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Thread: How long should a complete refret take?

  1. #1
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    Default How long should a complete refret take?

    I've searched old threads and haven't found a great answer. I'm sure "it depends" . I sent the luthier doing the work an email a couple of days ago, but he hasn't responded. I don't want to be annoying or rush him, but it's been a full month now. It's a Collings MT2, if that makes any difference. Thanks.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I dropped off the instrument at my guy; 10 days later, picked it up. Barring unforeseen events, a month is too long.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Thanks Alan, I guess it's time to start pestering.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    ..or fretting....sry, couldn't resist.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I dropped off my F-9 last year with Austin Clark at the Grass Valley Fathers Day festival for a complete Evo-Gold re-fret including leveling the fingerboard and making a new nut, a neck re-profile, a speed neck including a neck french polish, and a setup. It was done the next day.

    This might have been a special circumstance since it was at a festival, however, it does show how quickly high quality neck work can be done by someone who does it all the time.

    I've also had banjos completely re-fretted by a banjo neck specialist and they typically only take a day or two.
    -- Don

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    Registered User Tavy's Avatar
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    It's a day and a bit's work, but of course it depends how much of a backlog your guy has to get through before starting - though he should have warned you if it was likely to be a really long time.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Paul Unkert in Toms River New Jersey had my F5G done in a day. I'm going to guess that some folks are just faster than others.
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I think you have to do distinguish between "time to do the fret job" (in hours) and "time to get to the job and get it done" (days or weeks), as was previously mentioned. If an instrument is still playable and I'm backed up, which I usually am, I try to time it so the customer brings it in and I'll have it done in a few days. It the luthier was that backed up, he could/should have done something like that. And don't ever tell a luthier that there's no hurry. That can mean as many different things as imaginable.

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    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    My regular luthier is super busy and always backed up with months of repairs and his own building work, so I never just drop off an instrument I need back in hurry.

    When I notice that I'm getting to the point of needing new frets, I call and see if I can make an appointment for a window of time when he can find the space to do the work for me. He knows that I have regular gigs and is good about letting me know when he can actually do the work in a short time frame.

    Turnaround is anywhere from one to three days, depending on whether I'm having him do anything else for me, too.

    Not every luthier is willing to make that concession, but I've had good luck asking.
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    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    And Dale is right. Never tell a luthier to take her/his time. I picked up an interesting instrument at an antique store on an early date with the woman who is now my wife. Dropped it off at a great luthier's shop for some basic restoration and said, "take your time." That was a 18 years ago. I guess I really am in no hurry.
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Yeah your luthier is either overloaded or keeps moving your re-fret to the back of the line. I usually take my mandolins to The Swannanoa Gathering and have "The Dude" re-fret them there. He usually has next day pickup once it was two days. R/
    I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Not liking to leave an instrument with another party for any length of time, i will ask the luthier to put me on his schedule so it can be dropped off when he's ready to work on it and picked up when it's done. Less liability and more room in his shop. i don't even like to pester a working man.

  18. #13

    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    8+ hours to do a good job.


    Very common for an in demand luthier to have your instruments weeks.. Just depends on the business model. If he told you a date and it is weeks past, well...
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    More important is a fret job completed correctly! I once had a fret job completed by a shop in Florida and the job was horrible ! Spaces under frets and no sound when played on numerous frets.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Kotapish View Post
    My regular luthier is super busy and always backed up with months of repairs and his own building work, so I never just drop off an instrument I need back in hurry.
    Yep, that's my situation too. A couple of years ago, my one-and-only mandolin needed some fret work. Maybe just dressing, but I was afraid it might be a re-fret. There is only one luthier in my area I'd trust with the job, and this luthier was massively backed up after being out of commission due to illness for a short while. It took me almost three months to get the mandolin back.

    It turned out that it only needed a fret dressing and an optional bridge fitting (that I agreed to), which saved me money, and I know the actual work didn't take long. But you have to respect the backlog, with an in-demand tech like that. I could have used someone more local, but I went with reputation and trust. I just made sure I didn't have any gigs for that period of time, or at least gigs I could substitute with OM or guitar.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    If you have a luthier give you a time when he will have performed his work and for no reasons he just stalls you... no good.

