Fret Job

  1. Dido
    Dido
    I am going to take my Strad to the Guitar Parlor in Reigelsville tomorrow to have them take a look at it and see what they recommend. What is a fair price for a fret job and set up?
  2. bmac
    bmac
    I am guessing roughly $100 as a minimum, but that will differ considerably depending on how much work to do... for instance we don't know what you mean by "Fret job". full fret replacement?, simply leveling of frets?, or replacing a few frets.. and there are other possibilities.

    If you are new to mandolin your only option is probably to have it done. But all of this stuff is learnable if you feel you have the manual skills... Take a look at frets.com to get some idea of what is involved or can be involved in fret work.
  3. Dido
    Dido
    Well they came back at 300, 225-250 for frets/board level and 75 to secure the interior brace. She advised that it all ready has been re glued so that concerns her. Also, the appears to be small crack in the brace. Not sure what I am going to do. 300 bucks is a good start to a new mando.
  4. bmac
    bmac
    If it were me, I would read frets.com thoroughly... The repairs are doable by the normal human being... Nothing terribly comlicated. Your concerns are to get the back off without doing damage to it... Can be done.... Heat and hot water and a thin flexible knife like an artist's palette knife, or thin sharpened putty knife. The back should come off fairly easily especially if the back is not bound.

    Once the back is off the brace can be reglued or replaced with a home made brace similar to the one removed. If there is a crack in the front it can be repaired from the back side and cleated if necessary. again not hard to do and while the back if off you can repair (reglue) any damage to the inside... Again quite easy with the back off.

    A fret job is not particularly complicated. In fact I have found that replacing the frets with new ones not difficult at all....

    I might also suggest finding a local independent luthier, if there are any in your area. It sounds quite high to me too. in fact the brace repair or replacement is not a big job and the crack, if as described, suggests that the back should come off and the brace replaced...

    In any case let us know what you decide.

    Bart
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