would it be a Cardinal sin to .....

Would it be a Cardinal sin to re-fret my 1984 Cavalier with medium jumbo frets ?? I believe it came with the vintage frets stock ...... I'm having a hard time adjusting to the small vintage frets and I don't play as good on them , this guitar is not mint looking but a great player and don't look bad a few feet away ..... I either need to make the guitar to suit my needs with larger frets ( I like the tone of it and general feel other than fret size ) or sell it and get something that feels better ..... If I re-fret I'll get stainless steel with medium jumbo fret size like my 1996 and newer guitars

what do you guy's think ??

Eric

If I had a guitar that I really liked, planned on keeping a while and the only thing making it great were the frets I would do it. Unless something has real collectible value I don't care if I alter an old guitar. If it did have a high collectors value and I didn't like the neck/frets I'd just sell it.

+1 for the stainless frets. I intend to use stainless for my next refret on a keeper guitar.

Eric,

I may be mixed up on the terminology, but none of my '80s G&Ls have vintage frets (thinking "vintage" means the thin fret wire used on a lot of guitars in the '50s and '60s). Are you sure yours are original to the instrument?

Ken

they are the thin small frets , it has had a re-fret before so I don't really know what came stock , my tech called them vintage and they are way smaller than every other G&L I own .... It's not a cherry original and I do like the guitar , other than the frets I like it

If you're liking the tone and the feel, you're 90% of the way to guitar happiness.
Just be sure you get a really good guy to do the refret, and don't look back.
The guitar you have is not directly replaceable, so you want to be sure you get a proper job done on its neck.
But "collectible" is not what it's for, it's for playing! I'd do it for certain.

they are the thin small frets , it has had a re-fret before so I don't really know what came stock , my tech called them vintage and they are way smaller than every other G&L I own .... It's not a cherry original and I do like the guitar , other than the frets I like it

The original frets were flat-wide (aka low-wide) and all pre-BBE guitars had them.

Given that the original frets were previously replaced, I would not hesitate to replace the current ones.

^^^^

I think I will get er done as that's the only thing keeping me from totally being in love with it , seems like the small narrow frets has me hitting some dead notes that are fine with medium jumbo's

Just picked up the Cavalier today from getting a stainless steel re-fret with medium jumbo fret wire ..... what a difference !! .... the medium jumbo plays better for me over the Vintage but the stainless frets make it so easy to do bends that I wish I would have ordered my new G&L's with SS frets .... anybody on the fence about SS frets ??... don't hesitate , it's worth it

Glad to hear you're really liking it now.

Great to hear that you are liking the guitar more with the new frets!

Do you have any pics with the new frets?

no pictures yet , but they look like a factory set up , If I never said anything no one would notice ..... the Cavalier is now my favorite G&L of all ...... I do have my 1997 S 500 and 1986 Rampage out getting a SS fret job right now , should get back next week end .... I will take some pictures when I get them back ..... Frets by Mark is who's doing them , Mark Kiaser does a fabulous job re-fretting

Do whatever it takes to enjoy playing that thing or sell it immediately.