Unleasher of Fury

True, I believe they have the option of scalloping too.

Hey Tim. Originally from St George area but now residing near Auburn hoping I don't get broken in to. Thanks, the Talon was a cool project. More pics of that restoration here

Hi Pete. That's a bit subjective. You can't really tell someone that refretting a guitar is not worth it because they didn't pay a 4 digit figure for it. Guitars are very personal things and their value in most cases goes way beyond their purchase price so I'm sorry, I cannot agree with that statement. Adding to that, Profile strats are a fine guitar, generally better than most other copies I've tried (especially the finish on the neck) which is the reason I bought it.

It's not really about it being 'the best' as I go through phases with my collection or like to have different setups across the collection which I intend to keep forever. I do, that's pretty much the professional advice I was after. End of the day the neck needs a refret and I'm just weighing up some options. I don't mind throwing some cash at a so-called 'cheap' guitar if it really brings it to life. I've done this before and it can be very satisfying when it comes off. Thanks. I always suspected any half decent luthier would not cop out on the scallop refret question. I guess it's a good way of seperating the pro's from the hacks.

Cheers for that. Would you also recommend stainless as a fret material? a standard refret in Sydney is about $400+, I imagine a stainless refret would be well north of that.

Hi All Julian here from Sydney, just joined up a few mins ago. I came here because I just received a late 70's / early 80's Profile strat tonight which I'll be restoring including a full fretboard scallop, refret, respray, new electronics and hardware. The guitar was so heavy, I thought it must be plywood but I was relieved to discover it's just a heavy piece of solid timber. The guitar sounded surprisingly nice despite the severely rusted strings and pickup poles. Took a few photos for before & after purposes Here I've placed the new scratchplate, pickups and trem into the cavity for fit. I'm a wee bit concerned about the 2 point trem post holes getting messy amongst the standard 6 screw holes. Hopefully I can end up with 2 clean, drilled holes for the new bridge posts. Some of the dings, wear and 'relic' marks are kinda cool and I'll be a bit sad to see them go for a flawless finish. I did a quick scallop test on an old practice neck. Obviously the rosewood fretboard will behave differently under the filing and sanding but I'm confident I can get the job done unless the luthier who does the refret can offer a good deal on the scallop while he's got the neck for the refret. I'm thinking to go for stainless frets due to refrets being tricky down the track on a scalloped fingerboard I'll post progress pics here as the stages are completed. My other projects have been a Heartfield Talon restoration and some minor upgrades to a Am Std Strat.