    But... there are luthiers that are just great and have an equally great backlog of work. If you want stellar work, you may be okay with a stellar waiting time. I know luthiers that I would entrust with certain of my instruments while being okay with their waiting time. I was/am okay to drive for a day to drop the instrument off at their shop, have a chat, drink some coffee, play some vintage instruments... I´d even pay a premium for their work than have someone butcher my instrument.

    It all depends on what the agreement with the luthier contains. To wait or not to wait, that is the question.
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  26. #17
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Thanks for all the replies. I might've blown it when I said I had a gig on May 19th and needed it then. Live and learn, I'm still newish to the mandolin. I had a partial refret done on a flattop guitar that took less than a week from another guy, so I never dreamed it was going to take this long. It's starting to tick me off that he hasn't replied to my 3 day old email, or the phone message I left. This guy is well known around these parts, but I have to rethink bringing any new work to him in the future.

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    Adrian Minarovic
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    When my friend left his F-9 for (quite large) restoration I told him I will only do it when I will find enough time between my own work and after full examination of what is needed to be done. It actually took me almost year till I got to the work (he knew it will be in that time frame and this ws not his player instrument) and few months till I finished all the repairs....
    I usually finish full refret within 4-5 hours if everything goes right. If the board is problematic (chipped or worn slots etc.) it may be more. new nut is something like 30-60 minutes depending whether I have blank cut close to size or I'll be making new from scratch.
    Adrian

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Quote Originally Posted by HoGo View Post
    When my friend left his F-9 for (quite large) restoration I told him I will only do it when I will find enough time between my own work and after full examination of what is needed to be done. It actually took me almost year till I got to the work (he knew it will be in that time frame and this ws not his player instrument) and few months till I finished all the repairs....
    I usually finish full refret within 4-5 hours if everything goes right. If the board is problematic (chipped or worn slots etc.) it may be more. new nut is something like 30-60 minutes depending whether I have blank cut close to size or I'll be making new from scratch.
    Yes, that F-9 was completely rebuilt by the time you finished with it... An amazing job, and an amazing instrument when you were done with it. I was drooling...
    -- Don

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    [About how I tune my mandolins]
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I am reading through this thread, and I just cannot imagine tolerating the business practices that I am reading about. I can’t believe people accept this business model. “Leave me your instrument and I will get around to it in the next several months, or maybe longer.” I wouldn’t, and I don’t accept that. I wouldn’t accept this from my lawyers, my accountant, my mechanic or my luthier. I have had an instrument custom built by a reputable luthier that took less time than people are waiting for fret work.

    I have two luthiers that do work for me, one is in my town, about 15 minutes from my house, and the other about three hours away. For small local jobs, I call up my local luthier and let him know that I have a job for him. He lets me know when he thinks he can get to it, depending on his backlog, and then, when he is ready to do the work, he texts me, and I bring my instrument to him. I usually have it back the same day, but occasionally it takes a day or two.

    For really big jobs, guitar neck resets and the like, I use a different luthier, about three hours away. I have had him do some work the same day, meaning that I ask him when he thinks he can find the time to do the work, and when he is ready for me, I bring him my instrument and he does the work.

    Literally the only time a luthier has had an instrument of mine for an extended period of time was a neck reset on a guitar. The luthier was also building a mandolin for me, so when I went up to his shop to fit the neck and play it in the white, I left a guitar that needed a neck reset. He kept the guitar until he was finished with the repair and finished with my mandolin build, but that was more about consolidation of trips rather than time needed to do the work.

    Is it just that there are so few luthiers that are qualified to work on mandolins that you have no choice but to accept these sorts of practices? Is there something inherent to stringed instrument repair that makes it impossible for skilled, experienced luthiers to accurately gauge how long a repair will take? I really don’t understand.

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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Quote Originally Posted by dwc View Post
    Is it just that there are so few luthiers that are qualified to work on mandolins that you have no choice but to accept these sorts of practices? Is there something inherent to stringed instrument repair that makes it impossible for skilled, experienced luthiers to accurately gauge how long a repair will take? I really don’t understand.
    One factor here might be that it's one thing to find a good guitar tech, and another thing to find someone experienced in mandolin repair. The luthier I mentioned in my post above had done successful restoration on two Lloyd Loar mandolins, along with a bunch of other things, so the confidence level in even the minor work I had done was high. I accepted the wait, in order to have a top-level luthier do the work.

