Jump to content

Where The Best Deals For Fret Wire?


xcoyle

Recommended Posts

The Stew Mac wire is a good deal. I bought their wire bender last week so, no problem there.

Is the Dunlop wire so expensive just becuase they have so many sizes, or is it truely better quality. Most wire says 18% nickel-silver. Just curious to hear from someone who swears by Dunlop wire and has had problems with other wire, such as Stew-Macs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey eric, the wire you buy from Allied Lutherie, is only available in 9" radius ? Can you order from them in other Radiu(s/i) ? I am building a project right now with a 12" radius fretboard, I would think over radiused wire at 9" should be good.

It just comes coiled, which is relatively common. They don't coil it to your speficied radius, but it's an effective way to provide long lengths of wire without cutting. Minimal waste, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A luthier in California happened to have a customer who had access to a metal hardness testing lab, and sent fret-wire samples there for testing. Stew-Mac wire came out a little harder than Dunlop. Both wires had at least 19% nickel in them.

I remember on that other 'guitar builders' forum where some clowns were saying Stew-Mac wire was inferior quality, etc. Those guys wouldn't know good fret-wire if a 50 pound coil of it crawled up their butt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A luthier in California happened to have a customer who had access to a metal hardness testing lab, and sent fret-wire samples there for testing. Stew-Mac wire came out a little harder than Dunlop. Both wires had at least 19% nickel in them.

I remember on that other 'guitar builders' forum where some clowns were saying Stew-Mac wire was inferior quality, etc. Those guys wouldn't know good fret-wire if a 50 pound coil of it crawled up their butt.

I remember Litch claiming he used to wear out stew mac wire in three months. But, he shredded faster than chuck norris.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The stainless wire can be a b!*ch on fret files if you are using it a lot. It's just harder so it will take a bit more work to level and crown. Chuck Norris could probably just look at your neck and the frets would be leveled, or the neck would vaporize. Just call his name because Chuck Norris is in all places at all times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chuck Norris never sleeps, He waits.

Chuck Norris' tears cures cancer. Too bad Chuck Norris has never cried, ever.

underneath Chuck Norris' beard is a third fist.

When going in to donate blood Chuck Norris asked for a handgun and a bucket.

On thanksgiving Chuck Norris wife burnt the turkey. So Chuck Norris went out into the backyard and found a whole live turkey. He than ate the turkey in one bite and a few minutes later threw up a fully cooked turkey with crannberry sauce. When his wife asked how he did it he roundhouse kicked her and said, "never question Chuck Norris"

Chuck Norris could roundhouse kick a chunk of wood and it would turn into a beautiful guitar.

Edited by Godin SD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chuck Norris bleeds lava, if he bled...which he doesn't

I was thinking of doing stainless steel on my first neck build, will this be too hard for me? it will be a non-radiused fretboard so that should take out some challenge.

I don't know if I'd recommend you doing your first fretjob using stainless steel wire. The only problem with stainless steel is that it's rough on your tools, and takes longer to work with. If you can get the fingerboard near perfect level, and press the frets in, you shouldn't have too much problems with leveling the frets. Diamond files make life a lot easier when working with stainless!! For your first fretjob, I think you'd learn more to start with regular fretwire before trying stainless. Just my opinion though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would be funny to see someone new to fretting start with ss wire, but at the same time, I'd hate to see ss wire go to waste.

Frank Ford seems to use ss wire with no more trouble than regular ns wire, but I think he's using the smallest size, which makes quite a difference (at least with cutting the stuff).

Flat finger board and straight pieces of fret-wire will do LITTLE to make the job easier. Actually the best quality ss wire that I know of is mainly sold in coiled form.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does he pre bend them also? Just curious since I am about to try my hand at my first neck

He has a pretty good picture of what you get in the auction listing. IIRC, there's not much of a radius there, but there is a little. I've been using them to make all the cigar box guitars lately which have no radius anyway. I can't recall how they fit in the slots to be honest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...