refret without regret?
September 28, 2015 8:41 PM Subscribe
My 40 year old sigma acoustic needs at least a few new frets, but it's not worth spending the money on. Does it make any kind of sense for me as a novice to attempt a fret replacement?
I started playing acoustic guitar about a year ago. At the time I thought it would be fun to start with something that had some miles on it, ideally something about as old as me. I found a sigma that fit the bill and have gone from sounding absolutely terrible to just bad. I've grown attached to it but am feeling its limitations. There are frets with visible indentations and hitting notes with them requires real precision. I received a nicer guitar as a gift not long ago, but still play the sigma regularly and like having a beater guitar I'm not worried about getting dinged.
I can change strings and have polished up frets on the other guitar without causing any damage, so I'm wondering if it's worth trying to change the frets on the sigma. It looks like I could do some serious damage. So my options seem to be:
1) Try the repair myself and live with the consequences. Maybe it's not as hard as it looks?
2) Replace it with a new pawn shop guitar in better shape and ignore the sentimental crap. I doubt a pawn shop would give me anything for it and three guitars in the house at once is one too many. How best to send the sigma on it's way?
3) Keep it as it is. Being difficult to play makes it a bit more challenging.
Thanks for your advice / suggestions.
I started playing acoustic guitar about a year ago. At the time I thought it would be fun to start with something that had some miles on it, ideally something about as old as me. I found a sigma that fit the bill and have gone from sounding absolutely terrible to just bad. I've grown attached to it but am feeling its limitations. There are frets with visible indentations and hitting notes with them requires real precision. I received a nicer guitar as a gift not long ago, but still play the sigma regularly and like having a beater guitar I'm not worried about getting dinged.
I can change strings and have polished up frets on the other guitar without causing any damage, so I'm wondering if it's worth trying to change the frets on the sigma. It looks like I could do some serious damage. So my options seem to be:
1) Try the repair myself and live with the consequences. Maybe it's not as hard as it looks?
2) Replace it with a new pawn shop guitar in better shape and ignore the sentimental crap. I doubt a pawn shop would give me anything for it and three guitars in the house at once is one too many. How best to send the sigma on it's way?
3) Keep it as it is. Being difficult to play makes it a bit more challenging.
Thanks for your advice / suggestions.
That said, there's something to be said for the duff guitar. I learned almost entirely and played for at least a couple of years, a guitar I found in a dumpster, a junky steel-string flat-neck acoustic, a little buzzy up top. I learned some tough songs on it!
posted by rhizome at 9:10 PM on September 28, 2015
posted by rhizome at 9:10 PM on September 28, 2015
It probably needs a neck reset, too. If you like working with your hands it could be a fun project. Stewart-MacDonald has everything you need.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:25 PM on September 28, 2015
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:25 PM on September 28, 2015
Cheap guitars are really, really good now. You can get a reasonable acoustic for $199 or $199 or even less.
Re-fret it as a project if you want, but you can go to any major music store (e.g. GuitarCenter in the USA) or local music shop (hint: local music shops are really nice and helpful) and get a guitar which blows away the pawn shop specials for not too much money. Play something; play everything.
posted by blob at 9:45 PM on September 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
Re-fret it as a project if you want, but you can go to any major music store (e.g. GuitarCenter in the USA) or local music shop (hint: local music shops are really nice and helpful) and get a guitar which blows away the pawn shop specials for not too much money. Play something; play everything.
posted by blob at 9:45 PM on September 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
I definitely wouldn't attempt a refret yourself.
But I would suggest you get that particular guitar sorted. You said it yourself, you have a nicer acoustic but play the Sigma more. The best guitar is the one you reach for.
posted by tremspeed at 12:20 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
But I would suggest you get that particular guitar sorted. You said it yourself, you have a nicer acoustic but play the Sigma more. The best guitar is the one you reach for.
posted by tremspeed at 12:20 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
A good guitar is a guitar that makes you want to play it. It sounds like the sigma is good in this way, but the other one is not. Trust your instincts: if you're not choosing to play the other one, there's something wrong with it. You and I, and maybe the expertest guitar expert on the planet, may not be able to pinpoint what's exactly wrong with it, but that doesn't matter.
Sell it. Use the money to buy one that's warm and inviting, without the glitches.
I've done three or four total refrets and it's geeky fun until you get to the final stage, the finishing stage, which involves a shit-ton of sanding and polishing. It sucks.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 2:25 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
Sell it. Use the money to buy one that's warm and inviting, without the glitches.
I've done three or four total refrets and it's geeky fun until you get to the final stage, the finishing stage, which involves a shit-ton of sanding and polishing. It sucks.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 2:25 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
New neck. Call the lovely people at Stewart Macdonald as above. Can confirm their loveliness as I lived across the street in college and they're the only reason my guitarist father would drive down to visit me!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 4:52 AM on September 29, 2015
posted by bitter-girl.com at 4:52 AM on September 29, 2015
Best answer: it's not worth spending the money on.
