refretting a ukulele

I have a ukulele that I was having issues with so after a close inspection I see most of the frets are oddly worn flat.

Now I could be pissed that someone here sold me such a worn instrument at a $50 profit even but I'm trying to keep smiling and not wish any bad juju on anyone. With saying that the easiest thing to do would be pass it along to the next unsuspecting buyer but I'm trying to not be that guy.

A quick look see around CT and I find a price tag of over $200+ for a full re-fret. I payed $200 for the instrument in the first place so its just not worth another $200+.

It has a solid maple neck with no separate fretboard. I have played a little with fret leveling and setup making my smiley a player but never took on any fret replacement. I'm nervous and looking at a bunch of specialty tools that make it look like $200 is a bargain in setup fees alone.

Honestly it looks like end nipping pliers and those shields to help stop chipping when pulling the old frets are a must. Other than that is there anything else I need that I can source from somewhere other than stewmac? (read much less expensive)

Or should I just write it off and sell it disclosing my issues with it? I have a way of never doing the things I want to do. I should take pictures! Pictures coming in a bit! Losing money or losing time or possibly both, decisions decisions.

~AL~

From a sub-novice luthier (that's stretching it hugely) I once built a dulcimer kit and had to cut and install new frets. I have to say they turned out respectable on my first try. No fancy tools here. Fret press can be home made, but safely getting those old frets out your biggest challenge.

Are your frets really worn flat? Nylon strings don't wear frets much, and fret wear is dents under each string, not flats all across the width.

If you have flat top frets then, if the uke otherwise plays OK and the frets have some height, what has happened is the frets have been levelled but not re-crowned. This is the final step in re-fretting, probably less than 1/4 of the work.

You can re-crown with a file or, my preference, 400 grit wet and dry paper stuck to a scrap of wood (a disposable file). There is a learning curve, but if you start at the frets nearest the sound hole you'll get better by the time you get to the most used frets. All you're doing is rounding the profile (though easier to type than do).

If there is no height to them, you'll have to re-fret. My toolkit is pincers ground flat at the top, a plastic faced hammer, a decent diamond stone, abrasive paper, double sided tape and electrician's tape, a felt tip pen to mark the fret tops, plus a soldering iron to heat the frets for removal.

As an owner of many pre-used instruments I know this is not an uncommon condition. I don't think the seller was trying to hoodwink you. Before you purchase a used instrument you should always note the condition of the frets and more importantly eye-ball the neck to see if it looks warped. Frets can be buffed, trimmed or replaced but warped necks that is much more of a problem. Old skin heads on banjoleles and banjos are another area to check. Skin heads are notoriously difficult to install. FOr luthiers who have the prepared skin and know what they are doing it is an overnight job. I had one put on my Vintage Luscomb at Clifftop about six years ago. It was an overnight job and cost $90. Which was cheap. Caveat Emptor.

Its a Risa Soprano BTW.

Dang forgot to run it to my shop to use the DSLR for some close ups. I bought it played it a little and put it down, Bought a few sets of Aquila reds with a few low G's snapped two and put it away after stringing the re-entrant G. Again a month later I pick it up and play with it a couple days and after putting it down I picked up my KA Sem and my god is it so much easier to fret out clean sounding notes.

This is what made me look at the frets. I think I figured out why it gets little playtime. I'm really speechless with the wear from what appears to be nothing but string bending.

I know to sight the neck on a guitar and to check the frets but damn hard to do when buying from the marketplace.

Hoodwinked? Yeah can't get over that feeling after seeing it actually sold here for $50 less a couple years before I bought it. Of course I notice this after the purchase. heh...

~peace~

This is by no means professional advice, Al, but I refretted an old baritone last spring. I used a razor blade to get the old frets out, without incident.

Pictures didn't come out as good as I wanted I need a tripod. I think you can see the flat spots in these pictures. I might have freaked out a bit last night and I might be able to recrown whats there. If not after sleep and a few youtube videos I'm not too afraid to try to refret it should the recrown leave them too short.



In that picture you can kinda see the flat spots on the left of frets 1-3 and the right of fret 4. You dont see the wear on the right of 4-8 and fret 12 is a dead note but doesn't look bad in this blurry pic.



Mystery black spots under the last fret hmmmmm was this a previous botched attempt at leveling the frets? That tiny little knot between the last two frets is the ukes identifier. Like a tattoo or a mole it makes it stand out in the crowd.

~peace~

That's fret wear all right. I've seen worse. The black spots look like they might be a little tar or resin from the picture.

That's not fret wear. Seriously? On a nylon strung instrument?

