I had an idea for a little side hustle. I have more than a little experience with fret and nut work, specifically stainless steel frets. As far as I know, the only way to get a Strat neck with stainless frets is from maybe Warmoth? I guess, and maybe Kiesel if you buy their Strat type kit guitar and ask them to put SS frets in it. There may be others, but I don't know of any. Maybe contacting a small custom builder, and they'll likely charge you out the wazoo for it. And so would Warmoth.
Most techs and luthiers just seem to hate stainless steel frets, I guess because they're harder to work with. So they're going to overcharge and spread misinformation (stainless steel frets DO NOT SOUND ANY DIFFERENT THAN NICKEL SILVER ONES. There is absolutely zero scientific basis for this claim, although I do enjoy listening to people try to explain how it could even be possible.).
Anyway, I just had the idea of buying some inexpensive but quality Strat or Tele replacement necks from GFS or some other supplier, refretting them with stainless steel fretwire, leveling them, cutting their nut slots down close where they should be, and reselling them on Reverb or ebay. Or a guitar oriented forum like this one if anyone was potentially interested in something like that.
I don't yet know what to charge for such a thing. Genuine Fender necks seem to go for between two and three hundred bucks, which is insane. But fretwork and nut work is highly specialized and detailed work, I'd have to charge enough to be worth it, maybe somewhere between $150 to $200? What would you guys think would be reasonable if you were interested in something like that? Would you ever be interested in something like that?
I've just got all these special tools and special skills that are just being used on my own guitars and some of my friends', who I don't charge. They might as well make me some money (the skills and tools, not my friends).
And I do quality work. My first stainless steel refret, level and dress was about fifteen years ago on a Squier '51, and that thing still plays like a Ferrari drives. And they look the same as the day I installed them.
I actually did a little fretwork by mail around that time, through another guitar forum. But I did it for free, the guys just had to pay their shipping both ways and I did a level and dress for them, no charge. It's not like I had a shop or anything, I'm just some schmuck living in the middle of nowhere. But they were thrilled when they got their guitars back and played them. I thought about doing that to make some coin, but the shipping was pretty outrageous (oh, how innocent we were) so it didn't really make sense for the client. And I was nervous I'd ding somebody's nice guitar when I didn't have any kind of insurance to cover it. I didn't have a spray booth either, I couldn't do finish repairs.
Any way, this neck idea would make more sense. I'm just shipping an item one way, I'll make sure to include lots of pictures, if the neck has flaws I'll make sure they're documented.
Okay, I'm rambling. Sorry gents. What do you all think? It just seems like this is a little hole in the guitar parts market that no one is selling to, and I think there's a lot of players out there who would love to put a neck on their Strat or Tele with frets that will never wear out or even tarnish, frets that have been installed and leveled by someone who knows what they're doing, so the guitar is going to play smooth and easy FOREVER, provided it gets installed and set up right.
I know this is my idea here so I'm biased, but if I didn't get so much into guitar repair and I was just a guy with a favorite Strat or Tele type guitar and I found out about this, I'd be pretty stoked this sort of thing was even available and for less money than most techs would charge for a stainless steel refret. I think I'd want one, what do you think?
Most techs and luthiers just seem to hate stainless steel frets, I guess because they're harder to work with. So they're going to overcharge and spread misinformation (stainless steel frets DO NOT SOUND ANY DIFFERENT THAN NICKEL SILVER ONES. There is absolutely zero scientific basis for this claim, although I do enjoy listening to people try to explain how it could even be possible.).
Anyway, I just had the idea of buying some inexpensive but quality Strat or Tele replacement necks from GFS or some other supplier, refretting them with stainless steel fretwire, leveling them, cutting their nut slots down close where they should be, and reselling them on Reverb or ebay. Or a guitar oriented forum like this one if anyone was potentially interested in something like that.
I don't yet know what to charge for such a thing. Genuine Fender necks seem to go for between two and three hundred bucks, which is insane. But fretwork and nut work is highly specialized and detailed work, I'd have to charge enough to be worth it, maybe somewhere between $150 to $200? What would you guys think would be reasonable if you were interested in something like that? Would you ever be interested in something like that?
I've just got all these special tools and special skills that are just being used on my own guitars and some of my friends', who I don't charge. They might as well make me some money (the skills and tools, not my friends).
And I do quality work. My first stainless steel refret, level and dress was about fifteen years ago on a Squier '51, and that thing still plays like a Ferrari drives. And they look the same as the day I installed them.
I actually did a little fretwork by mail around that time, through another guitar forum. But I did it for free, the guys just had to pay their shipping both ways and I did a level and dress for them, no charge. It's not like I had a shop or anything, I'm just some schmuck living in the middle of nowhere. But they were thrilled when they got their guitars back and played them. I thought about doing that to make some coin, but the shipping was pretty outrageous (oh, how innocent we were) so it didn't really make sense for the client. And I was nervous I'd ding somebody's nice guitar when I didn't have any kind of insurance to cover it. I didn't have a spray booth either, I couldn't do finish repairs.
Any way, this neck idea would make more sense. I'm just shipping an item one way, I'll make sure to include lots of pictures, if the neck has flaws I'll make sure they're documented.
Okay, I'm rambling. Sorry gents. What do you all think? It just seems like this is a little hole in the guitar parts market that no one is selling to, and I think there's a lot of players out there who would love to put a neck on their Strat or Tele with frets that will never wear out or even tarnish, frets that have been installed and leveled by someone who knows what they're doing, so the guitar is going to play smooth and easy FOREVER, provided it gets installed and set up right.
I know this is my idea here so I'm biased, but if I didn't get so much into guitar repair and I was just a guy with a favorite Strat or Tele type guitar and I found out about this, I'd be pretty stoked this sort of thing was even available and for less money than most techs would charge for a stainless steel refret. I think I'd want one, what do you think?
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