Do Needed Services Devalue Guitars? 

For sure. Interestingly, on violins it is much easier to remove the fingerboard. They are built with the removal in mind.

The way you put your thoughts into words, really sounds like poetry.

Thanks for dropping by.

That’s the spirit. Keep an eye on the channel, because soon I will be announcing live streams. I’m just not 100% mentally ready yet.

Future generations will no doubt come up with new music and new types of instruments. Guitars will undoubtedly drop in value. There are simply too many of them around.

@@GuitarQuackery Indeed

@@jarodreddig63 I guess it will be a great buyers' market for those who will wan to play old fashioned music on nearly forgotten instruments. And I guess guitar repair techs will be what typewrite repair techs are today.

I just want to play it. Then I want to fix it. And then I want to play it again. Then fix it again. Then play it again and so on.

You make very good points. I think there are many different reasons why techs might decide to level the boards. Let's say one tech levels it on the first refret, after finding that the board is not trued. Decades later the board has dimples from the fingers and at that time one tech might decide to fill them. After filling, the leveling should take place. So, leveling should touch the entire board. Another tech might decide to level the dimples with the board, instead of filling. But in either case, leveling took place. There might also be a scenario when yet another tech decides to use a short leveling beam to touch up just one area of the board. That might lead to another tech discovering that the board is is kicking upwards over the fingerboard extension, so leveling the entire board (again) might be what that tech recommends. There could be also a scenario where the truss rod is maxed out and a tech decides to level the board at the two extreme ends, to reduce the up-bow. I can think of many scenarios where multiple tech work on the fretboards, each having a different idea on how to tackle a refret, for different owners, with different budgets. I really don't think there is a fretboard that will stay true over the course of decades and that will never again have to be leveled. For example, if we look at an old granite stairway, all the stairs are worn down from all the foot traffic. It does take many decades, or even a few centuries of constant foot traffic, but eventually they do wear down. Again, I do think you are making really good points and I am simply presenting all these other possible scenarios. In a more ideal hypothetical scenario the guitar would only be worked on by the same tech, over many decades, but that is of course not possible. Even in that case, again, I don't think the board would stay true forever.

Right on.

Sports Injury or repetitive motion injury is most often due to muscle adhesion that goes unaddressed before and after activity. Pro guitar hand/arm stretches involving myofacial release have spared me from being palsied by the fury of my guitar playing. I'm 72.

I think if you have a 1 inch thick neck, it is less likely that the fretboard would need to be planed. On thinner necks (the so-called fast necks) there is a higher possibility that planning the fretboard will be required, due to the possible twisting and/or bending of the neck. I have had situations when I was leveling the frets, only to discover that some of the frets were losing a lot of height, on one end, because the board was uneven. In act, the guitar in this video had this problem. I was initially doing a fret Level, Crown & Polish and discovered that some of the frets would have to end up quite thin. After I discussed with the customer, he decided to have me do a refret.

Its going to be some AI powered instrument, made out of plastic and a microprocessor, and a built-in battery. No skill required to play. Which will also mark the end of music lessons. Welcome to the future.

I even heard that guitars are considered to be vintage if they are older than 25 years.

@@GuitarQuackery that means I would have a vintage stratocaster if my parents hadn't sold it as a punishment for disassembling it to see how it worked! On the other hand, I gained a much more valuable, intangible skill so I think it was worth it.

This seems to be the most frequent comment on this video. Not surprisingly, actually. As it makes sense. I already wrote a long reply to one of the comments, so I think I can just do a copy and paste here. "I think there are many different reasons why techs might decide to level the boards. Let's say one tech levels it on the first refret, after finding that the board is not trued. Decades later the board has dimples from the fingers and at that time one tech might decide to fill them. After filling, the leveling should take place. So, leveling should touch the entire board. Another tech might decide to level the dimples with the board, instead of filling. But in either case, leveling took place. There might also be a scenario when yet another tech decides to use a short leveling beam to touch up just one area of the board. That might lead to another tech discovering that the board is is kicking upwards over the fingerboard extension, so leveling the entire board (again) might be what that tech recommends. There could be also a scenario where the truss rod is maxed out and a tech decides to level the board at the two extreme ends, to reduce the up-bow. I can think of many scenarios where multiple tech work on the fretboards, each having a different idea on how to tackle a refret, for different owners, with different budgets. I really don't think there is a fretboard that will stay true over the course of decades and that will never again have to be leveled. For example, if we look at an old granite stairway, all the stairs are worn down from all the foot traffic. It does take many decades, or even a few centuries of constant foot traffic, but eventually they do wear down. Again, I do think you are making really good points and I am simply presenting all these other possible scenarios. In a more ideal hypothetical scenario the guitar would only be worked on by the same tech, over many decades, but that is of course not possible. Even in that case, again, I don't think the board would stay true forever."

@@GuitarQuackerythank you for the detailed response! I had no idea other people had the same questions.

I’ve refretted guitars that had stainless steel frets on them.

@@GuitarQuackery Sure but they'll last a lot longer than standard frets for sure ! I've had a strat with Stainless since 2005 and I can barely see any wear at all ! Keep Rockin and Fixing Instruments !

@@tobbebergman7583 They will definitely last longer than standard frets. For sure most of them will never be refretted.

Interestingly, different people wear through the frets at different rates. My current hypothesis is that it must have something to do with skin type. it also has to do with the condition of the strings. Some people let their strings develop rust, which is more abrasive to the frets.