I'll second tremspeed - the best guitar is the one you reach for. So it's IMO definitely "worth it" to put your Sigma back in shape. Sure, you likely won't get back the money if you ever try to sell it, but so what? You didn't buy the thing as an investment for your retirement fund, you bought it for the pleasure of playing. Spend the money to make the guitar a pleasure to play again.
I'll also second rhizome in that you could look into getting a partial refret and/or having the whole board recrowned & re-leveled, which would likely be cheaper than a full refret.
As a lifelong guitar tinkerer, a full refret is one of the few things I haven't done yet (the only guitar I've owned that needed a full refret had a maple fingerboard, which requires some re-finishing as part of the job, and working with the particular finish was beyond my capabilities.). But I would attempt a refret long before I would attempt a DIY neck replacement on an acoustic guitar, and I can't see that a professional neck replacement would be cheaper than a refret. Acoustic necks are usually glued in, so getting them unglued and reglued (plus getting the proper neck & heel & joint shape) needs no small amount of experienced woodworking and finishing skills.
1) Try the repair myself and live with the consequences. Maybe it's not as hard as it looks?
Well, this is how I got started on my long hobby of mucking about with guitars, so . . . . . . obviously this is what I'd do. But you are not me.
I dunno, I think it kinda depends on how comfortable you are with working with your hands and learning on the job and living with the consequences. IME, some things are much easier than they look, others harder, and I've only figured out which was which by putting my hands on a project and giving it a whack. (For lots of different projects, not just guitar stuff.)
Before I would try a refret on the Sigma, I would spend like $50 or less on a seriously used or unplayable guitar from a thrift store or yard sale or Craigslist and use that for a test run, so you can fuck up horribly due to inexperience and not bork your main guitar, and learn what works and what doesn't and whether you even have the patience to try a fret replacement.
I will Nth the Stew-Mac suggestions - they are a great resource for parts and tools and they have FREE info all over their website, and lots of books and videos on guitar repair you could buy if you want more learnin' before you take a stab at the guitar.
Two caveats, though;
1) On DIY projects, in general, it's very very easy to be "penny wise and pound foolish" - you start out thinking, "Oh, well, five dollars for these parts and ten bucks for these tools is WAY cheaper than paying a pro to do it." Then you get started and oops, you really need another $10 tool, and two days after that you realize that you forgot that there's another $8 part you need, and etc etc etc until you've spent just as much if not more than you would have paying someone else to do the job. IOW, in the real world, a DIY project should be less about saving money and more about learning to do something for the pleasure of learning a skill and the pride in accomplishing something. It's likely you will not actually save money at all.
2) Stew-Mac has lots of sexy sexy speciality tools and, honestly, some fairly high prices on some of their more ordinary tools. I don't doubt that their ordinary tools are high quality, but it makes sense to buy the specialty & high-quality tools if you're running a pro repair shop, where you're working on guitars day after day and need to have a quick turnaround in order to make a profit. If you're just looking to do this one guitar, you will likely find acceptable tools for less elsewhere. (I do all my fret and nut work with files and sandpaper and steel wool that I bought at various local or big box hardware stores or Harbor Freight. It might take me longer and need a little more effort to get it right, but, *shrug* I'm just working on the guitars I play, no-one's paying me for a professional job.) It's very very easy to fall in love with the Stew-Mac catalog and wind up spending far more than you anticipated - see point 1 above.
Replace it with a new pawn shop guitar in better shape
Nthing that pawn shops are probably the worst place to look for a used guitar these days - they often have a wildly out-of-whack idea of a guitar's value based on casual uninformed ebay searches, and are just hoping to land a sucker who hasn't done their research. And it's not like they put any effort into storing them properly or caring for them. Local music stores or Craigslist or even ebay (you can do local searches there) will give you better options at better prices. And there are tons of good new guitars out there for fairly reasonable prices.
3) Keep it as it is. Being difficult to play makes it a bit more challenging.
But it's likely also teaching you some bad habits, as you consciously or unconsciously adjust your playing to compensate for the guitar's problems. Get the Sigma fixed up or replace it.
three guitars in the house at once is one too many.
Hahahahaha. You should probably never come over to my apartment . . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 7:43 AM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'll second tremspeed - the best guitar is the one you reach for. So it's IMO definitely "worth it" to put your Sigma back in shape. Sure, you likely won't get back the money if you ever try to sell it, but so what? You didn't buy the thing as an investment for your retirement fund, you bought it for the pleasure of playing. Spend the money to make the guitar a pleasure to play again.
