chiba
Joined: Sep 02, 2022
Posts: 516
Central VA
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 09:06 AM
Talk about a first world problem! I've come to realize I don't enjoy playing this very cool MIJ Jazzmaster because of one thing: it has "vintage" height frets and they are SUPER SHORT. I play/prefer 6105 frets ("narrow/tall").
This MIJazzy has "vintage" frets, which are neither modern nor tall. They are (as near as I can tell) 6230 frets and they kinda drive me nuts.
So I find myself in a weird position where I love the way the guitar sounds, looks, feels, etc. but not the way it plays. I've tried every adjustment you can think of and it still feels like I'm pressing the strings through the fretboard.
My question for the peanut gallery is thus: Would you refret the guitar or just sell it and move on? It is a VERY cool guitar and I dig it, I really just can't deal with the super short frets. I don't "need" this guitar - I have another Jazzy that's spec'd & set up perfectly for my playing style - but since when does "need" enter into the equation?
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edwardsand
Joined: Jun 29, 2018
Posts: 769
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 09:15 AM
Since you like it so much, I'd say get the frets changed. You would probably come to regret selling it, but you wouldn't regret getting it refretted.
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 887
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 10:43 AM
I agree that you ought to keep it and mold it to your liking. In your situation, I'd be tempted to simply slap a different neck on it but I recognize this makes it halfway to a different guitar and isn't ideal.
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chiba
Joined: Sep 02, 2022
Posts: 516
Central VA
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 10:50 AM
Redfeather wrote:
I agree that you ought to keep it and mold it to your liking. In your situation, I'd be tempted to simply slap a different neck on it but I recognize this makes it halfway to a different guitar and isn't ideal.
I thought about this, but all I have available right now is a Strat neck, which I'm not really opposed to putting on there, but then what do I do when I want to put that Strat back together? lol
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 887
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 11:22 AM
Yeah, it creates an inefficient situation any way you do it. There's always going to be that original low fret neck sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
I have a habit for $60 Chinese necks that are often a pretty decent solution but in this case, however low the price of the new neck, it still leaves the original to waste. I think a tall refret is the proper solution.
Or maybe you could compromise and just replace every other fret with a tall one!
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ldk
Joined: Nov 08, 2017
Posts: 368
San Francisco Bay Area
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Posted on Apr 29 2024 03:37 PM
It depends on many questions.
Are you someone who has many guitars or do you keep only the ones you play often?
Could you use the money from the sale (plus the cost of a refret) to buy something you’d like better?
Do you have someone you trust to do the refret?
Will this guitar appreciate in value? Would a refret lower its value? Do you care?
Are you someone who regrets having sold things, or do you sell and move on?
— If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.
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chiba
Joined: Sep 02, 2022
Posts: 516
Central VA
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Posted on Apr 30 2024 09:02 AM
Redfeather wrote:
Or maybe you could compromise and just replace every other fret with a tall one!
I find this an intriguing possibility ;)
ldk wrote:
Are you someone who has many guitars or do you keep only the ones you play often?
I have a number of guitars right now, but have serious plans for reducing the number in the next two years.
Could you use the money from the sale (plus the cost of a refret) to buy something you’d like better?
That's got me wrapped up as well, as I dig everything about this Jazzy except the frets.
Do you have someone you trust to do the refret?
Yes, a dude who has done a full refret and some other fairly serious fretwork for me. He's good.
Will this guitar appreciate in value? Would a refret lower its value? Do you care?
Possibly, but I never plan on a guitar's value going up. IMO refrets do not adversely affect the value of Fender guitars unless they are vintage ones and the refret is done poorly. I do not care about the value being affected by a refret, as I got a steal of a deal on this thing and could easily sell it for a small profit.
Are you someone who regrets having sold things, or do you sell and move on?
Depends on the things Most guitars I've sold, I never think about again. Some ... haunt me. The real trick lies in figuring out where this one is on that spectrum.
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ldk
Joined: Nov 08, 2017
Posts: 368
San Francisco Bay Area
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Posted on Apr 30 2024 10:08 AM
You should refret. If after a year or so you're not playing it, then sell with no regrets.
— If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.
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Tele295
Joined: Feb 16, 2012
Posts: 153
Rincon Beach, California, USA
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Posted on Apr 30 2024 06:12 PM
When I bought my JM in the 80’s, it had those stupidly huge bass frets on it, put on there by a previous owner. It was like playing a scalloped fretboard, which I didn’t like even back then.
For a while, I had a MIJ Strat neck and it worked. I finally ponied up some dough, and had my guy plane down the frets with a PLEK machine. That guitar plays like a dream now.
I would encourage you to make the guitar playable and enjoyable for you. Don’t worry about the factory spec vintage frets if you don’t dig ‘em.
Last edited: Apr 30, 2024 18:13:03
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edwardsand
Joined: Jun 29, 2018
Posts: 769
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Posted on Apr 30 2024 06:50 PM
To chime in again: Everything you've said so far suggests it would haunt you if you sold it. If it was a guitar you could just sell with no regrets, you wouldn't be asking here about the options. And since money is no a critical issue, if you get a refret and don't feel like keeping it, it's still no big deal. But if you get the refret and it makes the guitar awesome, then it's a big deal.
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DaveMudgett
Joined: Mar 17, 2019
Posts: 162
Central PA
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Posted on Apr 30 2024 11:15 PM
I usually find that I lose (sometimes significant) money making significant repairs to an otherwise good guitar if I'm not pretty sure I'm gonna keep it. I'll do anything to a real 'keeper'. But if I'm not sure, I take more time to evaluate whether it's a real keeper or not.
In other words - if everything about a guitar, save one thing like frets, pickups, or whatever, is great and I can't see how I could live without it if I just fixed that one issue - then I'll go ahead and make the change. But if it's just yet another guitar, I take the time to try to bond with it. No bond => out the door. If it's a good guitar, it is my experience that someone else will love the one thing that I'm not so crazy about.
The very fact that you say you need to downsize (a situation I'm very familiar with, lol) tells me you might want to think twice about pouring money into a guitar that you're not sure about. When I have a guitar that I really love so much, except for, let's say, the frets, I can figure out in a microsecond that I'm just gonna refret it and I never think about that decision again. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.
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chiba
Joined: Sep 02, 2022
Posts: 516
Central VA
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Posted on May 01 2024 10:03 AM
Set up an appointment next week to drop it off with my tech for a refret
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