soapbarstrat

I picked 'Skilled-I do some stuff on the side for money', because I don't do guitar repair full-time. I assume ' Pro-Makes money doing alterations and repair' ,means guitar repair would be my only job, although technically I could have picked that. Can't pick 'Master-I make them complete from start to finish', because I'm just not interested in that. I get much more of a kick out of bringing a neglected guitar back to life than building a new one from scratch. At least with a "fixer upper" , you can get an idea if it's a good sounding guitar before you start working on it. You can't beat older, stable wood. I've heard so many new guitars that sound like ****. SOUND COMES BEFORE LOOKS !!! 18 years ago I would have had to pick :' If I even look at your guitar, call the cops' (that's when I first started playing guitar and thought I'd get a heavier sound on my Fender by adjusting the bridge saddles to look the same as a bridge on a picture of a Jackson flying V . LOL !)

Hard Maple for a body will give you a lot of sustain and a very hard and "cold" sound. I would avoid that. Jermey has a pretty nice looking Alder body in the classified section. Not even routed for a big monster trem, that's a plus in my book. I'd look around for a used Alder body and maybe even one with flaws that you can live with, fix or maybe the flaws are on parts of the body that you would want to cut off or cover with a pickguard. Just make sure you know exactly what flaws it has , if any. (don't buy one with a badly routed neck-pocket, etc- although that can sometimes be fixed-just won't look so good, maybe). I think Cobain's main guitar was made of Basswood.

The distance from the nut to the 12th fret is 1/2 of what the guitar's scale length is. Most Gibsons have a 24 3/4" (actually a bit shorter but I won't go into that now). Typical Fender is 25 1/2 ". Paul Reed Smith is 25". I had to replace the fret-board on a Chandler Jackson copy neck and as long as I was doing that, I thought I should do something a little different, so I bought a fret-scale ruler from Stew-mac and made the new fret-board have a 25" (Paul Reed Smith) scale, by using a zero fret. The zero fret is just a half an inch closer to the body than the original nut location, then I had a locking nut at the original nut location. I prefer the zero fret after using it. Only problem is that I scalloped the fret-board on this guitar and I found my heavy left hand doesn't work so well with scallops (I'm left handed but play guitar right handed). Then I took the floyd off that guitar and replaced it with a WD that didn't come with a nut, so the guitar is in limbo now. 25" scale was a nice way to tame the metallic sounding locking trem, though. Made the guitar warmer and quite "Gibsonish" sounding. I had a Squire strat with a 24 3/4" scale that was VERY Les Paul sounding. That's cool because a strat body is so much more comfortable than a Pauls.

Be careful of anything that "runs" like oils, wd-40, etc. I'm thinking something thicker that don't run is better, like Vaseline or maybe anti-sieze compound. Or Brian's idea of Lithium grease might be good. Take the truss-rod nut completely off and blow out any loose dirt and clean out any other crud, dust or dirt you can. Check to see if there's a washer in there. Sometimes the washer is pretty chewed up and you might want to replace it with a washer in new condition. also, sometimes the wood becomes compressed and then what happens is the truss-rod nut runs out of thread before it's tightened enough. An easy solution for this is to add 2 washers to simulate how the truss-rod worked before years of wood compression changed things a bit. With the truss-rod nut out, dab a little vaseline inside it's internal threads and smear a light coating on the face of it that touches the washer or metal piece that it bears against when being tightened. Don't put so much vaseline that a bunch oozes out when you screw the nut back in. A dab'll do ya !!! It's bad to have wood or finish anywhere on a guitar get soaked with grease, oil, wd-40, etc. They cause finish to lift off off wood, glue joints to come apart, all kinds of bad stuff. Just like the damage done when people put drops of oil on those exposed gear tuning machines on the headstock. I have been told that truss-rods work better when the nut is taken off and lightly lubed and washers added/replaced if needed, then put back on an adjusted. One very popular guitar repairman, doesn't start making truss-rod adjustments until after he's first performed this truss-rod nut maintenance routine. I'm going to start paying more attention to it myself and doing it to every guitar I work on now. I didn't realize how important it is until recently. I know I always write too much and act like I know everything. I know a lot, but not everything.

