preferred fret wire?

[T-51Fred]

Hey Folks,

Looking for suggestions for Fret wire for my Gibson Challenger Project.  I'm handing it to a local luthier, but I want to make an informed decision about fret material and style.   I've never had jumbo frets.  All the guitars I've played that claim to have medium jumbo frets seem to me to have pretty regular frets. What do you suggest?  Also, do you have  a preferred type of metal and a preferred brand or vendor?

[Jeff R]

Jescar for the fret material, that's all I use unless people bring me their own picks. I like their NS18 (traditional) alloy. It's harder than Dunlop, it feels and behaves so under my tools. I've heard the EVO alloy is kick ass too, I plan to get some to test-drive on my next Jesdar order. Jescar sells direct only, so your tech can order straight through their website. Reasonably priced and they turn orders fast too.

The fret size that gets the biggest buzz around my shop is their 55090. Jumbo height, narrower-than-jumbo width. I fell in love with this wire from playing James Tyler strats. I put it on my '76 LP Standard and '55 LP Junior to provide a little more air space between the higher frets, aka, feel more 25.5 under the fingertips. Here's the '55 Junior's fretboard edge to give you an idea.

[mrjamiam]

Something I've been wondering about lately would be to mix fretwires.  On the guitars I have with the taller frets, I enjoy it above the 8th fret or so, but down in the cowboy chord area I choke notes sharp lots of times.  On the ones with shorter frets, they work pretty well for me down low, but especially bending up high it's often difficult to get the note to ring and keep ringing.  I'm starting to think a graduated set might be just what the doctor ordered for me.  I can't be the first one to think of this.  Something like that would probably add some extra challenge (get it?) to the set-up, I expect.  Anyway, just a thought.

[Armitage]

I've never really cared less, but I could really feel the thumps as I moved up some Jackson's necks with that really big fret wires. Ouch.

[Jeff R]

1 hour ago, mrjamiam said:

Something I've been wondering about lately would be to mix fretwires.  On the guitars I have with the taller frets, I enjoy it above the 8th fret or so, but down in the cowboy chord area I choke notes sharp lots of times.  On the ones with shorter frets, they work pretty well for me down low, but especially bending up high it's often difficult to get the note to ring and keep ringing.  I'm starting to think a graduated set might be just what the doctor ordered for me.  I can't be the first one to think of this.  Something like that would probably add some extra challenge (get it?) to the set-up, I expect.  Anyway, just a thought.

It would add an incredible challenge to the set-up, in that it can't be set up at all LOL. Fret heights must be completely uniform in relation to each other in order to set-up the guitar with reasonable action up and down the neck. Any deviation in fret height is proportional to lowest action achievable. With intentionally mismatched frets height-wise, your action would be insanely high to make it "work" at all, which kind of defeats the purpose (playability) in the first place.

The scenario you described would be best served using a smaller fret wire and then slightly scalloping the fretboard "above the eighth fret or so." You would get the player's effect you seek not by fret height but by fretboard depth, if that makes sense. And that can be set up with liquid low action.

If that reads cloudy to you, @kizanski can explain this to you. He "bends under the strings" too.

[Jakeboy]

I love the Hamer fretwire, whatever that was.

[mrjamiam]

1 hour ago, Jeff R said:

It would add an incredible challenge to the set-up, in that it can't be set up at all LOL. Fret heights must be completely uniform in relation to each other in order to set-up the guitar with reasonable action up and down the neck. Any deviation in fret height is proportional to lowest action achievable. With intentionally mismatched frets height-wise, your action would be insanely high to make it "work" at all, which kind of defeats the purpose (playability) in the first place.

The scenario you described would be best served using a smaller fret wire and then slightly scalloping the fretboard "above the eighth fret or so." You would get the player's effect you seek not by fret height but by fretboard depth, if that makes sense. And that can be set up with liquid low action.

If that reads cloudy to you, @kizanski can explain this to you. He "bends under the strings" too.

Rats.

[SSII x 2]

21 hours ago, Jeff R said:

Jescar for the fret material, that's all I use unless people bring me their own picks. I like their NS18 (traditional) alloy. It's harder than Dunlop, it feels and behaves so under my tools. I've heard the EVO alloy is kick ass too, I plan to get some to test-drive on my next Jesdar order. Jescar sells direct only, so your tech can order straight through their website. Reasonably priced and they turn orders fast too.

The fret size that gets the biggest buzz around my shop is their 55090. Jumbo height, narrower-than-jumbo width. I fell in love with this wire from playing James Tyler strats. I put it on my '76 LP Standard and '55 LP Junior to provide a little more air space between the higher frets, aka, feel more 25.5 under the fingertips. Here's the '55 Junior's fretboard edge to give you an idea.

Those look like they were made for me!  Tall frets with lots of crown and not too wide. 

That yields the most precise intonation, and I love the feel of not too much metal

under my fingers.

 

Seriously, man, that's about the nicest fret job I've seen on any guitar!  Good on ya!

How do you get that consistency on the crowns?  Just years of experience or is there a secret?

[Jeff R]

Thanks for the kind words. I was very fortunate to have a great fretwork teacher (www.samguidryguitars.com) for techniques and "secrets." Good tooling which which you are comfortable is also vital and I'm blessed in that respect.

Here's some refret eye candy for you. This is the banner photo for my shop's Facebook page. My "Ruby Slippers" ESP/Musikraft mutt sporting a refreshed 14" radius, her new Jescar NS18 57110s and her former tacky poly gloss cast aside for a hand-rubbed Danish oil finish ala old skool San Dimas Charvels.

[T-51Fred]

On 2/20/2017 at 1:55 PM, Jeff R said:

Thanks for the kind words. I was very fortunate to have a great fretwork teacher (www.samguidryguitars.com) for techniques and "secrets." Good tooling which which you are comfortable is also vital and I'm blessed in that respect.

Here's some refret eye candy for you. This is the banner photo for my shop's Facebook page. My "Ruby Slippers" ESP/Musikraft mutt sporting a refreshed 14" radius, her new Jescar NS18 57110s and her former tacky poly gloss cast aside for a hand-rubbed Danish oil finish ala old skool San Dimas Charvels.

That is perfection! Where are you located?

[T-51Fred]

Okay--silly question.  Louisiana is a bit far for me.  You do beautiful work!