Official Luthiers Forum!

While I am building my new website I am not able to update my current site. I am hoping I will have the new one done sometime this winter. Anyway, in light of this limitation I am announcing here that I have expanded my fret wire inventory a bit. I now carry 2 sizes of wire in 18% nickel silver. My standard is .080 wide by .043 high and now I have jumbo wire that is .104 x .047.

I also have Stainless wire in .080 x .043 and the new addition is EVO gold in .080 x .043 !!

Prices are as follows:

.080 x .043 18% NS..................$1.05/ft (this will be $1.15/ft when I get the new site up)
.080 x .043 SS..........................$1.45/ft
.080 x .043 EVO Gold...............$1.90/ft
.104 x .047 18% NS..................$1.30/ft

Prices are US dollars, orders of 100 feet or more are minus 10%.

This wire is Jescar wire, made to exacting standards in Germany. I have my fret slotting blades made specially for this wire and have had great reports about the combination of this wire and my blades.



Thanks

Shane

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Canada

How timely. I'll be in touch soon.

When's the new site up? Sounds like something for both of us to look forward to.

See Ya' (29th in Richmond maybe?)
Danny

I will vouch for Shane's blade and fret wire combination. It is the best I have used - no bow back on the necks from fretting at all. Thanks Shane!

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John Ressler

Shane! Good to hear from you!

I might get in contact with you about the SS wire. I had bought the Stew-Mac blade but I hadn't used it since I bought it. Recently, I cut some fret slots and low and behold, the fret wire (also from SM) wouldn't fit into the kerf without major de-tanging... sort of defeats the whole purpose. I measured the kerf and it was .020-.021 at best...

Luckily, I have a hand saw that has a .023 kerf so I know I can touch up the cuts afterwards... still...I was very disapointed.

What's the word on working with SS? Will the standard tools (de-tanger and cutters) work well with it?

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Thanks for the feed back John!

Danny, I will pm you......as of right now I have no plans for Richmond (I travel too much already!). I am working on the new site now. I am also working with a guy to create a logo so we will see how that goes, all in all I am hoping by the end of January at the latest. I will have the entire GOTOH catalog available from my site as well, which will let you all really see what they have available for options that just don't get advertised much. It's gonna be COOL!

Alain, the word on Stainless is that it can be worked with all of your usual tools, they just won't last as long as it is harder on them. But the other word is that the frets last a lot longer and they finish smoother. I note that LMI has quoted Bruce Petros to say that the EVO (gold) wire is in between these two. Bruce is waiting for some tops from me as well so I could ask him for more info if desired. With the fret wire and a proper saw blade I am hoping that you will be able park your de-tangers! My jumbo wire dimension is just slightly wider than I wanted but the .098 wire had a wider tang so I opted to stay with supplying wire that I felt comfortable would work with the blades I have made.

Hope that helps!

Shane

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Canada

Sorry Alain, I got confused.....You will still need the de-tangers for bound fret boards, I was thinking of the tang flattening tool they have...

Shane

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Canada

I have used the EVO wire on my current build and I love it.

I'll have to get a blade of yours one of these days. I've got about 15-20 pounds of nickel, stainless, and EVO Jescar wire hanging around, but still been using a hand saw on the rare occasion I have to make a board. Setting up the table saw would certainly make things a bit easier.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

No problem David, I typically always have them in stock as I order more when I am getting close to running out. It was your encouragement that got me working with Jescar wire!

Shane

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Canada

I used the EVO gold on a recent OM. It was curly Koa, gold tuning machines, gold MOP dots on a light colored rosewood fretboard. It looked good.

I highly recommend Jescar fretwire .I have used many hundreds of pounds of 11 different types over the years. In my opinion Jescar wire is more consistent in size and harder than the competition.



I have a tip for those of you working with Jescar and other stainless steel fretwire.
I Use a second pair of end nippers that are not ground quite as flush as usual, (leave a little of the bevel to keep some strength in the jaws) .This will reduce chip out of the blade.
Channel lock 358? the ones with the long recurved handle work the best for me.

I recently fretted some bound necks with SS and I found tang nippers were not as clean or as fast as using a file to remove the tang.
I use a wood block with a kerf for the tang cut in it and relieved for the radius of my wire .I ran a screw through the block so I could trap the wire between my wood block and a base. Version two of that jig may have a cam clamp instead of a screw. 5 or 6 strokes with a long file is all it takes to completly remove the tang. No more tang nippers for me.
I hope that helps,good luck

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How long is that in luthyears?

Brett, a quick note on the Channel Lock stuff - I used to use the 356 or 357 nippers ground flush (8" always felt a bit large to me), replacing them every 2 or 3 years when they could be dress no more. About 3 years ago however, it seems all Channel Lock cutters turned to absolute crap. They used to have a small, steep interior bevel, that is now a long shallow bevel on the inside. Casting marks are different as well, so I don't know if they switched forges or just changed the dies. Totally changed the function of the tool though, and with the new ones if you grind the face flush there is no support at all left in the blade, and it's not hard enough to take much pressure with that shallow angle - even cutting nickel silver would destroy them pretty quickly.

If you can find any of the old Channel Lock end nippers they're fine, but I wouldn't bother buying them any more. I'm probably going to try some Wiha cutters next, or perhaps some of Grobet's flush cutters.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I haven't tried the Channel Lock, but an still looking for a good set of cutters. I bought the Stew Mac flush cutters and after only the second fret job had gaps in them...and this was only on the standard medium 18% nickle-silver wire.

Hmm. I received a C. Lock diagonal cutter from LMI yesterday. Well I hope it will last for doing 5 guitars or so. Before I used normal cutters and filing the ends was no fun.

But I could have someone weld a stopper

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Build log

Thanks David,as Johnny Carson said "I did not.. know that".
Was that about the time the hinge design changed,or well after that?

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How long is that in luthyears?