Refret Considerations

[Folkmusician.com]

The only reason would be if there was a benifit to leveling the fingerboard to fix bow, humps, etc.. If everything is in order, just doing the 5 frets makes sense.

The Ike Bacon mandolin I just got has some notched frets. Gold colored and 1mm tall by 2mm wide it appears to match EVO Gold fretwire which I see on ebay:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Jescar-FL37...ss!98382!US!-1

Since all the wear is on the first five frets and I seem to have a match for the existing fret wire, is there any reason I shouldn't just replace the first five frets and leave the rest alone?

[pops1]

I agree with Robert, no reason to replace more than the first 5 if that is all that is worn. Level to existing frets.

[dhergert]

Just to clarify, all of the instruments I've have had re-fretted with Gold Evo had nickel silver frets that were seriously rutted in 70% or more of the frets. They had been played heavily up the neck. It was time.

That said, I do know people who do routinely replace brand new nickel silver frets with Gold Evo frets on their new instruments because they prefer the perceived tone, feel and low maintenance of Gold Evo frets.

[HoGo]

I agree with partial refrets if the board is in good shape and matching wire is available.
I've been using stainless wire exclusively for some time and didn't notice any sudden tool destruction. I don't use specialty tang nippers that could be too weak a design to cut SS or EVO, but my quality resharpened nippers don't have a problem nipping the tang away and files don't seem to suffer badly (and ordinary metal files are not expensive to be replaces once a few years). You only need few more strokes to file the edges. I always cut the wire exactly to length before trimming the tang so I have very little to none to file away flush with fingerboard.

[John Bertotti]

HoGo were you the one who recommended Jescar for fret wire?

[HoGo]

HoGo were you the one who recommended Jescar for fret wire?

Yes, I am using the thinnest SS wire from Jescar for all my mandolins and I love it. #39040
I believe I bought it from Axiom.

[John Bertotti]

I noticed you can buy direct from them as well. Thanks!

[HoGo]

I was buying some bridge parts and such as well so I ordered everything from one shop that had all I needed...