New frets and nut job

[mandough]

Hi,
I was wondering how much a fret and nut replacement runs these days. Looking to refret my Washburn MS3W(just trying to make this one play better) mando with some heavier gauge wire and will most likely need a new nut as well.
Also wondering what material would you recommend the nut be made of?
Have looked but cannot find information about the sound qualities of different nut material. Any suggestions with descriptions would greatly help.
One last thing, how hard is this to do yourself? I've never done it but would like to,
as I am about to embark on building my first mando soon.
thanks,
sean

[mandough]

Oh, by the way...does anyone know of any good repairmen in the Los Angeles area. I know McCabe's is pretty good, I had some guitar work done there before.

[Michael Lewis]

The basic concept of re freting is simple enough, but you will probably need some practice to get it to go smoothly. There is a ton of information available, try frets.com, mimf.com, and Stew/Mac has a video for this.

[mandough]

Thanks Michael, that was a very helpful site.
I was thinking about refretting with some heavier gauge wire. #What would you all recommend?
I am a bit confused as to the Width-Height-Crown factors.
What would be a nice heavy style fret to put on a mandolin? #Is Width .085 too big or is it not out of the question?
Are the tang section of different sized wire different? Would I have to widen or deepen the fret slots in order for them to fit? #I have small fretwire on this mandolin now.

[JGWoods]

I did a partial refret on my Flatiron Cadet, and I put banjo wire on the first 7 frets or so, no problem, same fit in the fret slots as the original.
I used Stew-Mac 0147 (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Fretwire/3/Stewart-MacDonald_Fretwire.html), bought 2 pieces @ 2' and it was more tha enough for another partial refret and lots of mistakes too.

My opinion- that of a semi-handy person, who was a mechanic for 20 years and knows how to use tools- is that it is pretty easy to wreck your first job, and maybe a few more, unless you are very patient and very dextrous. I am skilled but not patient and I got barely acceptable results. I will need to work on the fret ends for a while before I can resell it to anyone and say it is in good condition.

On the other hand it plays great and I had no problems with intonation or buzzing or anything after the frets were leveled and crowned.

good luck
gw

[Michael Lewis]

The crown width is what you look at and say, "those are big frets" (or little ones). The crown height is how high off the fingerboard the top of the crown of the fret is. In general .083" is Martin guitar size wire, and should be fine for your mandolin if you like the larger wire. You should always clean out the fret slots before installing new frets, and you shouldn't need to widen the slots, but make sure they are deep enough, as sometimes glue will fill the slot.