Fret Issues with Reissues

Not everyone puts rare reissues in a vault (maybe they don’t even own a vault). In any case, plenty of guitarists use their reissues up on-stage night-after-night. When the frets begin to wear down, we get calls from owners of these reissues asking if a refret will decrease the value of the instrument. We talked to a few serious collectors and most agree that when caught early, a fret dress might be all that’s required, as frets will often look worse than they actually are. If you’re talking about an authentic 1955 Strat, that answer might be different, but while the value of some reissues will certainly go up (there’s never any 100% accurate way to predict which ones will skyrocket in value 20 years from now), a playable guitar will almost always trump one that’s unplayable because of excess fret wear, which can actually lead to other fingerboard issues down the road.