    I had another wait of almost 7 months, for neck damage on my Santa Cruz guitar (fell over, hit just right for the neck block to loosen up). I could have had that done locally, but I elected to send it back to Santa Cruz. And again because of backlog, it took 7 months to get it back. I wasn't real happy about that, because the initial estimate was less than 3 months. For whatever reason, they got jammed up and it took twice as long. But the work was excellent when it came back, complete with a new fret job. In the end, I think I made the right decision.

    I've worked with local techs on a few things, but the results have been mixed. Nothing drastically bad, but some of the work could have been better. So far, when going "first class with a waiting period," I've had 100% success.

  32. #22
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I'm at the end of a long queue.. (Portland Fret Works) so once it gets to the head of the line
    It should not be long..

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  33. #23
    Adrian Minarovic
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Quote Originally Posted by dwc View Post
    I am reading through this thread, and I just cannot imagine tolerating the business practices that I am reading about. I can’t believe people accept this business model. “Leave me your instrument and I will get around to it in the next several months, or maybe longer.” I wouldn’t, and I don’t accept that. I wouldn’t accept this from my lawyers, my accountant, my mechanic or my luthier. I have had an instrument custom built by a reputable luthier that took less time than people are waiting for fret work.
    I often do some minor work while the owner waits. For local pickers I alway try to approximate whan I will have the time and ask them to call me "next tuesday" and we will find exact window for the job. The F-9 with long wait time was total wreck when the owner got it and we (I and the owner) decided it will only benefit from massive rebuild not just quick fix, but my main goal is building my own instrument and generally don't acccept large repairs so I told him outright that I will do it sometimes when my own mandolins will be drying after varnishing and that in my case can be a loooong time. There are precious few good luthiers in this country and I'm the only one who specializes in mandolins and pickers keep coming back and sometimes ask me to redo not-so-good jobs done by other luthiers....
    What would you do in my position? It's always decision of instrument owner who does the job. I'm always straight and tell them it may take long time and if they are in hurry they can get it done by someone else...
    Adrian

  34. #24
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    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    I entirely understand that there can be exceptional circumstances, and in no way do I mean to impugn anyone's craftsmanship. I read the Fretboard Journal article about Stephen Gilchrist restoring the very first Loar signed F5. It took a year. I totally get that. I forgot to mention that I have waited a month or so on two separate repairs. Both were returned to the builder's shop (Tom Ellis and Dana Bourgeois). In both cases I had to wait, but neither of those shops are set up to do repair work; I am pretty sure that neither take on outside repairs and only do warranty work on instruments they build, so to work on my instruments they have to stop what they are doing (building instruments) and shift gears, if not retool. In both cases the work required refinishing, and the turnaround time for the actual work was about a month, which when factoring in shipping and time for refinishing is understandable and acceptable.

    I am talking about people waiting months for fret work. That just seems crazy to me, but again, I could be missing something.
    Last edited by dwc; Apr-27-2018 at 7:42pm.
    Northfield Artist Series F5 (2 bar, Adirondack)

  35. #25

    Default Re: How long should a complete refret take?

    Kind of an old joke at this point, but it should take 8-10 hours if you just sit down and do the work. BUT THAT IS A BIG "IF." And it requires a lot of effort and focus to do it in one sitting. And it makes your fingers sore. And it assumes you have the necessary fret wire in stock and don't have to order it. The "waiting" is just waiting for your place in line. Also, luthiers will put the jobs ahead of you that take an hour and do eight of those, so they can get paid quickly before getting around to a fret job which is more labor intensive. I don't want to be mean, but I sometimes ask, "is your luthier a pothead?" Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it really throws the timetable off. Years ago, I dropped off a telecaster to be refretted. It tooks 15 months and it was my main guitar at the time, playing music professionally (obviously, I had another guitar.) He did a beautiful, perfect job, but still......and yes, I'm sure pot was involved. A larger issue is when 8 hours work becomes 15 months. What does that say about.............well, so many things, really. End of rant.

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