Vega bowl back

[smilnJackB]

Hi,
My old Vega bowl back mando came yesterday. $52.00 off ebay. It is a pretty enough old piece - or will be with some cleaning. Some of the back stips need re-glued. The neck is good. The nut needs replaced (one G string spot broken) and the frets under the E string are too worn to fret well.
I strung it up with only FOUR light strings (to keep the pressure down) and it has nice tone. I can do the glue job and replace the nut. But the frets have me worried. Really, I would be satisfied to just replace the top 4 frets.
What say ye? Try the frets myself? A luthier- I know of one 60 miles away? Or, how about taking the old finger board off and replacing it with a new one? That sounds best to me.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif Jack

[grsnovi]

Hi Jack,

I also have an old Vega. Mine has been in the family for 50 or 60 years and is in pretty good shape. I suspect yours has bar frets. If you are at all handy, go ahead and give the four fret re-fret a whirl. If things don't work out for you, the finger board replace with full re-fret will still be an option.

I guess the question is: how much more do you want to sink into this piece and to what return? Where do you expect this mando to fit into the rest of your instruments?

[smilnJackB]

Gary,
Your advice sounds good. I think I will see if I can find an inexpensive fret board first, before tryng the refret.
I am looking for the Vega bowl back to be a pretty wall hanger that I can pick up and play a bit. I don't want to put much money into it. Thanks,
Jack

[Eugene]

Like Gary says, I'm sure this has bar frets, and nobody is still making the correct gauge of bar-fret wire for mandolins. Replacing the fingerboard is certainly a viable option, but I might not favor it unless there was some other wear to justify it. Another option would be to grind new bar frets to thickness from fret wire intended for guitar. I had this done for two missing frets on an old Martin mandolin. The luthier said it was rather a pain in the proverbial posterior region. Still, for only four frets, it shouldn't be too bad. Finally, you could pull the offensive frets, fill the slots with sawdust and super glue, resaw, and refret those four with modern T-fret wire for mandolin.

I really like many old Vega mandolins. They are philosophically worth keeping playable...even if they aren't always economically worth the expense/effort of their repair. When you do get this thing running again, keep it strung with really light strings like GHS's "Classical" set or Black Diamonds, of course.

[Bob DeVellis]

SOme folks have been known to pull bar frets, turn them over, shim the slot just a bit (if necessary) and install them back in upside down. This puts the "virgin" edge that's been in the fingerboard all these years up where the strings make contact. I have no idea how hard this would be or how well it would succeed, but since you'll have to pull those old frets no matter what, it might be worth considering.

[grsnovi]

You know, I was thinking about pulling them and turning them over, but it really would be easy enough to get a piece of material milled to the needed size.

[John Bertotti]

I've been wanting to find out the composition of the bar frets. My thought was to mill a welding rod of similar composition and than heat treat it. John http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[smilnJackB]

I replaced the top 6 frets with some guitar fret wire I had on hand. I did save the old ones, they were worn out had been minimal to begin with.
With the new frets and a new nut and some glue work, the old Vega plays fair and sounds quite good. It still needs some filing on the frets and the bridge lowered. I have just 4 modern strings on it, but will some time try to get the correct strings. Thanks.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Jack