Dents on frets?

ncsurfer
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:01 pm

Whenever changing my strings I have noticed that the first four frets have dents/impressions where the B and high E strings are, with the deepest dents at the first fret and diminishing down (or is it up?) the neck. The other strings don't seem to be affected.
I imagine this must affect playability at those positions and am wondering why does this happen? Is this normal? Should I be concerned? Perhaps I'm holding the chords too hard? It's a Taylor 114ce and I've had it less than two years. Any ideas or wisdom out there about this?


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daryl
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:34 pm

Fret wear. Do you play alot? I found this on another forum.....

"My Taylor (310-CE) was purchased last Christmas and within 3 months I noticed some buzzing. A trip to the music store's repairman said I needed a fret dress. After paying $1,200 for the
guitar I didn't feel right about forking over another $100 to have this done. I contacted Taylor and they referred me to their authorized repairman. He looked at the guitar and showed me where the frets were wearing out. He offered to do a fret job for around $120, but added that the next time I would need to replace the frets so.....I'm figuring at least one fret dress and one set of new frets a year costing about $450 total each year including putting up with a few months of buzzing. I'm thinking I can't afford the maintenance on my Taylor and my wife will not understand (and neither do I). He called Taylor for me and they admitted that their frets do wear faster than other guitars and explained why: "the Taylor frets are designed with a higher profile to attain near perfect intonation. This is accomplished by a smaller fret wire which gives a more precise contact point on the string, which in turn helps give that beautiful Taylor sound." They offered to pay 1/2 of the price for my first fret dress, but after that I would be on my own. I decided wait on the fret job and call Taylor myself. In spoke with Zach. After getting the same story I asked why they don't warn people that Taylor guitars are high maintenance and costly after the initial purchase. I told him about getting 10 years out of my Yamaha before it started buzzing and he said something about the tires wearing out on a Roll Royce as well as a Volkswagon. It didn't make much sense to me , but I guess he felt better. I asked if they would take the guitar back and he flatly refused. He also said that I was in the extreme minority complaining about fret wear. After looking through the threads on fret wear I find that hard to believe. Although Taylor guitars do sound beautiful (for awhile) there is a price to pay and Taylor will not back up their own product. They have come up with quite a guitar, but they are not being honest or fair with their customers. What goes around comes around though and people will get the word out, maybe Taylor will address this problem and finish the wonderful guitar they started."


Do other Taylor owners at TG notice excessive fret wear?


Hydroman52
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:39 pm

This may help . . . .

Frets and Fret Wear

There are two pages to the explanation at this link. Be sure to click on "MORE" at the bottom of the first page to navigate to the second one. There is more good information there, too.

Hope that helps,

Hydroman52


BigBear
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:17 pm

I've had a fret dress on my Taylor 314 but only to address a minor buzzing problem. Neither of my Taylors (855 or 314) has shown any excessive fret wear.

Older Taylors used a different neck/body connection so it was a little more challenging to adjust the fretboard for side-to-side warping. Newer Taylors have a much more adjustable neck and this problem has essentially vanished.

$450 per year just for frets seems outrageously high. I've never heard of anything like that. I was told by my repair tech to check what kind of fret wire they intend to use when they re-fret because there are different types and it does make a difference.


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neverfoundthetime
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:38 pm

I have the same sort of fret wear on my Takamine 12 string.... but it is 25 years old so to be expected. No buzzing though.


dennisg
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:53 pm

It's not at all unusual for fret wire to wear on guitars that see a lot of use. And how you play and the tension of your capo can affect fret wear, too. From what I've been able to gather, guitar manufacturers all typically buy their fret wire from the same small pool of manufacturers, so it's not likely that one brand of guitar would necessarily be very different from another brand in that regard.

I know from hanging around the Taylor forum that some guys who have custom guitars built will specify a super-hard wire from a company called Jescar. You can read about it here. http://www.jescar.com/ If this appeals to you, you can have your local luthier order it.


sbutler
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:58 pm

The 414ce, that I got from haoli (Bill), has dents in the exact same spots as ncsurfers, but this guitar is at least 9 years old, and I don't have a clue how much Bill played it.

I'm wearin the thing out, and it does have some buzzing, but my problem buzz isn't coming from those spots. My buzz is from the low e string.


Scott


haoli25
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Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:34 pm

sbutler wrote:
The 414ce, that I got from haoli (Bill), has dents in the exact same spots as ncsurfers, but this guitar is at least 9 years old, and I don't have a clue how much Bill played it.

I'm wearin the thing out, and it does have some buzzing, but my problem buzz isn't coming from those spots. My buzz is from the low e string.


Scott

Scott, it wasn't me, it was someone that looked like me that did it. :P

Yes, I played it A LOT and bends are very hard on fingers, strings, and frets. I changed the strings just before I sent it to Matt in California and that is when I noticed the worn frets. Had I not promised to send it right away, I would have taken it to my luthier and had him level and crown the frets for you.
I don't think the problem is a Taylor problem, in my case it is more of a Bill problem. I have worn out frets on my 814ce, my Martins, a Fender, and a Gibson....many times. My luthier (and his family) like me A LOT!!!

He charges $15 to level and crown a fret and $25 to replace them. Your milage may vary.


Bill


AndyT
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Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:26 am

How hard you press the strings does have a lot to do with it, but $450 seems extreme to me.
My Luthier told me that most techs use a softer fret wire so you don't get a 'clicking' sound as the string hits the fret.
It's a personal preference thing in the long run. A harder wire lasts longer but produces more noise.

Gracie is still on her original frets, but she will need a couple of new ones next trip in. I'm not looking forward to laying out the $300.
Yeah, $300 because my Luth says might as well get them all done at once. I'm past re-crowning on all of them.


Hydroman52
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Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:06 pm

andyt wrote:
Gracie is still on her original frets, but she will need a couple of new ones next trip in.
Andy, Just curious . . . . do you have an idea of how long it took or will take you to get to the point of a re-fretting? I know that there are many variables involved in the hows and whys of fret wear (type of fret wire, amount of play time, type of strings, gravitational effect of Venus on Mars, etc.), but I'm just curious of the big picture.

Thanks,
Hydroman52


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