SawDust_Junkie Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 I know Touchstone Tonewoods carries dutch-made wire, but I haven't annoyed them yet to find out where in the Netherlands its made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDust_Junkie Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcoyle Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Just to let ya know (If you didn't know) Grizzly has an Amazon store (doesn't have eBay though ) -IR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwhiteandthemaple Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 I just don't want to hurt Stew-Mac's fretwire sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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