In my opinion, the biggest problem with Fender quitars is that I dont have enough money to buy them all!

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

See, this concerns me. I have 20 year-old wear in only a few short months? Were you a beginner 20 years ago? Is this the only guitar you play?

After thinking about this some more, (and sorry for the newbish questions), but what technique causes the greatest fret wear? General rhythm strumming, single note picking, bends, pull-offs, vibratos, or? I Just realized that particular spot under the G string is where I do a pull-off during the course of a song I practice - I imagine a pull-off is somewhat hard on a fret and would create the type of wear I've shown?

I play/practice an average of probably 1.5-2 hours a day - sometimes more, sometimes less, and practicing that song is only a small part of it. (I might do it 10 times or so.) Naturally, I'm not flying up and down the neck (boy, how I wish), but during the course of my playing there are number of different things I do that involve different parts of the neck - various licks, scales, open chord strumming and a few other songs. I'm not hammering on that particular fret the entire time - not even close.

Yes, I might have a bit of a heavy hand as a beginner, but do you guys who say you see little to no fret wear after 20 years ever practice a song over and over until you get it down? I can't imagine what I'm doing to be all THAT different. Of course, I do realize most of what I do is slower and more deliberate than someone experienced.

I'm sure most of you know, but for the benefit of those who don't - seeing fret wear is something you have to specifically look for in just the right light at precisely the right angle. It was actually a bit challenge to get that spot show as well as it does in the image. You can also see some wear under the D, A and low E strings, although not as pronounced. There's also wear in other places but what I've shown is the worst.

But is it possible some of you who are saying you don't have any fret wear after many years of use simply haven't looked that hard? I'm not doubting what you guys are telling me and I'm certainly not discounting your response, Martian ... but I can't help thinking something is not right.

Think back to when you were a beginner. Did you quickly go through frets like this?

I'm actually becoming pretty concerned about this as it's only been a few months. I have an awesome guitar that I love - and I'm afraid to play it! Will I need some frets replaced after only a year? Any suggestions? Maybe I just shouldn't worry about it?

Thanks ... and again, sorry for the newb interruption.

-phil

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Then again, what do I know ... I've only been playin' for 6 months ... !

Hi dbkaiser: I've told this story once before, but it was a long time ago, so...

I was mooching around in a big guitar shop and coming from the demo booth was the sound of some kid playing Stairway more badly than I even thought possible. It truly was horrendous! I caught the eye of the guy behind the counter and with a Roger Moore type laconic raise of one eyebrow I said; "My, I haven't heard Stairway in a guitar shop for a long time."

He gazed fixedly back at me without an ounce of humor in his face and simply said; "I have."

And suddenly in those two words the whole awful tragedy of that fella's daily life was laid out plain to see.

Let's be nice to guitar shop assistants, folks. They suffer on our behalf!

Cheers - C

Ideally you want just enough pressure on the fret to get the job done.Premature fret wear is most likely from digging in too hard against the fret when you bend the string up.I like my action higher than average so I can grab the string with my finger with ease.I also have 1 guitar with tall frets and it requires a lighter touch.I would practice your bends and maybe raise the action a little.

Are some of your frets flattened slightly? You will have to look at them all up close. It looks to me like I can almost see two contact points with the string on fret.

I saw some similar looking frets on a few 2009 American Standards sitting on display in guitar stores. The MIM Standards and Teles were fine though.
On these guitars it appeared to be the lower half of the neck (10 or so onwards)

One possibility is the neck could have had a problem been fret leveled. Either at a store or perhaps at Fender and missed the quality control part when it came to recrowning the dome?

My 2009 American Standard didn't have the problem fortunately.

never had any problems with my fender guitars. I'm real picky before I buy. I'm sure any good dealer would address any problems with a purchased guitar. Fender has been around a long time, which says alot. I've always considered fender as a working mans guitar, quality at a reasonable price.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

budglo-
I played it for more than 20 years--it was never my only guitar, but went through periods where it was the one I played the most--and I used to be pretty heavy handed.
but the only other guitar of mine with fret wear (and it's not quite the same) is my first electric--which took the brunt of my worst habits I had to unlearn.