I'll also second rhizome in that you could look into getting a partial refret and/or having the whole board recrowned & re-leveled, which would likely be cheaper than a full refret.
As a lifelong guitar tinkerer, a full refret is one of the few things I haven't done yet (the only guitar I've owned that needed a full refret had a maple fingerboard, which requires some re-finishing as part of the job, and working with the particular finish was beyond my capabilities.). But I would attempt a refret long before I would attempt a DIY neck replacement on an acoustic guitar, and I can't see that a professional neck replacement would be cheaper than a refret. Acoustic necks are usually glued in, so getting them unglued and reglued (plus getting the proper neck & heel & joint shape) needs no small amount of experienced woodworking and finishing skills.
1) Try the repair myself and live with the consequences. Maybe it's not as hard as it looks?
Well, this is how I got started on my long hobby of mucking about with guitars, so . . . . . . obviously this is what I'd do. But you are not me.
I dunno, I think it kinda depends on how comfortable you are with working with your hands and learning on the job and living with the consequences. IME, some things are much easier than they look, others harder, and I've only figured out which was which by putting my hands on a project and giving it a whack. (For lots of different projects, not just guitar stuff.)
Before I would try a refret on the Sigma, I would spend like $50 or less on a seriously used or unplayable guitar from a thrift store or yard sale or Craigslist and use that for a test run, so you can fuck up horribly due to inexperience and not bork your main guitar, and learn what works and what doesn't and whether you even have the patience to try a fret replacement.
I will Nth the Stew-Mac suggestions - they are a great resource for parts and tools and they have FREE info all over their website, and lots of books and videos on guitar repair you could buy if you want more learnin' before you take a stab at the guitar.
Two caveats, though;
1) On DIY projects, in general, it's very very easy to be "penny wise and pound foolish" - you start out thinking, "Oh, well, five dollars for these parts and ten bucks for these tools is WAY cheaper than paying a pro to do it." Then you get started and oops, you really need another $10 tool, and two days after that you realize that you forgot that there's another $8 part you need, and etc etc etc until you've spent just as much if not more than you would have paying someone else to do the job. IOW, in the real world, a DIY project should be less about saving money and more about learning to do something for the pleasure of learning a skill and the pride in accomplishing something. It's likely you will not actually save money at all.
2) Stew-Mac has lots of sexy sexy speciality tools and, honestly, some fairly high prices on some of their more ordinary tools. I don't doubt that their ordinary tools are high quality, but it makes sense to buy the specialty & high-quality tools if you're running a pro repair shop, where you're working on guitars day after day and need to have a quick turnaround in order to make a profit. If you're just looking to do this one guitar, you will likely find acceptable tools for less elsewhere. (I do all my fret and nut work with files and sandpaper and steel wool that I bought at various local or big box hardware stores or Harbor Freight. It might take me longer and need a little more effort to get it right, but, *shrug* I'm just working on the guitars I play, no-one's paying me for a professional job.) It's very very easy to fall in love with the Stew-Mac catalog and wind up spending far more than you anticipated - see point 1 above.
Replace it with a new pawn shop guitar in better shape
Nthing that pawn shops are probably the worst place to look for a used guitar these days - they often have a wildly out-of-whack idea of a guitar's value based on casual uninformed ebay searches, and are just hoping to land a sucker who hasn't done their research. And it's not like they put any effort into storing them properly or caring for them. Local music stores or Craigslist or even ebay (you can do local searches there) will give you better options at better prices. And there are tons of good new guitars out there for fairly reasonable prices.
3) Keep it as it is. Being difficult to play makes it a bit more challenging.
But it's likely also teaching you some bad habits, as you consciously or unconsciously adjust your playing to compensate for the guitar's problems. Get the Sigma fixed up or replace it.
three guitars in the house at once is one too many.
Hahahahaha. You should probably never come over to my apartment . . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 7:43 AM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've got an old Sigma, about 35 years old, and I've had it since new. They used to sell them at the legendary Andys Guitar Workshop in London and I played the 5 or 6 identical ones they had and found one that sounded way better than the others. A good old Sigma is a wonderful thing, sounds like a Martin but much cheaper - it's basically a Martin that was made in Japan. Modern Sigmas are not the same - look at the Wikipedia page. If mine broke I would pay someone to fix it. Bear in mind that there are many things a repair shop can do other than a complete refret. They can just replace an individual fret, they can grind a high fret down, etc. If you have a good place near you, you should talk to them.
posted by w0mbat at 8:19 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by w0mbat at 8:19 AM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for the advice, all. I'm going to look into getting a few of the frets crowned. Most of them aren't in too bad shape.
posted by roue at 2:41 PM on October 6, 2015
posted by roue at 2:41 PM on October 6, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rhizome at 9:08 PM on September 28, 2015