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Thread: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

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    Default Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Customer brought in a lovely Fylde cittern for seemingly minor adjustment, to eliminate fret buzz. When I checked the frets, I discovered the first five had been replaced, with wire that is significantly taller than the remaining originals: .050" vs .040". I do regard each new repair as a potential learning experience, and interesting challenge, but i don't understand the reason for using significantly larger replacement wire on a partial refret. Is there a good reason? The aforementioned buzzing is in the frets above the first five, and not at the transition. The owner is not aware of the difference, and does not remember why the previous repairperson did this.

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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Incompetance? Thought it was a guitar? - I bet it has a dot on the nineth rather than the tenth fret.

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    Registered User John Bertotti's Avatar
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    I wonder if there was a back bow issue they tried to correct with those taller frets. How does the neck look and how well is it humidified? I had a Strat neck with a serious back bow, I never did fix it. I considered making a neck press but think over time the issue would have returned. I just replaced the neck. Just a wild guess. I'm no pro. May have been the owner or a friend who had no idea what they were doing just figured it would work.
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    Registered User jim simpson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Perhaps they just used what was handy rather than using correct sized wire?
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    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Quote Originally Posted by Ray(T) View Post
    Incompetance?...
    That was my first thought, but I suspect it is actually simply ignorance.
    There is no good reason to do that so it was surely not done for a specific purpose.
    To correct it, it would be much easier and faster to simply remove the .050" frets and replace them with .040" IF the 'board is in good shape. Grinding .010" off of the frets to get them level would be torture.

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  7. #6
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Same thing happened to my Epiphone 12-string back in the '80s. He also botched the replacement nut. Took a while to figure why it played so poorly; I took jewelers files to the nut and a StewMac crowning file to the frets. Still impressed with how well it came out considering that intuition and the StewMac catalogue were my only "education". (Yes, as often stated, I'm 100% amateur!)

    I chalk up the original result to his incompetence/ignorance and my inexperience - I should have realized he'd rather be screwing in new pickups.

    BTW: Filing those 5 frets down probably took 40 minutes or so, much of that measuring & being careful to not go too far. Easy enough for an amateur, but probably not how a pro wants to spend time!
    Last edited by EdHanrahan; Jan-22-2022 at 10:58am.
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Not only are they too tall, they are gold colored, so they may be EVO harder-than-standard nickel. You all have confirmed my reaction(their installation was not correct), and yet they're well done. The instrument is in good condition, well humidified, no cracks in the body. It's odd that the owner says he never noticed: he's a good player, and this is his main cittern. I don't think it was to straighten the neck...extra fret height doesn't affect neck bow, haha. Thanks for all the replies!

  9. #8

    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Richard View Post
    Not only are they too tall, they are gold colored, so they may be EVO harder-than-standard nickel. You all have confirmed my reaction(their installation was not correct), and yet they're well done. The instrument is in good condition, well humidified, no cracks in the body. It's odd that the owner says he never noticed: he's a good player, and this is his main cittern. I don't think it was to straighten the neck...extra fret height doesn't affect neck bow, haha. Thanks for all the replies!
    “Player didn’t notice…”. I guess if the new ones were level (with eachother) and the nut possibly raised, the instrument should play, which has me thinking about other arrangements for fret heights, none of which as simple to do as all in the same plane. But if the questionable repair guy didn’t raise the nut it might not. Interesting.
    (My never-tried-it thought about how to get 0.010” off leans toward potentially a pretty quick exercise, that is, without careful crowning.)

  10. #9

    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    Well, at least he picked a fretwire that is not likely to need replacing again since the player is wearing the first five frets the most. If the fret buzzes require more than just raising the bridge and/or truss rod adjustment, it would make sense to level them all. Some 220 grit on a sanding beam will bring those high EVO's in plane with the rest in short order. Recrowning and sanding/polishing will take a little more time.

  11. #10
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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    If I do a partial fret job on only the first few frets, I go for a close match on the wire size. 2 or 3 thousandths higher doesn't bother me, but any more than that does. And a significant difference in width tends to look rather odd in the lower register.

    If a player wants a significantly larger wire but doesn't play in the upper registers and wants to save a little money, I will sometimes go up to the 12th or 15th fret with the larger wire. A lot of people don't like the appearance that results from mixing two sizes of wire anywhere on an instrument. But when the size difference is above the 12th fret, my philosophy is that if the instrument plays well and the customer is happy, the difference in appearance is secondary.

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    Default Re: Uneven frets...done deliberately??

    I am with rcc56, when I refretted my mandolin I used larger wire and only went to the 15th fret. I don't play past the 15th fret so no big deal. It also will let a future owner know what the original frets were. I don't mind the look, when I play i don't see it, and when I am not playing, it is in the case. I don't mind the little wire, but I wanted EVO wire. I didn't like the height of the bigger wire so ended up filing it down lower. It took a bit of work, but since they last i wanted it to feel the way I like it. Next time I will use the 53 EVO wire.
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