The Tiny Fret Clue That Separates Hand Work From Machine

A detail nobody checks first

Run a finger across a fretboard and you expect every fret to sit at the same height, crowned into a smooth little arc. That sounds like a detail nobody outside a repair bench would care about, but it is the fastest way to tell who put the frets on · and when that refret happened on a guitar you are sizing up, the answer changes what the instrument is worth.

What does a loupe reveal under raking light?

Hold a neck at a low angle under a desk lamp and look down the fretboard like a sniper sighting a rifle. Machine-pressed frets show an even arc across every fret, because a press stamps them all to the same radius in one motion. Hand-filed frets show tiny facets, flat spots where a file passed at a slightly different angle each time. A Stratocaster brought in with buzzing low strings often hides this story under the strings: one or two frets filed a hair lower than the rest by hand, which is why the buzz only shows up past the seventh fret instead of everywhere.

The edges tell a different story than the crown

Run a thumb along the edge of the fretboard where the frets meet the wood. Machine refrets, done on dedicated fretting stations, almost always leave crisp, identical bevels on every fret end. Hand refretting happens fret by fret with hand tools, and the bevel angle drifts slightly from one fret to the next, sometimes sharper near the nut and softer by the twelfth fret. That drift is not a flaw. It is a fingerprint, and it tells you a person, not a machine, held the file.

Nicks that give away the whole job

Look at the finish where the fretboard meets the headstock and where it meets the body joint. A shop doing volume work, including the repair bench that handles trade-ins for A-1 Trade & Loan on Commercial Drive, will often pull the neck off the body before refretting by machine, which protects the finish. A hand refret done with the neck still bolted on tends to leave small scrape marks near the pickup route, or a thin line of fresh touch-up lacquer at the heel. Clamping and hammering frets in place while the body stays attached risks the finish every time.

Why does this change the number on the tag?

A guitar with honest, consistent machine refret work usually plays better and holds value better, because it signals a proper repair shop did the job with the right tools. A hand refret is not automatically worse. Some of the best vintage reissue necks on the market were refretted by hand, by a specialist who knew the guitar personally. What matters is whether the fret job matches the rest of the instrument's story. A clean machine refret on a neck with mismatched pickup screws and a replaced nut starts to look like a guitar assembled from parts, not preserved as one piece.

One thing to check before you decide anything

Pull up sold listings on Reverb or eBay for your exact model and look at the close-up fret photos sellers post · fret shape differences show up even in a phone photo taken at a low angle. Compare those crowns and edge bevels against your own neck under a lamp at home. It takes less time than restringing the guitar, and it tells you more about what you are holding than almost any other five-minute check you can run.