WD. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Height adjustment screws for each string and it works really smooth. Maybe because I'm the one who installed it ? Yeah maybe. I have an orignal Floyd factory installed to compare it to. I can't find any flaws about the Floyd or how the factory did the routing and drilled the holes, but the WD feels a little smoother when using the tremelo. I'm sick of saying good things about the WD, but you asked. Never tried an Ibanez. I currently have a Fender system one (had 2 , but just sold one), WD and the Floyd. I don't use tremelos anymore and if I ever do again, I guess I'd prefer a stock vintage-type Fender model or copy. Give me a strat with a hardtail bridge with 3 brass Tele saddles on it and I'll be happy taking it and a little amp out in the shed and play some 'backwoods metal '

Pretty common here in the states. Schecter also had the "behind the nut" locking nut. Kahler had a few. Usually if you decide to take off the locking part, all you have are a couple of screw holes in the neck showing, which could be filled. When it's behind the actual nut, it's really just a string clamp and not working as the nut. I'd love to find one of the schecter ones and take that damn thing off and have a great strat-type neck.

Jeremy, I meant all along the brass that they are already using on the trems. Not any kind of different brass. I just call it all brass, if it looks like brass. I should have made that clear sooner I guess.

Here's what I got : I took measurements of the trem unit itself and also the routed cavity. Original Floyd in a late 80's Kramer with recessed rout : Unit : A - 3.619 "(slightly less than 3 5/8") B - 2.681" (2 11/16 ") Minimum (includes string clamp screw) - 2.809" (slightly less than 2 12/16") Maximum (inclused string clamp screw C - 2.909"(slightly more than 2 29/32") Guitar player Repair guide says they should be 2 15/16" apart (2.937") D - 2.645" (slightly more than 2 41/64") Routed area: A - 3.743" (slightly less than 3 3/4" ) B - 3.240" (slightly less than 3 1/4") D - 2.787" (slightly more than 2 25/32") E - 1.618" (slightly less than 1 5/8") * E is not the same all the way across. It becomes much more narrow around the area where the tremelo arm is . I measured 0.804" (slightly less than 13/16") in this area . Go here, to see what I mean: http://www.geocities.com/soapbarstrat/floydstuff.html F- 1.360 (a little more than 1 1/32") ------------------------------ WD Floyd copy Unit: A - 3.700"(slightly less than 3 45/64") B - 2.807" (slightly less than 2 13/16") C - 3.082" (slightly more than 3 5/64") * The WD unit design allows this measurement to vary slightly, which I find superior to other units. D - 2.544" (slightly less than 2 35/64") Routed area (for recessed fit) A - 3.819" (slightly more than 3 13/16") B - 3.130" (slightly more than 3 1/8") D - 2.810" (slightly less than 2 13/16") E - 1.777" (slightly less than 1 25/32") * This measurement is not the same all the way across, it gets more narrow around the area of the tremelo arm, which is 0.896" (about 57/64 ") F - 1.190" (slightly more than 1 3/16") The Kramer Floyd rout is a factory route, with no mods done by me. The WD rout is all done by me and I came up with the measurements. Kind of ironic that I'm the one posting this, since I hate to see non-whammy and vintage whammy guitars converted to have these big Floyd-type monsters put on them. But I guess I was thinking about all the botched rout jobs I've seen and that often makes people want to totally junk the body altogether. It was also a lot more work to get these measurements and type it all out here than I thought it would be. I was in the shop and thought I could just spare a few moments to do it, which turned out to take much longer. I hope others take some measurements too, even of Original Floyd routs, like mine.

LOL ! I know what you mean. Well, at least I hope he's not afraid to use his trem the way it's supposed to be used and he should know that it sounds good and there's a good reason why they use brass and brass variations for bridge parts. Brass costs way more than steel, so it's no wonder that manufacturers would rather use steel. I'm actually more interested in "de-floyding" guitars these days (taking floyd type trems out and putting the guitar as close as possible to how it was before). Still perfecting my methods for doing this and will not openly offer this service until I get a little more experience. (just came up with a way that might make the best wood hole filling plugs around) I'm finding it a fun challenge to hide as much "floyd was here" evidence on the guitar as possible.

