Suggestions on getting a guitar refretted.

Personally, when it's time to refret any of my older guitars I'm going stainless steel.  It's about $100- $150 more, but sooooo worth it.  I'm never going back.

Prices vary depending on the area, the specific shop and of course the fretwire material.  Around here (Orlando, FL @ Guitar Factory) a full refret w/ nickel will be about $250, stainless around $400.  A friend of mine had his Jem refretted w/ stainless for $350, but his wife is a great negotiator.   You can also see if they only need to replace the worn frets.  If all the wear is on the first 5 frets and the others are fine, then maybe you can just get those replaced for a lot less.

If you really love the guitar, I'd get a refret.  I'd also see if a level & crown will do the job - I got a strat done earlier this year for about $80 and it plays great now. Much cheaper than a full refret, and sometimes that's all you need.  I had another one my strats refretted a for between $200 and $250, I forget but it was worth it.  I thought about getting a new neck for that, too, but the refret was cheaper and I liked the neck a lot.

Sure, but then you have one (somewhat) unplayable guitar and one you may or may not like that much.  Is that what you really want?  I'm not judging one way or another, there are pros and cons.  Personally I would rather have fewer guitars that play and sound amazing than a closet full of guitars I rarely use because one thing or another isn't quite right.

Good luck!

Only you can answer this question. Is the neck and real player and are you attached to it. If so then a refret is the only option. If not then the choice is yours.

Wow, that's a lot cheaper than I remember.  Might be worth a shot.  On the other hand, don't you love the current neck?  What about the current neck makes it not the neck of your dreams?  If you like it but you're not *totally* happy, maybe it's worth trying a Warmoth neck to get it perfect.

Not sure if you've played SS frets before.  If not, I should add the caveat that some people don't like them.  Personally, I think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I can understand that some folks don't like the feel.  Before dishing out the extra money you might want to try them out (find a Suhr or EVH dealer).

Ouch $800 to get what I want done by Dan Erlwine shop and Dan Erlwine isn't even going to touch it.  I think I'll pass on him.  I think I'm just going to look into a warmoth neck or replacing the guitar all together in a few more years.

it sounds like you want the new neck based on your comments....and of course, thats your choice.

but my experience indicates that 95% of the time someone believes they need new frets can actually be corrected with a fret dressing (leveling and crown). and at a fraction of the cost if you outsource it.....however, if you own  several guitars as some folks do then you can invest in the tools you need to do the work yourself and pay about the same to own the correct tools or a little more than you would pay someone to do one guitar for you.

it's very easy to do and if you go slow and take your time you will be amazed and extremely satisfied with the results you can achieve.

give a man a fish and eats for a day.....teach a man to fish and eats for a lifetime......lol

Great points.  I'm thinking I'll wait a year or so, its nothing I need done now.  Then I might consider buying some of the tools to do the job myself.  Just don't feel like burning the money on something like that when I got other guitars that are usable...  that being said I'm still gigging with this guitar so its not like the is not usable.  I am just wondering if I did it how much better it would play and sound.

The guitar has jumbo frets on it.  The biggest problem I see with it is I've had the guitar recrowned twice maybe out of the 11 years I've owned it.  It seems to me that jumbo frets make it easy to bend strings but when the frets wear they have rather large flat places in the frets.  Recrowning  them is fairly easy and I'm not worried about that, but what I dislike the most out of this guitar sustaining a note.  The flat places have so much touching the string I can hear a buzz depending on how hard I hit, or what really makes me made is it sounds as though its out of tune like the intonation is off.  But its not!  The flats are worse on some frets and it causes the intonation nightmares.  Honestly it forces me to add a vibrato to the sound because the note will kind of be pitchy anyway. 
The reason for the refret is more to go to a thinner wire and also a Stainless Steel wire so I won't have to worry about the frets for a really long time.  My other Strat has frets that were glued in place by a previous owner, you can still see the super glue.  That guitar has the best tone out of about a 10 Strats I've had over the last 13 years.  It smokes them all, but I hate the neck shape, and the frets are almost as bad on that guitar as they are on my main strat.  The difference being they are thinner but taller.
The idea of buying my own equipment is I've learned to setup guitars, I've done wiring, I've done about anything you can think of as far as tinkering with guitars is concerned.  This is the next step for me as far as tinkering to make it better for me is concerned.  Who knows pickups winding next?

If you can swing it, Joe Glaser does amazing work on guitars.