Grizzly Tools Fretwire

[SawDust_Junkie]

Anybody here ever use the Grizzly fretwire ? I am getting ready to place an order, and I was going to go with the Allparts LT-0890-000 wire, but it's $4.00 for one 2' piece. the Grizzly wire is $7.95 for a pack of 10 18" pieces. The two wires are comparable in dimensions, except for the height of the frets. The Allparts wire has a height of .045" and the Grizzly wire has a height of .035". the crown width, tang depth, and tooth width are all within .001" - .003" of each other.

I prefer the extra heigth on wire for an initial fretting so I have plenty of room for leveling, but I don't think .010" less heigth will give me any major problems. The main thing is cost. I can get enough wire to fret three guitars with the Grizzly wire. The same amount of wire from allparts would be more than $28.00.

I just don't know about the quality of the Grizzly wire. Actually, I have never used the Allparts wire either. I have only used Stewart-Mac wire on one previous guitar. Any comments guys ? ( and gals)

(on edit)

Actually after looking at the Stewart Mac fret wire again, I think I really do need to stick with the higher profile wire, especially since this is going to be a new fret installation. That and the fact that I am not an exceptionally skilled fret leveler yet. The extra height gives me more room for screw-ups. I just wish there was somewere that I could get the same size wire as the Stewart Mac wire at a comparable price to the Grizzly wire.

Edited January 21, 2006 by SawDust_Junkie

[Mickguard]

Interesting...I don't get the impression that Grizzly deals in cheap goods otherwise, so why shouldn't the quality be right on this too?

My question: I plan to buy a pre-slotted fretboard from Stewmac. They say the width of the slots is .023" --but Grizzly gives the tang width of their fret wire as .022" --is that difference an issue? Is Grizzly measuring the width of the tang or the width of the barbs as well? (Stewmac doesn't give the width of their tang)

[soapbarstrat]

I'd have to go measure, but I think the StewMac wire I have has a tang width of .022".

Wait, I'll go check.

How about that ? you're still here. Ok, says on the tube that the Mac wire came in, that the tang is .022". This is the #155 wire.

You can't get the best deal on fret-wire , in my experience (have a good amount of it too), unless you buy it by the pound.

Best deal I ever got was $20.00 a pound for German nickel-silver, and $38.00 a pound for stainless steel fret-wires. When I ordered more, months later, I found out that my first purchase had been when the company was doing an "introductory offer", and then after that the price went up quite a lot, but I still bought more anyway. It was still a good price for good wire.

Worst deal was 20 2 foot pieces of Dunlop wire for around $56.00 or something like that.

[Mattia]

Best deal I ever got was $20.00 a pound for German nickel-silver, and $38.00 a pound for stainless steel fret-wires. When I ordered more, months later, I found out that my first purchase had been when the company was doing an "introductory offer", and then after that the price went up quite a lot, but I still bought more anyway. It was still a good price for good wire.

Got an address for that?

[Mickguard]

You'd figure if it's German nickel-silver, it must come from Germany, right? (Well, thereabouts...French fries comes from Belgium, after all...and the best fries come from that little place near the Spuistraat...mmm...sate sauce, kept me alive for a few years there...But anyway).

So does anyone know where to pick up fret wire here in Europe?

[Mattia]

No, but Soapbarstrat's mentioned that he got german-made fretwire, both 'standard' and strainless in the past. Just I either missed the bit where he told us where, or he never posted it. Dunno which.

[Mickguard]

Karosa guitars (the guy who sells necks on ebay) used to say that he used nickel-silver fretwire made in the Netherlands --any idea where that might come from?

HEre's one of his old auctions:

karosa auction

[Mattia]

I know Touchstone Tonewoods carries dutch-made wire, but I haven't annoyed them yet to find out where in the Netherlands its made.

[SawDust_Junkie]

The Grizzly catalog I just received shows the tang width at .022" and the barb width at .041", so I with .023" slots I don't think there would any issue with that.

Soapbar, I know what you mean about getting the best deal buying by the pound, its just kind of hard to justify it when you're just a hobby builder and not building to sell. I'm luck if I'm able to put together one guitar in a years time

[xcoyle]

The owner or is he the CEO, of Grizzly is a guitar builder, you can view his builds on the Grizzly site. Grizzly is also making guitar attachments for some of the power tools.

[redwhiteandthemaple]

Just to let ya know

(If you didn't know)

Grizzly has an Amazon store

(doesn't have eBay though )

-IR

[redwhiteandthemaple]

Link

[Guitarfrenzy]

I might be crazy, but I don't think Soapbar is going to disclose where he bought the fretwire. I might be proven wrong though. Stainless steel wire is great and last forever, but is real hard to work with and is rough on your tools.

[soapbarstrat]

I just don't want to hurt Stew-Mac's fretwire sales.

[Guitarfrenzy]

I just don't want to hurt Stew-Mac's fretwire sales.

lol..

I forgot to mention that I've used Grizzly fretwire before, and it works great with a Stew Mac slotted fingerboard. The only problem I have is that I like taller fretwire, and like was mentioned earlier, they only have medium height wire and smaller. No issue on the quality though.