Standard fret material

[Diggydude]

Hello,

What's the standard fret material from pitbull necks? I assumed stainless steel but I bought some actual stainless steel fret wire and it seems to stay shinier for longer in comparison...

[Simon Barden]

Certainly not stainless, but I’ve no idea exactly what hardness of standard fretwire is used by the factories. Stainless is great from a user point of view, but awful from a guitar building point of view as they take so much more time and effort to level, profile and polish. A lot of luthiers won’t touch them as a result. I hate working on them.

[McCreed]

Just expanding on Simon's reply. The "standard" fretwire is an alloy called nickel silver (or commonly just referred to as nickel).
Asian made kits will most definitely be nickel fretwire unless an optional upgrade for another was offered.

That said, not all nickel silver is not created equal. I am by no means a metallurgist, but the nickel silver "recipe" will vary depending on where it's manufactured. I will say that inexpensive fretwire made in China is not going to be as good a quality as from the USA.
The basic difference will be the "hardness" of the metal. The fretwire I buy is MIA and I have definitely noticed a difference in it's durability compared to import guitars and certainly kit frets.

There is a relatively new-ish fret material available called EVO Gold which is a copper alloy. It has a goldish-brass colour and supposed to be harder wearing than nickel but more easily workable than stainless steel. I'd like to try it, but I have at least 3 fretboards worth of nickel fretwire in my supplies and it's more than twice the price of nickel and over 10% more than SS. (EVO Gold: $55AU/1.8m)

[Simon Barden]

It take me about an hour to do a fret level and polish on normal frets. I'd put aside most of a day to do stainless frets. That's a big cost difference if you are paying someone to do it for you.

[Ricky]

I have EVO Gold fret wire I am putting on my LP style River guitar build.

I should be fitting them by monday so I will post back here with my findings.
I paid £14.86 for 6 feet from Ebay.

Cheers
Ricky

[Simon Barden]

I paid £14.86 for 6 feet from Ebay.

Do you have three spare pairs of shoes then? ;)

[McCreed]

That's a big cost difference if you are paying someone to do it for you.

Yeah, I don't pay anyone for fretwork anymore.


I should be fitting them by monday so I will post back here with my findings.
I paid £14.86 for 6 feet from Ebay.

I'll be interested to hear what you think about working with it.

The wire I see on eBay for that price is from China. I'd suggest the quality difference I stated in my previous reply would apply here as well. All the listings I see from the USA are more in line with the price I quoted previously.

I could be wrong... I have been about plenty of other things before...

[Ricky]

Do you have three spare pairs of shoes then? ;)

Ha Ha.
No, but I have been told often enough that I have 2 left feet!

[Simon Barden]

You can certainly get authentic Jescar Evo Gold wire for between £8 and £14 a metre, depending on fret width/height, here in the UK.

https://tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/guitar-fret-wire/evo-gold.html

I assume that this is probably the source of the eBay wire (so definitely not from China). https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jescar-Gold-EVO-Medium-Frets-Guitar-Fret-Wire-6-feet-43080/184218995783?hash=item2ae44ecc47:g:bqUAAOSwjVRedNi 6

[Ricky]

Yeah, I don't pay anyone for fretwork anymore.



I'll be interested to hear what you think about working with it.

The wire I see on eBay for that price is from China. I'd suggest the quality difference I stated in my previous reply would apply here as well. All the listings I see from the USA are more in line with the price I quoted previously.

I could be wrong... I have been about plenty of other things before...


The wire I have is Jescar (USA I think).
Here is the link (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jescar-Gold-EVO-Medium-Frets-Guitar-Fret-Wire-6-feet-43080/184218995783?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649)

[McCreed]

Thanks for those links guys. After some quick calculations, adding postage & GST, looks like there would only minimal savings buying it from the UK instead of domestically :(

I'll still wait to hear what Ricky has to say after installation though.