a problem neck, such as one that has too much relief with a tight truss-rod, it needs to be on the jig for quite some time, while I work on stiffening the neck and monitoring how stable it remains. This becomes pretty routine when people want you to do what you can to get their ebay purchased neck tweaked as well as possible.

I've got a problem neck on my jig/bench right now. It needs frets with expanded fret-tangs to make it more stiff, but I don't like the expanding pliers that the luthier supply places have to offer, so now I have to build the design I've come up with...... another delay (tool making)

[moonpie]

I sent my '79 from CA to Joe Glaser, the King of refrets and strat repair in TN, and it took 4 - 5 weeks shipping time included. Too long and too much line of BS.

Yeah, Joe's like that :lol

[kmb]

Thanks, folks. Kap'n is right, should have set a time frame. I'm just concerned that if I call and say, "I need to pick this up tomorrow, noontime, done or not", someone with sharp instruments may not take kindly to it. That said, digital camera is on order.

You know, there needs to be, on the web, a resource to find good amp and guitar techs.

[photoweborama]

All you have to say is I need it.. it's yours, you don't have to explain...

For all they know, you need it to play a nationwide TV gig.. They should not question you.

[Strat-Mangler]

I would just show up unannounced. Heck, they've wasted so much of your time, why should you give a rat's ass if you waste some of theirs?

I had the same thing happen to me, once. I had my guitar in for 3 months as well for major work and I just got fed up one day. I called him up out of the blue and asked him "Is it done, yet?" I got the usual "I had a family emergency" routine, then got the "yours is next" line, etc... I've been getting spoonfed with crap forever. I just said "Forget it. I'm coming to pick it up... now."

And I did. The guy didn't even have the balls to face me. He had his wife and child give me my guitar instead. What a faceless bastard. He has a good reputation, but I've made it my priority to inform everybody that he is a lying prick.

Just get your guitar and get it fixed by somebody who will sign a contract. That's what I do, now. I have them list the problem(s) and the solution(s) and timeframe, then, I have them sign it. If they don't want to do it, I take my business somewhere else. It's not worth my time to get jerked around like this, anymore.

Too much playing and not enough time to do it in as it is.

[deboraht]

Without a neck respray you can do a refret in one or two days.

i don't even have all the fancy jigs and did mine in two days. (and I'm a girl and blonde to boot LOL)

Here in Aus it costs about $800au a refret (xxxpensive). I once did a contra deal with a guy in oregon http://www.doolinguitars.com/, i helped him with his website and he re radiussed and refretted (with jumbos) my 69 thinline tele. Absolutely amazing job, it inspired me to do my own. It took only a month with shipping back and forth from Sydney to oregon !

i must say i haunt every guitar store in my area, most of them are useless. half don't even know what a blender pot is. one guitar 'sales' man didn't know what a P 90 was !

I have a great luthier close, he even supervised my first refret, lovely guy. I would always go direct to the luthier, avoid dumb ass shops.

[sabby]

Without a neck respray you can do a refret in one or two days.

i don't even have all the fancy jigs and did mine in two days. (and I'm a girl and blonde to boot LOL)

I'm in love. :lol

Hey Deboraht and welcome. Now get yourself over to the intro room and say hi.

[deboraht]

LOL...OK !