"Guess you've never had a trem block crack on you while doing whammy antics. Brass under vibration will do 1 of 2 things, it will harden, and get brittle, (though with yellow brass that isnt' likely) or it will stretch and distort. " *** No I sure haven't, nor have I seen any such trem-block problem on any of the dozens of guitars I've had or did work on. That includes an 80's Fender I had as a teen, with a cast block. I had even layed that guitar on the floor and used the trem-arm as a "foot pedal" while the amp was feeding back. Real stupid. Anyone who's doing even somthing more abusive to their guitar is just asking for trouble. It's a musical instrument, not a power-tool or toy. I guess if I ever see a "cracked block" , it will be from a defective piece of metal and not the "guitarist having such cool tremelo techniques, that he warps, chews and cracks the block apart". I would like to see photos of what you are talking about, though. Also, in one post you say "yellow" brass is inferior, then in another post, you find a reason why it would be superior for the given situation. I don't think that guy who makes the solid brass trems would agree with what you have said either. I can't see tremelo use as an effective means of "work hardening" a piece of metal that happens to be the tremelo block. The springs are what are taking most of the abuse. Unless the trem-block cavity is not properly routed and also the guitarist knowingly damaging the instrument. I have seen whammy abuse result in the fulcrum post pulling out of the body or cracking the body. This would probably always happen before a non-defective trem-block would crack apart. "As for a wood block, there are many woods out there that are harder than brass believe it or not, but in hardness and strength. Maple, Ebony, Iron wood, Purpleheart, etc......." ****Depends on the application. On a guitar, brass is usually stronger than wood. For example, brass nut compared to a wood nut, brass screw compared to a wood screw, and I'll bet money that a brass trem block holds up much better than any type of wood block. There's also not enough LEVERAGE exerted on the trem-block to need tensile strength greater than what brass will achieve. "Oh, for interest sake, my 118.6 pounds, is based on D'addario XL electric guitar strings. you use bigger than 9;s, your tension goes up " ***I'll have to go look up my string spec data, but I thought the tension was around 80 pounds for 9's tuned at standard pitch. I appreciate your knowledge of metals, etc, but Industrial Design was my major in college.

Can someone explain to me how an aluminum or brass tremelo block (the thing that bolts to the underside of the bridge plate and holds one end of the springs) would "get chewed up" ? I just don't see it happening. Some guys even use wood. There's hardly any friction on the trem block. One end has deep holes that firmly hold the spring ends. You'd have to purposely put a lot of effort into trying to "chew" that up, for example, stick a crow-bar in there and start being extremely abusive. The other end bolts firmly to the bridge plate and is held by 3 machine screws usually. They go deep enough into the block, to make a solid unit. You'd have to loosen the screws then get very abusive with the trem to cause a problem on that end of the block. If you go so crazy with the trem, that you'd cause the trem-block to get messed up (wether it be aluminum or brass, etc), you'll probably do all kinds of other damage first, like causing the fulcrum screws to pull out of the body.

My original mid-80's floyd rose has a brass trem block. Yes, they appear to be steel, but that's just the outer-coating. I wanted to "recess" my springs a little and filed some grooves, plus filed a slight bit off the whole bottom of the block. It's as brass as can be. Brass is a good sounding metal, otherwise they wouldn't make so many horn instruments out of it and cymbals. It's not the brightest metal, but that is what can make it good for a guitar that tends to be too bright, like a strat. If anyone thinks "the more steel, the better", go have a whole guitar made of steel and see how much you have to turn the treble control on your amp. It won't go down far enough to help the intense brightness. Some steel is good, for example a steel bridge plate with brass saddles. Brass is harder to drill than steel. it tends to "grab" at steel instead of just cutting it. Makes me wonder if when I see manufacturers say stuff like " we use steel for our bridges because it sounds better than brass", if they really mean " Brass was f-ing up our machinery too often and we need to tell you something to make you like steel better too, and not know that we put our manufacturing processes over what is best for the customer" I'd be curious as to how an aluminum trem block would sound. I'm just not too much into joy-sticks anymore, so I probably will never bother to try it. But I think that aluminum sounds like a cross between steel and wood. I saw on another forum where a guy says WOOD trem blocks are the best. Aluminum would be a good compromise. I once read an article about Scott Henderson where he said (about his floyd Rose) " I replaced the blocks with aluminum blocks because it helps it sustain better" . I don't know exactly what he means. If he's refering to the trem-block, or some other part of the bridge, perhaps.

Man, I would stay away from Torres. Do a little internet digging (ask questions on some boards) about varitone set-ups and how to wire them up. Torres is a con artist. His parts quality is bad. His instructions are said to be even worse.

