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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | My Patriot could use a refret, and there is enough in the slush fund this month. I'd like to have stainless steel frets of the same dimensions as my Adamas 2080 installed.
Other than shipping it back to Mother, which is not in the budget, how can one determine if the local repair guy is really qualified?
Are there any special tricks or issues with refretting an older Ovation? |
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 608
Location: Caribou, ME | I've refretted a couple. It's routine, nothing special or particular to them that I could see.
Ask if he plans to plane or otherwise resurface the board to to get rid of irregularities. Not saying it's necessary every time, but if he gives you a blank stare or blows the question off, red flag.
Ask if he intends to glue the frets in. Years ago that was considered a no-no, but I disagree. I always use a little wood glue, if for no other purpose than to shore up the old wood. Again, not absolutely necessary but a nice touch. He will have no idea how well the new frets will bite into the old wood and a little yellow glue is a little insurance.
Ask to see an example of his work. If it's apparent he had to mill the living poop out of them after seating them, I would ask myself why. Look for nicely shaped/rounded ends. Run your hands up and down the side of the board and feel for roughness. Try to dig your fingernails under the frets. Your nail should slip right off without catching anything. There's no excuse for something like that leaving the bench.
Good luck. |
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Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Makes you wish ksdaddy was your local repair guy. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4536
Location: Flahdaw | Put a post on your local Craigslist under "musicians", asking for good local luthiers to respond or for others to suggest one. You'll get about 4 or 5 that you can "interview" |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 815
Location: Colorado | I had a guy in Denver replace the first 9 frets on my Adamas when I got it. Everything looked good when I got it back. |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 92
Location: San Francisco, CA | Last year I had the neck on my 1990 Ovation Model 1869 Custom Legend reset and refretted by Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, CA.
Frank Ford did the work and told me he'd never worked on an Ovation before and he was "curious".
Frank is as good as it gets in the luthier business and the guitar turned out perfect.
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| It's a refret not open heart surgery. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15680
Location: SoCal | Originally posted by schroeder:
It's a refret not open heart surgery. +1. What's the big deal? |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
Originally posted by schroeder:
It's a refret not open heart surgery. +1. What's the big deal?
You know that feeling when you get your car back from the shop and something else is wrong? Yeah, had that twice this last week. Don't want that with the Patriot. |
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Joined:
April 2010
Posts: 1227
Location: Connersville, Indiana | When I had my 95 6868 Elite refret done, I called a lot of places in Indy and asked for their advise on refret for an Ovation. A majority gave me the same name. I went to the store, asked if I could look at some of the work that was done waiting to be picked up and it was perfect. On my guitar he did the refret, made an adjustment to the bridge and neck and didn't charge me for the extra work. Good luck.
Kit |
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Can a local shop be trusted to refret an old Ovation?
