Indeedaroody. They make good markers, too. Nothing like looking over
at a delicate moment and seeing a blur of 20-odd frets.
Sean
Sent from my iPotato
On Feb 9, 2014, at 6:51 PM, John Lenti wrote:
Thin guitar picks slid under frets are dynamite shims. Also wadded
paper. Many's the corner been ripped off one of my scores to fold a
few times and stick under a loose fret. Little pieces of bamboo
skewers are also useful.
Sent from my Ouija board
On Feb 9, 2014, at 5:25 PM, "Sterling" <[email protected]> wrote:
Why replace the frets when you could just tighten them? Just burn
the knot a little more then put back in place. My frets last about
ten years. The only time I ever replace frets is to try a different
size. Except for perhaps the second or third frets which do wear out
after a few years, then you just scoot over the worn part to be
between the courses.
Sterling
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 9, 2014, at 4:35 PM, Dan Winheld <[email protected]> wrote:
"I could whittle with a utility knife, but
that would be wasteful and time consuming."
"I find that a surgical saw, something like what one can find even on
Amazon (Satterlee Bone Saw 13") is an ideal tool. A very thin blade
with sharp teeth. Just make sure you do not cut yourself in the
process... It is actually ideal for many uses with wood, bone and
plastics."
Guys,
Why would either of you go to all that bother, rather than merely
replacing the fret? Of course, an emergency situation (5 minutes
before show time, during rehearsal, or stuck out somewhere beyond
easy reach of the postal service & no spare gut) is another story.
I could remove & replace 10 gut frets in the time it would take you
to whittle a single proper shim out of a "1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by
10 inches ( 1cm x 1cm x 20cm)" piece of anything. That is, single
frets. The more traditional doubles (still routinely used by the
viol players) would take a little more time.
Fret changing is not hard at all, once you've done a few and get
into the rhythm of it. Soon you will be getting them so tight that
you will have to back off to keep from breaking the thinner ones,
and even that big, bad 1st fret will only take the slightest more
aggression to make as tight as necessary. Thomas Mace has a pretty
good tutorial on frets, as I remember. So does Dan Larson on his
website, and no doubt there are others easily available. Catch me
at the right time I'll do it for you, and show you how. A cigarette
lighter, fingernail clippers, and maybe (strictly optional) a small
pliers for the 1st fret.
The business with the surgical saw is what I paid a professional
luthier to do recently when I had bone body frets put on my lute-
frets 10 & up. He messed up my 9th & 8th frets leveling the new
bone frets, and it took me 3 minutes or less to replace them
practically under his nose in the shop.
Happy fretting! (It almost gets fun)
Dan
I could whittle with a utility knife, butthat would be wasteful
and time consuming.
alexander r.
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