Refretting a cheap bass

[Guest BassKS]

Hi Lads/Lasses,

I do love my cheap bass almost as much as my Warmoth jazz. Its neck is rounder and more comfortable to play. However, it has smaller frets and, somethimes, it gets a bit difficult to fret a note, especially if you slap like Chewbacca. Now, I spoke to Ou7shined a bit about this, I wanna do this myself and was wondering about the following things:

1) is the wire depth the same for all the fretwire? Last thing i need is deepening the slots or ending up with a fretless bass....

2) Where can I get the tools from?

3) can the fret pulling pliers do the job of cutting the fret ends?

4) Should I really attempt it? I read a lot about these things, have never attempted anything, maybe this will be the beginning of a very expensive hobby...

5) Im not planning on spending more than 50 squid on the whole thing. I mean its not worth it when the bass was 100 quid and it was defo worth it, but selling it and the added amount towards refretting will bump it up to a Squier CV... Its like, whats the point.

Please advise.

Much love

Terry Tibbs

[FelixGubbins]

Terry

I'm after doing the same sort of thing except I took the frets out of my bass years ago to make it fretless but now wish I had a second fretted bass.

Felix

[geoffbyrne]

[quote name='BassKS' post='883032' date='Jul 1 2010, 02:52 PM']Hi Lads/Lasses,

I do love my cheap bass almost as much as my Warmoth jazz. Its neck is rounder and more comfortable to play. However, it has smaller frets and, somethimes, it gets a bit difficult to fret a note, especially if you slap like Chewbacca. Now, I spoke to Ou7shined a bit about this, I wanna do this myself and was wondering about the following things:

1) is the wire depth the same for all the fretwire? Last thing i need is deepening the slots or ending up with a fretless bass....


[b]No, there are various widths, heights and tangs. I think the StewMac website has a roundup of all the types you can get.[/b]


2) Where can I get the tools from?


[b]I got a pair of pincers with the top already hollow ground, at the Panier Market in Barnstaple - maybe look at places like that, plus a rubber/copper headed mallet and an end-file from Ebay (probably)[/b]


3) can the fret pulling pliers do the job of cutting the fret ends?


[b]Yes, if you get the right tool & make sure the jaws are sharp.[/b]



4) Should I really attempt it? I read a lot about these things, have never attempted anything, maybe this will be the beginning of a very expensive hobby...

[b]I've only done 3 frets & it was a lot of work....[/b]

5) Im not planning on spending more than 50 squid on the whole thing. I mean its not worth it when the bass was 100 quid and it was defo worth it, but selling it and the added amount towards refretting will bump it up to a Squier CV... Its like, whats the point.

[b]Your choice, Mate.[/b]

Please advise.

Much love

Terry Tibbs[/quote]