I’m glad that other people have admitted they don’t like fret dressing, I hate it with a passion.

In principle, I think I need to work on fret dressing as a skill for completeness and to save money.

But I can't help thinking that Charlie Chandler (one of the world's best guitar techs and a pretty decent luthier to boot) and his Plek machine are half an hour away on a good day, and I'm never going to match his skill level even if he was doing it all by hand.

But I can't help thinking that Charlie Chandler (one of the world's best guitar techs and a pretty decent luthier to boot) and his Plek machine are half an hour away on a good day, and I'm never going to match his skill level even if he was doing it all by hand.

But, using that logic @jonhodgson, you’d never cook for yourself again.

Or drive yourself anywhere.

Or .... (etc).

😉

(slightly) more seriously, you’ll always be able to find someone else who’s better at one aspect or another of guitar building.  The objective of guitar building for me is not to build a better guitar than Mr P R Smith, or Mr M Bailey, it’s just to learn and get a bit better with each one, improving my skills along the way ...

@tv101,

I cook pretty well, and when it comes to driving so long as I actually get to the destination the most important aspect has been achieved equally well.

it's the conflict of the builder in me vs the player in me.

The builder wants to do everything myself, the player wants a guitar that is as perfect as possible.

The final setup is probably the most crucial and difficult part of a guitar build, because that's where finger meets string meets fret, and tiny differences will affect it. Whereas a slightly imperfect carve and spot in the finish or whatever won't really matter much in terms of the function of the guitar.

Plus it's not much fun! (and that's just doing a few, REALLY developing the skill requires working on dozens, maybe hundreds).

I'll be tackling the job myself at this point, but if I was charging somebody real money for a guitar I was building it might be a different matter.

The objective of guitar building for me is not to build a better guitar than Mr P R Smith, or Mr M Bailey, it’s just to learn and get a bit better with each one, improving my skills along the way ...

@tv101 That sounds good to me T, it’s about enjoying it too. For me, it’s about being experimental, original (if possible) and modification. 
I think everyone can come and take what they want from the forum and hopefully give something too. It’s such a good resource. 

Completely get your point @jonhodgson.

it's the conflict of the builder in me vs the player in me.

For me, those are two different - but obviously closely related - interests.

I don't expect to be "the best" at either - I just aim to get a bit better at each with practice.

My best-playing guitars and not the ones that I've built.  My best playing guitars have been built by professionals (including Mark!) with way more skills than I'll ever have.

but if I was charging somebody real money for a guitar I was building it might be a different matter.

I'm not aiming that high with my builds - purely for my own challenge / satisfaction!

I’ll have to try and find this thread to come back and quote you. You may have to eat your words. 😆👍 

@boo probably you just shouldn’t do that. As long as I’m not sat there complaining that my Aldi fret press is inadequate 😛