It is possible though that you got a guitar from a bad batch of fretwire.
But read all the posts and hopefully that helps.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

Wow before everyone wants to string someone up I agree with the OP Now I will admit I am heavy handed and bend the $@!& out of my strings and my frets on my players have had more dressings than I would like.

Right before I injured my hand the last trip my Beck Strat made to my friends shop was for a grind and polish. I had brought this up to my friend who's store has been family owned for 80 years in Brooklyn and he said he has not seen so many Fenders in all his years coming in for a fret dress as in the last 5 years and that he believes Fender is not using as good wire as they used to. By the way he plays Strats so everyone should not jump all over someone as maybe it is true.

I never had any problems fret wise with any guitars made before 2,000 except my 85 Tele that wound up needing a refret after 15 years which would seem normal. Since I cant bend a string for 22 months I have not noticed a problem and I do believe how heavy handed you are or how much you bend plays a big part, as I read SRVs tech said Stevies guitar was refretted 3 times and if the neck did not break he did not think it could of taken another one.

One tip I can throw out there is that when you wipe down your strings grab each one with a cloth and pinch them top to bottom when you slide up and down as the dirt and grime build up on the bottom of your strings can cut into your frets.

Hey if worse comes to worse this might get brought to someones attention and maybe things will get a good looking over. If you are shredding and sweeping or tapping your frets will probably out live you. But if your style is more blues based and you do a lot of bending there will be wear. It was just striking me funny how fast it was happening and someone who is my good friend that is handling 10 Fenders a day I would respect what he says.

Time for a stainless steel refret

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Im lucky if I get two years before needing a fret leveling on my strats and tele. Mostly the cowboy chord area. I learned as a kid on cheap guitars with super high action and cant seem to break myself from choking the neck. Also I play long hours every day.

wonder what happened to our buddy "arkman" ?????

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Phil theres nothing newb'ish about this question. I see players having played for decades still making the same mistake. It's simply a problem with technique that has never been corrected. Luckily your in the prime position as a new player to do something aboit it NOW.

What you have to do is spend a bit of time with each finger on your left hand. Fret a note with them and try to suss out the minimum pressure you can use to make that note ring clearly.

The problem is your applying too much pressure to the frets. Now to my eye this looks like the middle finger on a barre chord shape causing the problem. As a new player barre chords are hard to master. We tend to apply the vice grip to them with the index finger. The middle finger is actually the strongest finger on your hand. (I'm not saying your good at rude hand gestures. Its the same for everyone). So pressure seems to displace from the index finger which is quite safe as its pressure is spread over 6 strings in a barre. To the middle finger that already has superpower and isnt spreading its pressure across 6 strings. It focus's on one string in the barre shape. It's not even the middle fingers fault its muscle memory from being used to using multiple fingers for gripping things.

Now theres another good reason to watch how much pressure you apply. You can fret notes sharp by putting too much pressure on them too.


Luckily the fix is easy and in minimal cases like this one, its do-able by anyone with a bit of care.
I'd go with this system-
http://reviews.photoweborama.com/allthingsguitar1/fret/fret.htm

It's a doddle to do (and you will get the best part if not all of that ding out with a polish). Also it's way better than the dimarzio/planetwaves system.

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No no and no

my 2002 strat only shows slight wear. The action is low. The neck is clean.
I play daily for hours.

Brad mentioned in the main arkman controversy thread:
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=31990
that he banned arkman from the forums.

Ah! That is what I thought. I often wonder what is going on in the life of a person who does the kind of thing he was doing? Seems so....obvious. Or like, Well I am going to get rejected anyway, so I guess I will just act like I have been rejected... ummmmmm

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com