The black dot on the fretboard appears to coincide with the side marker. The flat spots are most likely some leveling done with a file. I'd pull all the frets and the nut, then you have the opportunity to level the fret board to spot on then install new frets. I've done it several times and is a great project.

I think this is, or perhaps rather, might be a matter of judgment. But that can also somewhat be depending on the photos. Some frets might be kept and some will have to be changed due to flatness (the flatness is done with a file or similar tool). IMO the photo of the frets in the upper picture shows more wear then in the lower photo (this might be a matter of focus). Somewhere in between or the middle, there is a "line" where you might need to make a decision that the frets closer to the nut have to be changed. But you can always try to rescue all of the filed frets of this fretboard. Sorry if my words make a too "fuzzy" meaning.

Inksplosive AL said:

Pictures didn't come out as good as I wanted I need a tripod. I think you can see the flat spots in these pictures. I might have freaked out a bit last night and I might be able to recrown whats there. If not after sleep and a few youtube videos I'm not too afraid to try to refret it should the recrown leave them too short.

View attachment 71664


In that picture you can kinda see the flat spots on the left of frets 1-3 and the right of fret 4. You dont see the wear on the right of 4-8 and fret 12 is a dead note but doesn't look bad in this blurry pic.

View attachment 71665

Mystery black spots under the last fret hmmmmm was this a previous botched attempt at leveling the frets? That tiny little knot between the last two frets is the ukes identifier. Like a tattoo or a mole it makes it stand out in the crowd.

~peace~

Click to expand...

Just a few thoughts:

1) That's not fret wear, and they don't even appear excessively low but they also don't appear to be leveled uniformly up the neck. Don't even consider a refret until you check the rest of the uke.

2) You haven't really said what the actual playability issue is, but from photo 1, it appears the string height is very low probably causing buzzing.

3) You need to establish the state of the neck itself, using a straightedge. Does it have relief, is it flat, or does it have back bow?

4) You need to establish how level the frets are, again using a straightedge. A single high fret can make an instrument buzz.

5) You need to establish if the nut is cut properly or are the slots too low. Likewise, check saddle height. If either is too low, you'll have trouble.

Once you have checked these, you'll have a much better idea of what the problem is.

From the very limited info you've given, a likely scenario may be some neck back bow that somebody tried to "correct" with some aggressive fret leveling. If so, you may have more to do than a refret. But you really do need to check the things I mentioned.

Hey Mark thanks,

Its a Risa stick, there is no nut, the bridge is fixed and nonadjustable, it is made from one piece of wood and while I do have a very small distinctive knot through the neck I'm not concerned with it.

It just doesn't play like the finely constructed instrument it is, notes are hard to fret out. Dead notes that no amount of pressure due to flat and low spots on the frets seems to correct.

I'll admit it I put it back down and haven't picked it up in a week or two now. I did get up the courage to refile the nut slots on my KA-SEM with my cheap HF files. I did go buy a slightly nicer diamond file set from HF but they are still cheap.

It just might be a bad fret leveling job gone wrong. There is no buzz but it did hum pretty bad when I received it so I shielded the jack area with foil tape, no more hum. I would hope one of the PO's didn't try to stop the hum by doing this.

I walked away thinking a simple leveling and recrowning might fix my issues if not I might just challenge a refret with simple tools. I originally posted here thinking I had much less fret left than I do. I'll post the results here when I do something.

Whats holding me back at this point is I really want a low G Aquila red on there and it snaps them due to the design of a bar the string goes over to reach the tuner. seeing as it snaps the strings between the tuner and this bar at the back of the uke yet the C string is fine I figure... Heh remember I'm a tattoo artist. I figure the slot needs to be widened and polished to fit this string. When I pull all the strings off the uke that will be the time to try this mod.

~AL

One other thought about the Risa stick. Where the strings exit the neck above the zero fret they cut down into the wood. I saw another mention this and his fix which was to route out a strip and put in some harder wood. Maybe bone or horn would work? (I wont be doing this)

Likely this would not ever be an issue other than cosmetic over the life of the instrument but its something to mention.

~AL

why don't you return it?

looks like it might of been buzzing and the owner filed the fret down...but did not have the right tools to dress the frets....

Well it was a private sale and a few months back so...

Besides I only freaked thinking the frets were so thin I had nothing to work with. Reality is my eyesight is going to s**. I have worn glasses to see far since the 3rd grade but always had microscopic up close vision. Not so much these last couple years and I'm only just about 49.

Ive already been down this road. http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?89687-Blueprinting-Smiley!

Smiley has become my reference point for what I consider playable. While he sounds a bit thin and toy like the string action and ease of play is amazing.

~AL