I voted for the Fender Strat, although I think the 80's Squires were kick-ass 'bang for the buck'. I have had both Japanese Fender strats and a bit of an odd-ball Japanese Squire strat, that had great hardware on it. A real vintage-type Fender tremelo with "fender" stamped on the saddles, steel base and trem-block (NO CAST JUNK) and even a 24 3/4" scale length neck that made it sound quite a bit like a Les Paul. I had to sell it because they seem to have made it for people with small hands. The neck was quite a bit more narrow than the other strat I had learned on. I could buy it back if I wanted to because I sold it to a friend. 80's fender and squire japanese strats are #1 on my list. Also the way the strat is designed, it lends itself so well to all kinds of mods you can't do on most other guitars. I like a guitar that is open for so many options. I usually don't even like the typical strat sound, but the way the strat is made, you can do all kinds of things to "de-strat" it.

I live in St.Louis , Missouri about 6 months out of the year and Frankfurt Germany about the other 6 months. Of course that could change and I might end up staying in one place or the other. Lived in St.Louis most of my life, but it really sucks here. The people here are so stupid that I heard the military had done experiments on the population many years ago. (releasing chemicals into the air or water or something like that. I barely remember what was said about it---WHICH IS PROBABLY WHAT THE EXPERIMENT WAS ALL ABOUT ! Lived in Frisco for a few years in my late teens.

Go with Brian's idea, but modify it a bit. Don't use brass inserts, use steel. I have used both and take my word for it, steel is better. The brass inserts easily get distorted when installed. I might offer a kit for this , but it will take quite a while if I do. Vintique offers a kit, but I think it's around $80. I 'd like to offer the same kit, but cheaper. The owner of Vintique isn't thrilled about this, but he knows that I now know all of his "trade secrets", plus I was doing this sort of thing long before I ever saw his kit, I just hadn't used neck-plates, only rounded neck heels without plates, and used counter-sunk screws. Now I want to do it so it looks more traditional, with a plate and phillips-head machine screws. The kit includes a new stronger neck-plate which is the key to the hole thing. You can crank the screws tighter. Most normal neck-plates will bend and press into the wood too much with the extra tightening. You might want to plug the holes with dowels anyway, because if the screw holes are "off", you want to get rid of them to make the marks where the new holes need to go. I would make my own maple dowels on the drill-press with pieces that have all the wood grain going the same direction as the holes they are filling (not the typical dowel-plugs where it's end-grain showing on the surface of the plugged hole). So, plug 'em up with dowels and you can always install inserts later, if you want, or end up needing to (if you start taking the neck off a lot, you'll want the inserts) The inserts are one of the best mods you can make to a bolt-on neck guitar, for all kinds of reasons, some of which I have raved about on this and other forums.

You sure can. Just make sure you leave at least a thin "flat" at the very top center of the fret. In other words, keep the very top-centers as they are, otherwise you'll probably change the fret heights to different degrees from fret to fret and that is what you don't want to do. Round the edges until the "flat" isn't too wide. Some guys think the fret should be sort of "pyramid" shaped and some like the fret-tops to look like the roof of a school bus (an american school bus-you might not have seen what I mean- it means the "flat" is fairly wide and then the edges "abruptly" round over.) Also, with the "school bus" method the flat gets slighty more rounded on the edges with the final sanding with 600 grit or so. Metal players usually like the "school bus" frets better. I like a narrow fret that isn't crowned very narrow. Basically a "mini-schoolbus" fret-top. Making the fret crown look like a half-circle would be in between these two methods and that is how a new fret is shaped before it is touched by files,sandpaper, etc My customers don't always like what I like, so I do what they like to their guitar.(within reason-I won't paint their 55 Les Paul shocking pink) I would recommend though, that you go ahead and do a leveling, but only if you have a good straightedge to check the neck. I mean a precision ground straight edge, not just a metal ruler. I would be lost without my 'Bridge City Tool Works' 24" straightedge.

