Smaller frets? Help

[stephenleejp]

So one day, four years ago, I walk into this mom and pop music place in Hampton, Virginia. And played this custome four string fender bass... I have never really cared for Fenders. BUT! I have never stopped thinking about this one, and this is why. The guy who owned the bass was actually in the store and told me. He had "cut and pasted' all the things he wanted on it (neck, pickups ect...) and he had put in much smaller frets (I mean they were vertically shorter than what they were before).

That is my question.

Is it possible to do that?
To take out original frets, replace 'em with shorter ones, and set the action a lot lower?

Please tell me i can do this and how!!??

Thank you

[202dy]

Vertically shorter?

Frets have width and height. Sometimes the height is referred to as the crown. The width is the dimension between nut and bridge and height is from the fingerboard surface to the sky or the wall across the room depending on whether the guitar is on a bench or in your lap, all the above measured in thousandths of an inch.

Narrow width frets are commonly known as mandolin frets and have a width of ~.080", and sometimes as narrow as .053". Low height frets are available from suppliers with a height of .035" or so. Fender originally used a fret that was ~.086" wide and ~.040" high. Gibson used larger fret wire ~.098" X .045". Today that wire is considered medium.

Fretwire is available from Stew Mac and other sources.

To answer your question:

Frets can be removed and replaced. It is called a Re-fret and is the procedure that is performed when frets are too worn to be dressed. It is not inexpensive to have it done professionally. If you wish to perform the task yourself, there will be roughly a two hundred dollar investment in tools for the basics. Figure another couple of hundred for some beat up guitars to practice on before attempting your own guitar.

Repeat the mantra: Practice on scrap.

If you are not handy in the extreme, already own a lot of tools and know how to use them this is not a job for you.