I’ve got a 69 Reissue Custom Shop Strat.

The guitar is really wonderful in every aspect (and features a flamed maple fretboard, which makes it extra special), however I simply can’t get used to the vintage frets. I’ve raised the action to aid bending, but it’s still a struggle to get under those strings and more often than not I end up reaching for my Deluxe Tele instead.

I’ve been thinking of refretting the Strat’s board with medium jumbo frets.

My questions are:

1. Will this aid bending / digging?
2. Are there any disadvantages in doing this?
3. Can anyone recommend a good luthier where to do this work in the West London / Berkshire area in the UK?
4. What sort of cost am I looking at?

Thanks in advance

Only one place to go to have work done on a guitar of such note. Charlie Chandlers.

I'm happy to do fretwork. I plan on re-fretting my Johnny Ramone guitar over the holidays. For similar reasons to you. I'll probably be lessening the radius of the board too.

However there are certain guitars I own where I am not comfortable doing that sort of work. Particularly maple boards.
Worth the cost to have the bloke who does anyone who's anyone's guitars.

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Thanks Niki.
Charlie Chandler's shop is not too far from me actually, so that could work.
I've had a look at their website and the price list indicates £260 - £320 for a re-fret. I'd probably pay that for a top job, but in your opinion - will the improvement be really noticeable from a playability perspective? In other words, is it worth it?

All I can tell you is that I'm expecting a vast improvement on my project. But that is being undertaken for probably very different reasons to yours.
I just want comfort with fast chord changes. The guitar has a skinny neck, a flat fingerboard and vintage frets. So after 10 minutes of hammering out barre chords on downstrokes only and trying to quickly move shape up and down the neck, it gets painful.

The only way I can relate to your problem is that one of my cheapo strats has 9.5" radius and vintage frets. I don't struggle to bend on that. But thats me, not you. With what I do, it doesn't matter if something sounds a bit raggedy. As long as it's raggedy in the right place.

I've always been of the opinion that fret size aids comfort more than it facilitates bending. In that you can feel your way over tall frets easier than you can short ones. I think string height plays more a part in comfortable bending than fret size or radius do. I think radius has so little to do with bending ability, it's not worth mentioning. My LP has a 12" radius, my strats have 9.5", my Eastwood has a perfectly flat fretboard. I don't notice any difference between them when it comes to bending. I'm firmly of the opinion that the bending/radius thing a load of crap invented to sell product.
Of the handful of stars guitars (not really stars but people who make their living playing) I've handled, I can't recall one with low string height. All seemed to be around 3-4mm at the 12th.
But there are reasons for that. They take a lot more hammering for one thing and the gentleness needed to play a low action isn't easy to achieve in a live environment.

All I can tell you about medium jumbo frets is that both Gibson and Fender use them. Both brands make the most comfortable guitars out there. Thats why they sell well. If the guitars were uncomfortable, they wouldn't sell.

You'll get no better advice than Charlies. He doesn't want unhappy customers. He wants customers that come back. It's probably worth popping in to see the bloke with your guitar in tow. From what I've seen of his work £320 for a refret is good value.

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Thanks again Niki

Useful insights. And you are right in that everyone has a personal preference which could be totally different from the next person's preference. I remember when I bought my Les Paul, the action was ridiculously low and I could not bend a string accurately to save my life, yet the guy who sold it to me displayed a level of bending dexterity which simply demonstrated that it was not the tool's, but the craftsman's (i.e. my) fault.

I don't think I share your opinion about the radius / bending thing being a load of crap though, but again that's a personal thing. I had a 62 RI Strat, the sound of which I loved but ultimately had to sell because the 7.25'' radius made the notes chalk in the higher registers when bending the the e and b strings. I tried raising the action to a point where it would not do it anymore, but that made it uncomfortable. To me. I highlighted that "problem" on a forum (it could have been this one) and many people discounted it as fussiness. But to me it was more that that and ultimately limited my enjoyment from that particular guitar.

This 69 RI is a different beast though. Like many people feel a connection with a particular guitar, that's what I (think) feel with this guitar. That's why I am still undecided whether to refret or not. Many players seem to have no trouble bending on a vintage neck (radius and frets), so maybe I just need to get used to it. Ideally I would love the feel of my Am Deluxe Tele 2012 (the neck of which is just glorious to hold and play), but I guess this is the reason why people have several guitars - so that they feel a different vibe every time they hold a different guitar - including the feeling of struggle and resistance.

Ah, decisions, decisions....