Do you have some calipers you can measure with ? I think the distance between the nut and the first fret on a 25.5 (Typical Fender) scale is : 1.431 (slightly less than 1 7/16 ") A possible trial method of seeing what would happen if the nut was moved closer to the first fret , would be to put a large fret in the nut-slot at the edge closest to the first fret (you'd have to put a piece of wood in the slot, so the fret would hold tight in it). then file some notches in the fret, to hold the strings. The notches would also move the "contact point" closer to the first fret. A big hassle, but if you need to find out if the nut slot needs to be moved, it's worth it, I guess. Or, fill the nut-slot with a piece of wood . No glue. make sure it's flush with the fret-board surface, but don't sand the filler strip while it's in the slot. Then make a nut that just sits on the fret-board and can be moved. Make it out of plexiglas. Or, maybe just put a piece of Low E guitar string across the front of the nut. If the strings rest on it instead of the nut, it will give you an idea .

That sounds like it would probably be the best thing to do, but since there is a forum where some "big gun" pickup experts hang out, you should see what they have to say. You probably already know about which board I'm talking about and here's the link : http://www.firebottle.org/cgi-bin/fireforu...cfg=pm&enter=go I hope that link works, but maybe it doesn't.

"should you, or the next owner want a refret, you won't hate yourself for gluing them all. " **** They will come right out with heat from a soldering iron. "now, if it's a re-fret, or if you are set on gluing them, I don't recommend white or yellow glue at all, specifically if it is a refret, or you could be stuck doing one fret a night waiting for it to dry. Also, it doesn't bond to metal well at all. " **** Don't know about white glue (polyvinyl) and I also think white glue is too non-brittle for good tone, but the yellow wood glue does bond to fret tangs at least as well as epoxy. The important part is for the fret-wire to be fully cleaned with naptha or lighter-fluid. Now, here's a weird one : Warmoth actually leaves the oil film on the fret-wire. They claim that it's better if the glue actually doesn't stick to the metal and just to the slot walls. Dried glue on the side walls, would , in fact, keep the fret from popping up if there are any beads there. I don't plan to follow their technique, but it's interesting. White(polyvinyl) and Yellow wood (aliphatic resin) are totally different kinds of glues. Some of the "old school" fretters say to use white glue . Some of them say to never use any other kind of glue on fret but white glue. "This is only my opinion based on experience, not saying any other way is wrong, just my experience. Also, when I fret, or refret, I put some sanding dust from the fretboard into the spaces at the fret ends to hide the ends, and put a drop of thin CA on them, that pretty much holds the fret ends down anyway " ****I have used super-glue and like many things about it, but I worry about some things about it too. For example, it really over-saturates into the wood, probably even through to the neck wood below the fret-board, which would really be bad if the fret-board ever needed to be replaced. accelerator helps keep some of the glue from going far into the wood of the slot, but maybe not enough. I also think all that fret-board wood getting saturated with super-glue might take out some "flex" out of the wood, which is some cases would be good, other cases bad. This might not happen too badly if one can follow the "little dab'll do ya" technique, but that can be hard to do with glue that flows like water and bottles that seem to send the stuff flooding out like Niagra Falls. Also , I keep meaning to run a test with super-glue, to see if it warps wood. I want to sand a small piece of maple or rosewood flat, soak it with super-glue and after it's dry, check to see how flat it still is. "oh, and for what it's worth, instant glue, doesn't take anywhere near 24 hours to fully cure, it's done in less than 5 minutes, once it's flashed it's done, it goes no further. I'm good friends with a guy who works for Pacer products (manufacturer of ZAP and most other instant glues) in fact, there are only 2 companies in North America that manufacture instant glue, many different brands but only two companies. " ****I don't know if they all work about the same, but the chemist who formulated the CA glue that Stew-mac sells, said the full cure doesn't occure until 24 hours after the glue is applied. I'm certainly not "anti-super glue". I will likely still use it and maybe even find I prefer it over wood glue. I probably won't use epoxy on frets anymore, even though I did for most of the 15 years I've been fretting. Epoxy got a similar reading to plexiglas on a sound-transmission test. Wood glue and CA got a better reading, if I remember correctly. Using no glue got the lowest reading on the test, even lower than epoxy. These test were done by my friend Dan Erlewine. Speaking of Dan. I told Dan that I once thought of drilling small holes across the fret-tang, so the glue could form "bridges" through the fret tang. He told me he had just recently tried that, but I didn't know about it at all. Brainwaves, I guess. I also told him if Stew-mac ever has their own custom fret-wire made, to have the holes in the tang and no beads on the tang. If you need beads, you can "punch" the holes to make little "beads". Fret-wire tang is also better if it is rough. This would be a good combination with a water-based glue because it would make wood fibers swell into the rough "grain" of the fret-tang. Using glue that causes wood to swell is still questionable to me, but then when I think of Martin using plain water in the slots when fretting, I think it can have it's advantages. It's just important to let it dry good before leveling the frets. I always let the guitar sit for a few days before a fret-job if I do any truss-rod adjustments before the fret-job , so the neck has time to settle . I guess I should consider leaving the guitar sit at least a day after installing frets for the same reason. Then level them. I should charge more then too.

