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C. Vega -> RE: FLAMENCO GUITAR FRET WIRE (Jan. 10 2014 13:59:02)
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I purchased a 1963 Ramirez a couple of years ago that needed to be refretted. The guitar sounded great but the original frets, in addition to being very worn in the lower positions, were also quite low and narrow and I didn't like the feel at all. I removed all of the original frets, gave the fingerboard a very light planing to remove some playing divots and, after widening and deepening the slots by a small amount, refretted it with taller and wider StewMac 152 wire. The original nut was still in good shape but ended up being a bit too low for the taller crown height of the new frets. A piece of wood veneer lightly glued to the bottom of the nut and a bit of gentle sanding solved that little problem in short order. The guitar feels quite different than it did originally but, at least for me, it's just fine now.
Interestingly, the original frets were of the old style with no barbs, beads, bumps or whatever you want to call them on the tang to help hold them in place, just a smooth tang. When using these frets makers usually gave edge of each tang a few light taps with the corner of an old file or something similar, as was done with this guitar, to raise a few small burrs to grip the sides of the fret slots.
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