Do you level your own guitars?

[Top-L]

About a decade ago I learned to do this myself and its the best thing I ever did. I remember I always used to have a "best player" which is the guitar I would grab because the other ones werent quite as good. Now they are all equally excellent.

The tools are inexpensive and even without prior experience it is possible to greatly improve the playability of your instruments. Musicians generally have a high attention to detail and good dexterity so this is something I believe any musician can learn to do.

I know there are alot of builders here who can do this in their sleep, but for players its also an invaluable skill. And as a player, you don't have to find someone you absolutely trust and who has fast turnaround. (Hint: Some luthiers don't always give quality results in a timely manner.)

 

[GuitarStv]

Yep.

 

[ErikH]

I used to not but during Covid lockdown it was something I started to do myself, very slowly and carefully.

 

[JMP/HBE]

nope i pay for expertise.

 

[Seashore]

Nope. Interested to learn how at some point, no urgent need at the moment.

 

[solspirit]

Yeah, pretty much everything except refretting.

 

[JMP/HBE]

I bias my own amps.
Fix & modify most guitars.
Can do about anything but fretwork is one of those things that are super easy to screw up 1 mm at a time plus im heavy handed and after i screw it up have to pay someone to fix it at which point is what i should have done in the beginning.
And there's a local player kinda famous who opened a shop. I patroned him about 5 years.
He did 5 refrets and a bunch of fret levels. First refret was great but they kept getting worse and worse.
Plus he lived 100 miles away.
Last one was dogsh*t i paid $250 for. Had to take it to someone else to fix.
New guy is 10 minutes from my house.
Just because someone sez they do fretwork doesn't mean its worth a sh*t.
Live & learn.
Its a vicious cycle.:dance:

 

[Top-L]

And there's a local player kinda famous who opened a shop. I patroned him about 5 years.
He did 5 refrets and a bunch of fret levels. First refret was great but they kept getting worse and worse.
Plus he lived 100 miles away.
Last one was dogsh*t i paid $250 for. Had to take it to someone else to fix.
New guy is 10 minutes from my house.
Just because someone sez they do fretwork doesn't mean its worth a sh*t.
Live & learn.
Its a vicious cycle.:dance:

Been there, done that. I figured out that if a shop is backed up and some no-name brings his guitar for a level/setup, it will sit in his backlog for months, and when he finally gets around to it, does a half-ass job to save himself work.

It really is labor intensive and they can take shortcuts. I figure I can do a better job than a luthier who is on a time crunch and doesn't really care.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I would like to learn, TBH. I'm super picky about string action myself.

A good fretjob is usually super espensive here.

One tech I used to go with charged like 20 bucks for a fret level, but he didn't recrown the frets and left them flat. Ugh.

 

[Mincer]

I don't, but have a few people around me who I really trust do that sort of thing.

 

[Top-L]

I would like to learn, TBH. I'm super picky about string action myself.

A good fretjob is usually super espensive here.

One tech I used to go with charged like 20 bucks for a fret level, but he didn't recrown the frets and left them flat. Ugh.

Watch enough youtube videos and you will work up the courage to do it.

I have had guitars plekked, and my biggest concern was that my results would not be as good. But I found that when I started leveling my own guitars, they were better than a guitar that was plekked a couple years prior.

And when I finally got around to leveling the guitar that was previously plekked, it too came out better than it had been.

IME, wood goes through changes over the years that the truss rod can't counteract and it will occasionally need a level.

I set up my guitars with < 1.5mm lowE, 1.3mm highE @ 12th fret. Any higher than that or if there is buzzing at that height, I'm not happy.

 

[Chistopher]

I do quite a bit of it myself, but not everything. Doesn't even depend on the difficulty. This is the same as my views on plumbing and minor vehicle repair. Sometime it isn't worth spending money on someone else to do it when I can do it cheaper, sometimes it's not worth spending time on it when I can get a pro to do it for me. Sometimes working on a guitar is fun and therapeutic, sometimes I have neither the time nor desire to do the work myself.

 

[LRS]

I bias my amp and I set up my guitars. But nut and fret level I leave to a pro. There’s a luthier about 40 minutes drive from where I live and he’s got the only PLEK machine in The Netherlands. When he’s done with your guitar, there’s nothing what would make it play any better than that.

 

[Top-L]

I bias my amp and I set up my guitars. But nut and fret level I leave to a pro. There’s a luthier about 40 minutes drive from where I live and he’s got the only PLEK machine in The Netherlands. When he’s done with your guitar, there’s nothing what would make it play any better than that.

If there was a plek machine in driving distance with a luthier I trusted, I might still be getting them plekked. I have had three different places do pleks for me. One guitar came out exceptional, two of them, there were issues. Plek machines and stainless frets don't stop the ravages of time, unfortunately. And they let the luthier take shortcuts. That once exceptional plekked guitar needed another level a few years later.

Prices have gone up. $300 base, they add extra for a Floyd guitar, then shipping. It ends up around $400-500 and you have to worry about if your guitar will be damaged in shipping. I'd rather just buy a new cheap guitar and level it myself.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Sometimes all you need is a proper setup and no fretwork.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I've only ever had one guitar completely levelled and that 's my Ibby S540 which is one of my oldest guitars bought new in '94 , so almost 30 years old now). I bought a "fret-levelling" kit to try and do it myself but then chickened out and got it done professionally. Dude did a great job with it.....no complaints. If/when I need to do another guitar completely I'll be headng back to him. I can manage filing down the odd fret/sharp end, so that's what I'll stick to, at least for now.

 

[ErikH]

I watched a lot of YouTube videos from different folks, many who are techs themselves and do refrets as well. Once I got an understanding of not just what they are doing but how, then I started to do the work on the cheapest guitar in the house. After working with that one for a while I moved on to another one and adjusted a few things I was doing. By the time I leveled, crowned and polished the frets on my Squier Classic Vibe Strat, I felt comfortable enough to get the results I was after. That thing plays and feels a million times better. I sometimes forget it’s a Squier.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

For me, a fretjob is almost always a necessity with guitars below 1K-ish.

The only exceptions I've found where they don't need it is *usually* new LTD's.

But at this point, LTD's are getting ridiculously expensive. Nowadays, a really high-end LTD is more expensive than an entry level Gibson, PRS S2, or even Japanese Ibanez.

As much as I love LTD and as bad experiences I've had with PRS SE, I wouldn't buy an LTD over a PRS S2 given they cost about the same, for example, personally.

 

[ehdwuld]

I havent had to do a fret job to any of the guitars i have purchased

Not a one

I had my RG2 set up at a shop back in 09

I dont think he leveled the frets

I have the tools to donit with

But i have a dozen guitars that i rotate thru as well

 

[Top-L]

I havent had to do a fret job to any of the guitars i have purchased

Not a one

I had my RG2 set up at a shop back in 09

I dont think he leveled the frets

I have the tools to donit with

But i have a dozen guitars that i rotate thru as well

Either you lead a charmed life or have low standards.