That's interesting, I've never actually handled a USA 62ri - but I've always kind of expected it to have a nice meaty-ish neck (like my 60s Roadworn, and my CIJ "62").
The tele that I put 6000s on is a Baja. So, it's got quite a chunky neck already. The reason I went for a refret was the stock frets (not skinny themselves) seemed rather soft - I was eating into them after a few months. I was wondering about the cost effectiveness of fret-dressing every 6-12 months or refretting now with "better" wire. Jonathan helped me convince myself, and he was right - the frets are showing signs of light wear now, but it's a couple of years on, not a couple of months!
When it came to "what frets do you want?" I was a bit unsure. A lot of my heroes (eg Rory Gallagher, SRV) used jumbo frets, and I'd recently read how one of the old blues guys that used a tele said "yeah biggest ones I can find, I eats frets...". When I mumbled that, Jonathan chucked the Emerald Lion at me as an example of "that's the biggest..."
I think he was a bit surprised when after a minute or so I went "yeah, that's fab...".
After I'd had it done, I don't think it gave me an impression of thickening the neck. But it does feel different - kind of more solid and robust, more ready to take my slightly aggressive approach to playing the thing. It also felt a lot more reliable and accurate - but that's probably the superb dressing that went with the refret :lol:
It definitely didn't slow me down. If anything, I feel more confident playing it than I did in its original state, so it might even have speeded me up on that guitar.
What's on your 62ri at the moment? One of the reasons I want to do my CIJ 62 (and a MIJ 60s custom tele with rosewood board) is that with the "vintage" frets I can feel just a little bit too much board in comparison to my other guitars (Roadworn strats with "medium jumbo", the Baja with the 6000s, and various Gibsons). I'm actually OK with the skinny frets, but I have to get used to them after playing the other guitars, so I tend to play the others more at the moment.
Actually, mentioning the Gibsons. One of them is an Explorer, that seems to have "tall" frets rather than fat frets like the others - I find that quite a pleasant "stratty" experience. It might be worth investigating "taller" rather than generally "bigger" frets if you're worried about "speed bumps"?
My gut feeling, though, is that you sound like I felt when I chose the 6000s... (and it still might be what I go for on my CIJ strat) ... "hell yeah, let's do it, biggest, fattest I can get" :lol:
If that is the way you're thinking/feeling, then, as long as the tech who installs them does a nice job on the dressing and the fret ends, I don't think you'll be disappointed. You'll still be wondering after you've done it, but then you'll notice you're playing the thing anyway and feeling rather happy about it all... :D
