Metropoulos Forum

My Les Pauls frets are now at a point where their profile is a detriment to the playability. Refret time.

To get a classic Les Paul feel, what size of fret would you go with? I don't want massive frets, never liked em, too bumpy.

Thanks,

Travis

Travis something like a low wide oval profile, not as tall as 6105 frets, these suiting a Fender scale 25.5" radius neck better, look on the Stew Mac catalog for an idea of the profile and dimensions needed.
I had the late great luthier John Zeidler of Philly re fret both of my brand new Gary Moore Heritages back in the late eighties. He used DiMarzio stainless steel wire and I find it is absolutely incredible in giving me some smooth playing substantial frets. With the Gibson 24.75" scale and wider fingerboard, different string spacing, the wire is critical to the playability.




Even my Hamer Chapparal has medium jumbo frets,

Don't go this far though..

LOL
I found the stock Heritage wire at the time was finished rather poorly, had some high spots and I was wanting some meatier wire.
The amount the profile is shaved down will give you your lower fret height.Good luck
P.S. for those asking about my monkey Strat avatar, he was playing a Deliverance banjo, but changed to a Strat and he is an awesome shred monster now, makes me tired just watchin' 'em.. .
Dave

Thanks Dave,

I'll look through the catalogue for sure. I've got a couple guys locally who I'm considering for the job. One I've been to before, one I haven't. The one I haven't been to is about $75 cheaper, but apparently he does really good work. The one I've been to dressed the frets on my strat and did an excellent job, of course my playing style is destroying his beautiful work...

Travis

P.S. I hope it's alright, I added your monkey to my msn emoticons, it fucking rules.

Its your axe but if you liked the way it played befor I'd refret it stock,its not like a pickup you can just swap back.
I refretted my 25th strat and decided on jumbo frets.............I really regret it now.

warmoth has a good discussion and comparison of fret wire on their site.

Thanks chief, I'll check out the discussion.

Sam: I liked it before, but I'm not the original owner, I bought it in the 9th Grade (so 3.5 years back). Even at that point, everyone remarked about how low the frets were. I didn't bend as much at the time, being more into Randy Rhoads (the only reason I chose a Les Paul Custom), so the super worn frets allowed me to pull off awesome smooth legato stuff, but they've always made bending a chore. I'd like to put on whatever you'd find on a vintage standard. These frets have 26 years of gigging on them, and are ridiculously low in some places.

Travis

I like medium highest. They work real well on a Les Paul.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... twire.html

Y308, is that your LP? that's pretty damn cool. I'm not a big emg guy, but I bet it works.

Dunlop 6150 should be perfect for what you seem to be looking for...

Hmmm, that may indeed be the size I want. I have to decide whether I want that, or something a little shorter. I suppose I could just have them worked down till I'm happy with the height.

Travis

Yngwie 308, how do you like the stainless frets? I'm thinking about getting those on my lp custom. Phil

I like them a lot, makes the intonation somewhat sharper as well. At first it was weird though as the frets seemed to oxidize a lot, which for stainless shouldn't be happening, but that went away inexplicably and they have been fine ever since. My "Les Pauls" are in fact Gary Moore Signature model Heritage guitars. I have one of each run of 75 made.
Although constructed identically in 1991, the Amber burst one #055 H35803 has a lighter tone and has a more mellow tone, whereas the Almond burst #045 H28104, which is from the second series, which caused a rift between him and Heritage, as only one run of 75 was to be made, this guitar has a sharper deeper tone, I refer to them by the finishes, the darker and lighter ones! They were re fretted with DiMarzio stainless wire which is a modern style Gibson wide oval size by John Zeidler. I also had him fit Schaller Nashville and Gotoh stop tailpieces, as the Schaller roller bridge and Heritage stop tail, I could not deal with.
It was a very daunting thing having two brand new very limited one off guitars modded, but I wanted to play them and later everybody was changing to either an ABR-1 or Gibson Nashville, with these, plus the conventional stop tailpieces, with Heritage themselves offering the changes in hardware.
The only changes I had to make to my frets post John's incredible work,was to have Jack Romano remove John's trademark triangulated fret ends, as on a jazz arch top that would be cool, but on a blues-rock axe, it was tearing up my hand!
It really makes sense to use stainless as the wear is almost non-existent with stainless, making it a once in a lifetime fret job.
Back to Gary and the Heritages, you won't read this anywhere and it won't Google, but Gary used his prototype Heritage 150 on the After The War tour in 1989 and used it at the Montreux Jazz Festival show in 1990, for the first three numbers and then never again has used a Heritage live.
I am told he has the first Gary Moore Signature model, but it has never been photographed, he never has mentioned it and he severed his endorsement with them. So these Heritages are widely unknown, they are on the heavy side , 10 lbs. each, the Nashvilles with their greater mass suit these guitars better than an ABR-1 and the EMG's fit the guitar perfectly, even with 81's in both positions. These guitars were made on the Kalamazoo machinery that built all the great '50's LP's and with a handbuilt attention to detail and superior quality, that exceeds any Gibson Custom Shop guitar. I would say that they are the best Les Paul guitars ever made by Heritage, when they were at the zenith of their production and quality. Gary's original CM-150 Heritage had a P.J.Marx active hb in the neck with an EMG-81 in the bridge. Here are some clips of that amazing guitar and these I have sound just as killer, just with me playing them, not Gary.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0nKJFVVoYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jnTb_W2Smk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4HMSRgb8dE&feature=user
Sorry this All Your Love is the only one up, the tracking is off, but oh well!
Thanks
yngwie308

I'm sold! My 78 3 pickup lp custom has had a crappy fret job done on it before I got it as a project. Other than the frets it is a great guitar, I don't like the way the ends were beveled. My repairman was expressing interest in trying the stainless fretwire and I thought that my guitar would be the perfect candidate. Thanks for your reply. Phil