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What size fretwire do you like?

Dan Erlewine

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Jul 18, 2001
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I was wondering . . .

. . . if, when you said that YOU refretted your guitar, that you meant "had" it fretted, or did the job yourself. I would agree with Tonefiend that your first fretjob could leave much to be desired. What kind of diluted glue? Tap on the frets with a hard object. Do they sound "hollow", "clunky," and not tight?

dan
 

drewchowen

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May 7, 2002
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The frets sound solid when tapped... No hollow sounding spots... Lord knows, I'm not a luthier but the work is sound.

I'm in the process of conducting a little experiment to see if I can knock out the sympathetic resonance I'm detecting, and so far I think I've got it under control. Yesterday I restrung the LPS with a heavier set of strings than I normally do. I usually string with GHS Boomer lights (.046" - .010") but I switched up to the GHS TNT set (.052" - .010") thinking that a heavier string (at least on the wound strings) working against the bigger frets would work (in theory) similar to a smaller string on a smaller fret. It's only been a day, but I had a two hour rehearsal last night and a 75 minute set tonight, and I can detect a change in the negative portion of the tone I was hearing. Plus, I like the heavier tension of the strings. I may have to come up with some hybrid string sets (I'd like to keep .010's on the high E, but I'm going to try a heavier G and B string - the G had been the worst before) but this seems to be working.

There was one other change I made yesterday too that made me think this may not be a fret related issue at all. Some of the saddles on the bridge were turned around (Low E and A) to compensate for intonation adjustments. With the heavier strings, I needed to reset the intonation... I turned the A saddle, the Low E was fine, but the G string wouldn't intonate properly... Too sharp no matter how back I could get the saddle. So I reversed the G saddle as well, and was able to get it to intonate properly. That's what made me think, these saddles may be cut poorly. Flip the G saddle and the G string sounds much improved. Not perfect, but alot better. I may have never have noticed the bridge before the fretjob because the action was so high it put the strings out of the sweet spot on the P90's so I couldn't detect it. After the fretboard leveling and fretjob I can set the action where I like it (low) and now the pickups are revealing what may have been going on all along - bad bridge saddles.
 

LuthierTom

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Jul 17, 2001
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90
I'm an oddball

I do a lot of glides so I like a small fret. Fender vintage, StewMac Medium Acoustic, or whatever Taylor's standard is for acoustics. On electric Gibbys, something around 0.095-0.103 wide x 0.036-0.040 tall.
 

philtone

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Mar 17, 2002
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Soap!!!

Thanks a lot. Now I wanna sink some cash into a fretwire order! I just emailed DaeHung about their #DSW 24H in SS. Depending on their reply, it might be time to start a new thread and see if folks want to go in on some wire.

Have you left for Deustchland yet?
 

Soapbarstrat

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Nov 8, 2002
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Glad you found the link useful, Philtone. Still a little over a month before I leave, which isn't enough coz I'm not getting things done as fast as I need to. It's making me a nervous wreck.

I'm guessing that's a Korean Company (although it was in the middle of the night when I looked at the site, so maybe I should double-check that). I've heard that Japanese companies don't like to deal directly with individuals in the US, they seem to only like dealing with big US companies, so I'm wondering if that could be the same with other Asian companies. I thought Dan might be interested in them ,coz they say they can make customized fret-wire (that's how I understood it, anyway)

I had to laugh when I first saw their main page, which had all these wierd metal containers and then a guitar to the left of that. I thought "what the hell kind of guitar parts are those " . It's because they make all kinds of metal products, but it sure looked odd at first.

Then I came across a site with a guitar that has "smiling frets" LOL !

I'll be interested in what you hear from the company.

I haven't even looked closely at the sizes they offer. I might want some, but hadn't even thought a little guy like me would be able to buy some from them.

Rob
 

philtone

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Mar 17, 2002
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Never hurts to ask!

If an order is too big and folks can agree on a size or sizes, perhaps we can try some new wire. Or maybe SM will get into it and folks like you and me can access it that way.

What really grabbed my attention besides the size was that it can be had in stainless. I get asked alot about SS wire. I've tried to get some from Parker to no avail. I understand that Petillo won't part with his, although he has to get it somewhere. As multitalented as he is, I don't know if he has the capacity to cost effectively make custom size and material wire. Size maybe, as DE's experiments show, but material? Its gotta come from somewhere.
I did manage to buy enough SS wire from Warmoth for 2 guitar necks, although I had to beg Ken for it, pay full upcharge for it. I hear that they won't part with it anymore. I imagine that they think it is a selling point for their products, so why encourage a competitor? I haven't tried Anderson, but maybe I will.

I think the Warmoth upcharge for SS frets is $20 retail. So that tells me that SS wire isn't really super expensive, maybe at a cost of $15 compared to NS at $4~5 per neck? If the minimum order is coil of 25 kg or about 55 lbs at $15 per lb that means the order will be around $875 plus shipping. If a pound is 40 feet and a neck takes 5 feet, that means enough for 440 necks...Just guessing.

DaeHung is south Korean. Looks like they make fretwire for Samick, the largest guitar maker in the world.
I am curious to get a reply from them. Stay tuned.
 

John Catto

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Jul 15, 2001
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3,609
Speaking of Petillo, did anyone else notice the "Petillo" style wire on that site.

dsw-28t.jpg
 

philtone

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Mar 17, 2002
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OK, I haven't been around much lately but I did get a reply from DaeHung. They said the machinery that makes the SS wire is down for maintainance for a while. They didn't specify when it would be available again, nor the minimum order quanitity, nor be able to acquire several samples for investigating etc...

But this doesn't exactly rule out a future deal.

Anyone else have an idea of where to get SS fretwire?
 

Dan Erlewine

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Jul 18, 2001
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SS Wire

I have met the Daehung folks at Namm shows. SM hasn't done business with them until now, but who knows? It isn't easy to start a good working relationship with any supplier, especially an overseas supplier. Of course price is a factor too, and usually minimum orders are beyond what an individual could afford.

As I posted earlier, I am going to get my hands on several styles of SS wire. It takes alot of time to get an initial order (samples, too) in hand.

I guess Phil found that out upon hearing that the "machine is broken". I question that one!

I will post when I have a source.

thanks, dan
 

philtone

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Mar 17, 2002
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Dan,
Welcome back, hope you had a good rest. I'm pushing this back up with a little news.

I talked to Dunlop Friday and they said that they had no interest in SS wire at this time due to cost, but they get lots of requests for it.
I get asked about SS regularly and want to have it avialable in my shop. Folks seem to expect that it will cost more from what I gather in my discussions with inquirers, so cost may not be a deterant to the end consumer.

On another nore, I misplaced your phone # and wanted to talk to you about the blue light.

Thanks,
Phil
 

Scott Stulken

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Jul 15, 2001
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251
I think you're right Phil: people *will* pay more for frets that won't wear out! Especially those players who must have their guitars refretted every year or so. It's cost-effective in the long run if you have guitars you use a lot.

- Scott
 
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