814ce approximate fret life expectancy

[acmeseed]

I play my 6 month old 814ce about 20-30 hours a month, I replaced the strings this weekend and noticed indentations on the first three frets. I figure at this rate I may have to re-fret around the end of the year.

I am wondering if this type of wear is expected given the amount of usage? Would the way the guitar is played affect fret life? I press pretty hard on the strings.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Edward]

Hi Mike,

May I suggest that you not even concern yourself about it
Seriously, if you have any other old guitars, you'll notice that they play fine with fret divots.  And when they get bad enough to cause buzzing, you simply take the guitar in to a good tech to get a fret level/dress, of which you can generally get away with 2-3 times before a refret.  Play it and enjoy it.  Frets are a consumable ...show you love your guitar by playing it within an inch of its life

Edward

[mgap]

show you love your guitar by playing it within an inch of its life

Good advice indeed.

[S MS Picker]

Fret life IMHO  is determined mainly by how hard you fret the strings. I just built bone nuts for 2 custom Teles that are about 5 yrs old. These belong to a full time musician who plays almost nightly on stage. He plays 1 of these on almost every song, and the other on tunes that need the different sound from different pick-ups. Fret wear was almost nil on both guitars. He has a very light fretting hand.
Myself, I am heavy handed. I suspect a bad habit, never broken, from learning on an old Martin 000-18. Looking back, I now realize that the old Martin, while sounding great, played like crap. I've tried to play without a death grip, but I can do it only when playing very softly. The louder I play the hard I fret.When I played electric in bands, I played 11s if that tells you anything. Any lighter and I fretted them out of tune.
Steve

[michaelw]

string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, double-stops & capo use may  have
an effect on fretwear as well, in addition to extremely oxidized strings

[cjd-player]

I play my 6 month old 814ce about 20-30 hours a month, I replaced the strings this weekend and noticed indentations on the first three frets. I figure at this rate I may have to re-fret around the end of the year.

I am wondering if this type of wear is expected given the amount of usage? Would the way the guitar is played affect fret life? I press pretty hard on the strings.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

The fret wear is likely not as bad as it looks.  On a polished surface like a fret, a small, localized deviation of just a couple of thousandths of an inch will significantly change the light reflection, making it very noticable.

[Roseadi]

Good advice so far! I got two years before my first fret dressing. A good time to determine whether you need them dressed is when your guitar is setup properly but on notes where you have a fret divot start buzzing, it's probably a time.

I used to get about two years. I've softened my hand and I now get many years before a dressing, and that's playing around 20-30 hours a week. Another advantage to a soft hand is that it's easier to play, less fatigue, and better tone!