Fair price for fret level/re-crown?

[JagWire]

Looking for opinions on what people consider to be a fair price for a fret leveling and re-crown. There is one luthier here in town who quoted me $150 which seems a little high.

Does this procedure generally cost this much or should I shop around? Also is this a pretty straight forward thing or is it easy for someone to fuck it up?

[prospect]

Looking for opinions on what people consider to be a fair price for a fret leveling and re-crown. There is one luthier here in town who quoted me $150 which seems a little high.

Does this procedure generally cost this much or should I shop around? Also is this a pretty straight forward thing or is it easy for someone to fuck it up?

It really depends on where you are and the luthier's reputation.

Here is a good price guide from a very reputable luthier shop.
https://www.thirdcoastguitar.com/repair-estimates

They are asking $90 for a fret-level, re-crown, and fret ends, PLUS an additional $65-75 to set it up. (or just $125 if no set up, which is dumb).

So, that price is reasonable. A proper fret level, polish, and crowning takes time. Further, its a special skill and requires special tooling.

[Fiddy]

If they do a good job that would be cheap OP.

[timtam]

Also is this a pretty straight forward thing or is it easy for someone to fuck it up?

Pretty easy to FU if you haven't done it before. So best to start on a cheap guitar. A pro will often use a rig to level under string-like forces (arguably better ?), but the typical way for a hobbyist and other techs to do it is ...
- first check for and fix any unseated frets
- adjust the truss rod to straighten the neck to flat
- mask between the frets with tape, then mark frets with texta
- level the frets
- crown
- sand out scratch marks then polish
- put the relief back in with the truss rod
In addition to levelling the frets you may also want to add a slight downslope to the upper frets.

So for a basic approach you need a truss rod wrench, notched straight edge (for your scale length), perfectly-flat levelling beam (or radius block in a pinch), fret crowning file, and maybe a fret-end dressing file, plus various sandpapers and tape. A fret rocker is handy to diagnose where your high frets are, but not actually necessary if you have already decided to level them all. That's well over $150 worth from Stewmac, although you can find cheaper if you know what to look for. The only Stewmac fret tools I have are the Z-file crowning file and the fret-end dressing file.

This all assumes that the neck does not have any more serious problems that could require fret removal, re-levelling the board, re-fret, etc.

The $150 quote could also include other things like setup / nut work (for which another $100 set of files is generally used). For someone with a good reputation that amount is not unreasonable. But prices vary for reasons other than skill too (city size, business costs, etc).

[prospect]

If they do a good job that would be cheap OP.

+1

[andy_tchp]

If they do a good job that would be cheap OP.

+2.

It's not difficult once you have the tools and understand the concept of what you're doing, but it sure is a tedious, time-consuming job.

Timtam raises a good point; the nut slots need a little cutting once the frets have been levelled, and is (or should be!) considered part of the job.

[Horsefeather]

Just buy a couple fret crowning files and do it yourself. Afterwards you'll wonder why anyone would pay to have it done. It's pretty stupid easy and the most time consuming part is the masking of the frets w/ tape.

For a sanding block, go find yourself a marble counter top place and grab a remnant piece from their bin. When I got mine it took about a minute to find a narrow end cut that's a couple inches wide and as long as a typical counter depth, which is 24". I also grabbed a longer piece of silestone or something like that for doing basses. Anyway, point is it's easy to get and probably free. Stone counter tops are very flat and pretty ideal for this job.

For getting your fretboard flat before starting you can use this same piece. I use a little side table I have with a marble top but whatever is easiest. My feeling is that the fretboard doesn't really even need to be PERFECTLY flat when you start. By the time you're done it will be so if that means there's just a tiny bit of preload "filed in", well no big deal.

Get yourself a 2" wide roll of adhesive sandpaper, too. I got a roll from an auto paint shop years ago but I'm sure you can just find it online, too. Just get something relatively fine. Slap a piece on your slab and you're ready to rock.

Now you can level your frets! I'm working my way through all my guitars. I just do it at string changes. It takes less than a hour and is super satisfying.

I mark them in blue, sand until each one shows bare metal, mark them again, and recrown so that just a thin bit of blue shows across each one. Then I sand/polish them with 2000 grit or 0000 steel wool, remove the tape, hit the fretboard with some oil to clean it up and remove any tape residue, and then restring and off to the races.

[øøøøøøø]

This is somewhat dependent on geography.

And very dependent on how good/in-demand the luthier.

It's worth paying for a good job.

[B]

It's worth paying for a good job.

This. $150 is totally fair.

[JagWire]

Just go back in town and saw all these replies.

I think I'm gonna go with the guy asking $150. He seems to have a really good reputation here in Louisville.

http://www.barneysguitarservice.com/

[Telliot]

It's worth paying for a good job.

This. $150 is totally fair.

This.

[Fiddy]

I paid around $500 CAD for a refret, and a nut for a guitar at a place called the 12th fret in Toronto, and I can honestly say, they deserve every penny. That guitar plays incredible. I even lowered the action considerably and i still dont hear any buzz.