izston Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Hi, I bought a '82 Hummingbird through the net and am very happy with the sound. The only thing.. I find it challenging to hold down a good ringing bar chord, and the frets do seem very low. In saying this they don't look particularly worn. I have had a guitar tech. look at it but I won't go into detail as I'm not entirely convinced he was on the right path. I have tried a new Hummingbird in the store since I have had mine and the frets were more prominent. I so have other acoustics that barring seems a little if not a lot easier to hold down. Any comments and views would be appreciated. izston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Morton Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 A guitar that is 30 years old very well may need new frets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfox14 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Sounds like the guitar needs some work. Possibly a complete re-fret (doesn't sound that way from your description), but maybe just a re-dress of the existing frets and some attention paid to adjusting the action and other adjustments needed to make it more playable. Is the action high? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buc McMaster Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 An '82 model could well have had a fret dress or two done which would lower the fret height. If they are re-crowned properly they would still appear to be like new in appearance, but lower. The others may be right.....it might be time for a refret if they are too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izston Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 A guitar that is 30 years old very well may need new frets. Thanks for gettin back. A re-fret was discussed with the tech and looks like I might have to go for it. I work away 4 weeks at a time and therefore get a lot of time to practice. I have been really working on bar chords determined to make this a guitar sing as true as possible. Thinking I will look at the whole fret thing as a "personality quirk".... maybe I better get the fret job . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izston Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 An '82 model could well have had a fret dress or two done which would lower the fret height. If they are re-crowned properly they would still appear to be like new in appearance, but lower. The others may be right.....it might be time for a refret if they are too low. I appreciate your comments, and maybe I didn't take the age of the guitar into account as much as I should have. How big a job is it to re-fret, for a guitar tech that is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Sounds to me like your 'bird has been well played and loved, and has had a couple of fret dresses in the past, reducing the fret height to the skinny level you're at now. A refret will make a world of difference-I owned an SJ200 for many years which I played all the time, and eventually had the frets dressed down to next-to-nothing. I got frustrated with the playability and the feel of the skinny frets, and plumped for a refret, new nut and setup. It was the best possible decision I could have made. The guitar came back playing and sounding like a dream. I had it refretted with jumbo fretwire, the kind normally found on a Les Paul Standard. I like my frets chunky! Another fretwire option to consider is the relatively new Evo fretwire, which is purportedly much harder than traditional wire. The end result is frets that are hard work for the luthier to fit, but that wear much less quickly and contribute a little more brightness and clarity to your tone. Let us know how you get on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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