[SCREEM]

I have a guitar with some very low frets, about 1mm high that are level and polished. The guitar is hard to play because i'm getting major friction from the fretboard(varnished), but man what a sound no matter how hard I fret, I can't make a note go sharp and just sounds amazingly well intonated, the drawback is that it's very hard to pull off wild finger vibrato and freting chords is tricky. Anybody else have toughts on the subject?

It's a love/hate thing for me ATM, but man I am digging the warm sound, this is on a strat BTW.

 

[nine]

Personally, I can't stand super low frets like that. Just makes my hands sore from wrestling with the fretboard friction.

 

[violation]

My Ibanez LP has insanely low frets too... I hate it compared to anything else I've played / own but refretting costs quite a bit and I don't really want to risk something going wrong doing it myself. Plus it's super old, lol.

 

[Hamm Guitars]

You could lightly scallop the fretboard. I wouldn't do it if the guitar was worth something though. More then likely it will naturally wear in over time if you continue to play it anyway.

The varnish is an issue though, you might try (carefully) dulling it with some 400 grit sandpaper. It will loose its luster, but it will be more slippery. Again, it will wear in over time, but at least your won't have that sticky feeling when flesh hits unsanded varnish.

 

[SCREEM]

I'll prolly just play it till there is no varnish left, may take a few days....:tongue:

 

[Devon8822]

Smaller frets are definetly harder to play for sure. Even thou they do allow for slightly bettere intonation, IMO the playability factor outweighs it... and the thing is small frets are acctually quite pointless that why only reissue strat ussually have them now. You can get the same kind on exact intonation with tall and thin fretwire... the tallness allows for better playabilty and the thinness give better intonation. Look at Ritchie Blackmore he filled his frets to be super thin for uber intonation.