Oh, it will be a while. I'll soon be out of the country for 6 months. I'll keep my eye out in Europe for fret-wire if it's too good of a deal to pass up. Supposedly a company in Holland makes good wire. Too bad the US dollar is no longer high against the Euro or I'd be able to make a sweet deal. Still got my eye on Stew-mac #155 though. I'm still looking for alternative sources to Stew-mac, which is why I keep putting off buying a bulk amount from them, which is also the reason I missed out on your last "stew-mac" run. I might not buy any until the fall. I have some #150 right now and it should last me, since I will soon have to take a 6 month break from refretting Maybe you'll do another "stew-mac" run then, in which case you could keep a few pieces of my bulk amount of fret-wire and just pay me the same that I'm paying per foot, or something like that. Maybe a bunch of us can order a HUGE amount of fret-wire and divide it. I'll probably also eventually offer it bent and all the pieces cut to length for anyone who wants fret-wire but doesn't have a good fret-bender, like I do.

Sorry about that, Brian. I can see it here : http://warmoth.com/common/frames/guitarneck.htm If that doesn't work, I think I found it by clicking on 'necks' >'guitar necks'>'fretsize'(on right side menu), then scroll down. it's like the page you found, but the new gold wire is there at the bottom. "copper without the nickel" I don't like the sound of that. Problem is, I don't think they will sell just the wire. I hate places that boast about their fret-wire but won't sell you any. When I get a bigger supply of fret-wire, I'm going to offer some for sale. Doubt I'll have gold though, but who knows what I might have sooner or later.

the glue isn't fully dry for about 24 hours, so it is BEST to wait that long before doing any leveling, etc, although I see all the time that they leave wood glue only dry an hour before they start going further. I wonder about that with a yellow wood glue, since it is water based and introducing any water to every fret slot on the neck (which is end-grain down in the slots) causes the neck to backbow a little, then it would probably back-bow a little less after it fully dries. You can see why it would be better to wait to level then. Whether or not any backbow is caused by yellow wood glue is not yet know to me. I have to rig up some calipers on my neck jig to get readings like that and I will probably do that, even though my fret-jobs are top of the line without it. Epoxy doesn't bond to shiney metal that well, so that's a very good reason not to mess with the frets until it is fully cured. I've seen epoxy suddenly pop off of metal with ease, even when it seemed to have a good bond for years (scary stuff, because they use epoxy to hold some parts of aircraft together and probably space equipment too) We both know that super-glue gets the most cured the fastest and you can be pretty rough with the frets not long after the glue is applied, even though the fact is that super-glue takes 24 hours to FULLY cure. I have thought about wiping the fret-slots with a coating of baking soda, which really makes super-glue dry rock hard fast. I don't know if it still takes 24 hours to fully cure when doing that.

Now I'm wondering if old wood glue is better than fresh glue, because I have a 5 year old bottle of the stuff that seems to still work. But tonight I was curious how brittle it is when dry, so I took a hard chunk that was at the bottle tip and squeezed it with a pair of pliers and it snapped apart right away, no flex at all, which I think is great. I want my glue to dry brittle hard, it's better for tone that way. Now I don't know if it is more brittle because it's older. I won't be able to compare it to fresh glue until I buy some. If any of you guys have fresh Elmers wood glue and can see how brittle a hard piece is, let me know. I also found a piece of dried epoxy on my bench and wanted to see how brittle that was. It wasn't as brittle as the wood glue. It flexed a lot before breaking. Elmer's yellow wood glue is my glue of choice for frets currently. Cleans up with a damp rag too. Epoxy needs a solvent. Super-glue sure has it's down-sides too, but I could very well still use it for gluing frets for a number of reasons.

Warmoth has gold fret-wire. I'm too lazy to find the link.