Yes.
Mike Caldwell who works out of Pianos 'n' Stuff has done some very nice work for me in the past.
He's a very detailed and precise artist and master craftsman.
He did a very fine fret leveling - crowning - polishing for me and also a very good job on a bridge replacement on my Warmoth mahogany strat.
He also re fretted an early 70s Les Paul Custom for me with 6105 frets and did an amazing job.
My only problem with him now is that it's not easy to find him to talk with him since he's always in the shop ( downstairs at PnS )
working or he's not in the building. He also ( or they (the store) didn't let him know he got an email ) didn't answer my email asking about
a rough estimate of a cost for some work.
They're good people over there and PnS. I've known them since the mid 80s. It's just really busy there now and I like to be able to talk about what I need done.
So .........
I've seen some good reviews about
Manella Guitars 412-795-5400
5238 Verona Road - Pgh. PA 15147
http://www.mannellaguitars.com/...and I gave them a call a few weeks back and they answer the phone and they like to talk about things.
I got a really good feeling form the phone talk. I think there are only 2 people that work there.
I'll be taking my Les Paul up there soon to get a new nut put on it.
Scott at Pittsburgh Guitars ( South Side ) did a fret job for me once ( over 10 yrs ago ) and a tail piece replacement.
He did excellent and perfect work on the tail piece replacement.
However the specifics of the fret job ... I was generally unhappy with.
Let me explain:
I told him ( probably not in these exact words but the message was clear )
use 6100 wire ( I probably said tallest you can find ) ... just put the frets in and don't level them.
That would be .112 x .055 - I wanted to play it first and then determine if I wanted any leveling.
My thoughts were I was using a very high action and probably wouldn't need any leveling. Point was ... let ME determine if it needs done.
Also, I already had a clone of that same guitar with very tall frets on it and I wanted to get the one I'm talking about playing the same way.
When I got it back the frets had been leveled and were .112 x .041 to .038 ... so that ended up being a disappointment,
( he said ... exact quote "I had to do it" )
... but the guitar played and felt good, and still does, even though I didn't get what I asked for.
Also, he either made a bad cut on 2 frets or intentionally cut into 2 frets with a small saw so that when the frets get
played down to a certain point they will have to be replaced. No leveling possible for those 2 frets.
Now that is either just sloppy work or an intentional way of forcing an other fret job after a certain amount of wear.
Even so ... the guitar still plays well ... 10 or more years later ... but I really haven't used it very much.
I know there are others around town. I just have no useful experience with them.
