Wound strings and frets

WinsWaldo

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Will wound G and C noticeably wear the frets? Are these wound strings made very differently from how steel strings wear down acoustic guitar frets?
 
Worrying about fret wear is like worrying that your tires will wear if you drive.

I actually get more wear on the frets under my first three nylon wound on nylon strings (Savarez Red Card classical guitar strings) than I get on with the silver plated copper wound low "G".

When the frets wear, get them level, crown, and polished. When they wear out, have them replaced. No big deal.

And don't buy instruments not worth maintaining properly.
 
Worrying about fret wear is like worrying that your tires will wear if you drive.

I actually get more wear on the frets under my first three nylon wound on nylon strings (Savarez Red Card classical guitar strings) than I get on with the silver plated copper wound low "G".

When the frets wear, get them level, crown, and polished. When they wear out, have them replaced. No big deal.

And don't buy instruments not worth maintaining properly.

Rick, good to see you posting, hope you are feeling better.
You were missed at WCUR.
 
Ho Ha Rick, you are right.... the frets will outlast you and your uke.... you can count on that.... I bet you will upgrade way before your frets even wear out...unless you have a plastic
fretboard...sheesh...then I would use unwound strings...
 
The bronchitis laid me out for close to three weeks...a bad one...

Re. fret wear...well, if you play a lot, they'll wear out. My CR is about six years old. I'll do a level, crown, and polish on it soon, and it should be good for another two or three years. Then it'll need a refret. So what! I'll refret it. It's time and about six bucks worth of fret wire...if that. It is odd to see more wear under the first three strings, but even though I use a lot of closed barred or four finger chords, I guess it makes sense. But I really don't care. They wear, I replace. No big deal. With modern fretting techniques, there is basically no limit to the number of times a fingerboard can be refretted until the wear of the wood itself between the strings and frets becomes a major issue, and even that can be dealt with pretty effectively. There's no reason why a uke, guitar, or bass fretboard cannot be restored over a good 100 + year lifetime of heavy playing before replacing the fingerboard itself becomes a reasonable option. And then...just replace it.

Good instruments are worth repairing and restoring. Just ask any violinist playing a Strad or Guarneri. Those are 300 plus years old...and are still being valued as instruments as well as collectibles.
 
Rick, good to see you posting, hope you are feeling better.
You were missed at WCUR.



I agree 1000% this site is not the same without Rick,,stay in good health brother
 
It helps a lot if you find a luthier/repair shop you can trust, so you don't worry much about what you will do if something happens to your instrument.

For example, I had a trusted person to take care of my woodwind instruments, but until recently not one for my stringed instruments. Last month I had a question about a seam on my Kelii, and I decided the best thing was to take it in to a local guitar repair shop to see what they thought (no point posting here because the problem was hard to see). I got very good advice, which was to leave it alone; it's still new and still adjusting to Ohio after being in Hawaii.

But better than being assured that the issue was small, was knowing I'd found the right people to take care of my ukes. Talking to them, watching them work, etc. really put me at ease. (And then there's the fact that the guy who looked at my Kelii can play it a lot better than I can!) I think if you can find a good repair shop to take your uke to, you won't be so concerned about the future and just enjoy playing and using your instrument. Because Rick is right, you don't want an instrument that isn't worth repairing and maintaining.
 
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