How many hours before a refret is needed

[lojo]

I'm looking at buying an older bass , and it got me wondering just how many hours playing is required to wear the frets enough for an owner to be forced to refret a bass ?

When you see a refretted old bass , it must have a serious history of playing circuits or tours etc , or does a weekend warrior lifestyle cause that much wear ?

[BigRedX]

Depends on the frets and the strings used and playing style of the previous owner(s) and what they played on it.

I've never had to get a bass re-fretted, but when I was playing guitar, 3 years of playing the same songs every day (usually each several times) - either at band rehearsal or for my own practice, or while I was writing them, and what and how I was playing meant that I had worn significant grooves into about 5 frets on at least one string. This was beyond what could be reused by a fret dress and therefore I opted for a complete re-fret.