Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My 1984 330's frets are showing their age. In the first 4 or 5 positions that there are significant dents in the frets caused by 22 years of downward string pressure, particularly on the treble side. Whenever I bend the E, B & G strings in those positions, the strings go into those grooves and fret out.

What remedy would I expect to have to have performed to correct this? Would a fret dressing be enough? I'm hesitant to have a refret done, because I believe it would require sanding the finish off the fretboard, which I'm not willing to do.

You could start with a light fret polish. This has rectified a similar problem for me before. There are a number of fret polishing systems available, generally with a bunch of different grade abrasive papers that gradually polish out the pitting. If the grooves are too deep for this, then a fret dress can be done without affecting the fingerboard finish.

At least with the 330, you won't have any neck binding issues even if you had a full refret.

I hope this helps, although I'm sure there are wiser technicians on the forum that can expand on this.

A fret polishing system I could recommend from experience is one made by THOMAS & GINEX. It's available on eBay and is very simple to use.

Good luck!

The T & G fret polishing system, properly used, will undo a mild grooving job. Be sure to tape off the fretboard between frets, though. You will be lowering the frets by the depth of the grooves, which in severe cases will be .015". When you get to about 025" I would term this severe grooving and this would be beyond the capabilities of a T & G job.

In this case a levelling or even a refret or partial refret is the answer. Sounds drastic, but is really a fairly basic operation and gives new life to an older guitar or bass.