refret keeping the nibs: how does this look?

[hikizume976]

I had my guitar refretted recently. I wanted to keep the nibs. Here's the after picture

Is it supposed to look like this and am I over thinking this?

Maybe I didn't do enough research beforehand, and if that's the case, that's on me, but I would have thought that it
would have looked better?

 

[gball]

Looks like you used a much bigger fretwire than original, and then the luthier did not taper the ends of the frets to match the nibs. Personally I would not be happy with that job - you will feel the untapered ends of those frets when you play. I'd rather lose the nibs and round off the ends of the frets.

I had a similar problem on a Custom many years ago. I needed a refret on my '77 that I had bought new and was the only owner. Guys said no problem to keep the nibs, but he botched the job and left gaps, then when he went to correct the issue he messed up the fretboard and the guitar was never right again, and I ended up selling it even though it was my first Gibson/Les Paul and had a lot of sentimental value (I was too poor at the time to buy another and keep it).

 

[strayedstrater]

The frets are a lot taller than the originals. To bring the ends down to meet the tops of the nibs you'd lose a fairly big part of the playable width of the frets. Plus those frets have perfect round crowns, not Gibson's typical "school bus" flattened crowns, making them even harder to blend into the existing nibs.

Ideally, the tech would have melted some binding in acetone to make a goopy putty to rebuild the nibs higher, then file the nibs down to meet the fret ends. But the tech may have thought he couldn't get a good color match or something.

They'll be easier to blend in after the frets have enough wear to need their first releveling and recrowning. (Although they look like stainless so that might be a long time in the future.)
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Do the E strings pull/push off the ends of the frets while playing and snag on the ends of the frets? If not, having the full length of the frets level and playable is probably better than sloping the ends down to meet the low nibs.
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If all the frets have that perfect fit butting up to the nibs, overall it's a good job. Other than adding material to the top of the nibs you really can't get a perfect transition from low nibs to tall frets.
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Tech probably should have discussed that with you when you specified the fret wire, and told you either to choose lower wire or lose the nibs if you didn't want awkward transitions from the old nibs to the new frets.

 

[CB91710]

If all the frets have that perfect fit butting up to the nibs, overall it's a good job. Other than adding material to the top of the nibs you really can't get a perfect transition from low nibs to tall frets.
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Tech probably should have discussed that with you when you specified the fret wire, and told you either to choose lower wire or lose the nibs if you didn't want awkward transitions from the old nibs to the new frets.

+1
Other than the transition to the nibs, that looks like a beautiful job and you will get many years out of those frets.

 

[hikizume976]

Thanks for the replies.

If I would have known it would like this, I would have opted for removing the nibs.

I don't know what to do now. This cost a lot of money and I don't feel like I'm at fault here. I'm going to bring this up when I pick up the guitar later today, I bet it won't be pretty.

 

[LtDave32]

edit, I didn't read the OP correctly. But that's not a bad job.

 

[the great waldo]

He's done a good job on that guitar. Keeping nibs on a les paul custom is a pain at the best of times. I used to do new binding retouch the laquer , the whole 9 yards, but that was when Guiness was 1 shilling and 6 pence a pint. You could get decent binding then easily, nitro from the car paint shop around the corner and good fretwire from Gibson. I would leave that guitar as is and play it. Don't go down the road of building up with acetone binding goop. Be happy he's done a nice job.
Cheers
Andrew

 

[LtDave32]

It's almost impossible to refret and keep the original nibbed binding enda. Binding gets worn and olf, there often isn't much to work with. Each fret has to be perfectly sized, and that's hard to do because the fret changes a bit as it gets installed.

In my shop, I will insist on pulling the fret board and installing new binding if they want nibs.

 

[hikizume976]

Thank you everyone once again for sharing your knowledge with me

I just picked up the guitar. I think it was just a case of having the wrong expectations, and these super zoomed in pictures make them look worse. I mean, they look tampered with, but that's what happened. It plays great and I'm pretty with how it came out

 

[DaveR]

and these super zoomed in pictures make them look worse.

I take pics with my phone as I’m building guitars and post them here and on FB. I frequently discover terrible looking flaws while zooming in on the high res pics that my 42 year old eyes can’t even SEE in person. I wear reading glasses for detail work, but on the final product If I can’t see it with my bare eyeballs, it’s not a problem.

 

[Jim_E]

Ideally, the tech would have melted some binding in acetone to make a goopy putty to rebuild the nibs higher, then file the nibs down to meet the fret ends. But the tech may have thought he couldn't get a good color match or something.

Exactly, why put all the work into fitting the frets perfectly and not build up the nibs, it's so easy to do and so easy to blend...

 

[Note Milker]

Looks pretty good to me! It was a fretless wonder, now it has real frets, that tech did a nice job. Nerves of steel to take on that job. I would not try to fill it and color match, too much risk, no going back from there.... Looks like it will really play great! Big bends and hammers all over the neck. Buy that guy a cold one. He needs it.