2 Fret Questions

[Rdeane]

I have 2 questions about frets:

1. The Saga kit has small frets, which I don't like. Would I have to do anything other than remove and replace with medium fret wire?
Do the slots need re-sawing to fit the tang of the larger fret?

2. I am planning my next build with a radiused fretboard. I see that Stewmac has radiused, precut frets. Could these be adapted to a mandolin by cutting some length off each end, or is it just easier to take fret wire and curve it to the frets?

Thanks for your advice.

[Bill McCall]

Stewmac has mandolin fretboards, no cutting required.

[Rdeane]

A clarification...my question is, "can I remove the small frets on the fretboard and replace with medium frets without having to make larger fret slots?

[Andy Miller]

"can I remove the small frets on the fretboard and replace with medium frets without having to make larger fret slots?

You are doing a refret at that point and refrets always require making sure the fret slot is repaired of chips from fret removal, cleaned out, and sized appropriately to the new fret.

[rcc56]

Ditto what Andy said.

Pulling frets without damage is not so easy for a beginner. You need a good set of pullers, and heat the frets with a soldering iron as you pull. Got to frets.com and read the articles on fret replacement.

I have always radiused my own fret wire. A slim pair of needle nose pliers with a small notch cut in the jaws is a useful tool for the job.

[Rob Roy]

As others have intimated, be prepared to repair lots of little chip outs from the dimples exiting the slot. Fretwire tangs are all the same size, regardless of the bead size, so your standard size 0.020-0.022ish slot will be fine.

Another good source for fretwire is Luthier's Merchantile. You can get standard guitar-sized wire (closer to 0.080") which is what many mandolin builders use now from them. Most wire I've bought from them already has a curve bent into it. Also, they carry EVO gold wire which has roughly 4x the lifespan of regular nickel silver wire. Well worth a few extra $ IMO.

[artdeco]

If your fretwire is notpre-radiused when purchased, you can make a roller arrangement like this for rolling a curve in the frets.

[Andy Miller]

Fretwire tangs are all the same size, regardless of the bead size,

This is not true - a quick look here will bear that out. While it's true that most saws commonly used for fret slotting will work OK with most fretwires, one still needs to understand if they're about to install wire with a tang that's a little heavy or a little light relative to the slot. It affects things like how easily the fret wants to seat, how well it wants to hold, and how much or how little it compresses/backbows the fretboard.