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I took the frets out, filled pits (thanks Glen, Matt and Steve), and level sanded the 9.5" radius fretboards for a 1949 LG-2 and 1956 J-50. The fret wire for both guitars is the same as are the fret slots widths. The slots are about 0.021" to .022". I have StewMc wire that is for 0.023" slots. (I have tried to measure the tang width excluding barbs, but I struggle to get a consistent measurement. The distance the caliper is from the crown and the barbs cause the measurement to vary, etc. Visually, the fret tang of the old Gibson fret wire is smaller than the current StewMc fret wire tang.)

I thought that StewMc previously sold refret wire with several choices of fret tangs width to work for these more narrow slots, but I don't see it on their website. Does anyone know where I can find fret wire like the old Gibson wire?

I would prefer buying the proper size fret wire, but I may have to widen the slots instead. I am afraid that trying to use a fret saw with 0.023" cutting blade will just bind up in the current .021 to .022" slots. Will it? Does anyone have experience with trying to do this?

I've seen Dan E. saying he can tilt a .020" saw back and forth in a fret slot to widen it. But this would be time consuming and tedious to do on 39 fret slots total for the 2 fretboards. But has anyone tried this successfully?

You can check the specs of the Jescar fretwire and see if you can find one of theirs that meets your needs. https://jescarmusic.com/collections/fret-wire
If you can find a tang that fits, you can file the barbs down a bit if they cause backbow.

Most fretwire these days is made to fit in a slot measuring .023 wide. It's called an interference fit, so the fret stays put because of friction. Many of us use glue when fretting because it lubes the tangs a bit, and the glue insures that the fret will not loosen.

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Stew Mac also sells a tool for shaving down the barbs to fit the slot. Fret Barber I think?

I have used 2 short pieces of file. Break off 2 pieces of a file each about an inch long. IIRC, I added a strip of paper in between on the bottom half and pinch them together in my bench vice. Then, pulled the wire through the gap in the top, which ground off a smidge of the tang.

Agreed. I use hide glue in the slots and then press the frets inside. Then I wide with a warm wet cloth to get the glue off the fretboard surface. I mostly follow Dan E's methods.

Thanks, Bob. (and thanks to all)

I ended up buying fret wire off the Jescar site you listed. It was cheaper than StewMc and others. While most of their choices are .020" tang width for .023" slots, the smallest tang they carry is .0195". I don't believe that half a thousand is significant enough to help me. So I bough the wire that was the closest to the wire size I pulled out of the 2 Gibsons.

Then I took my .0215" saw and slowly worded each slot until my .023" feeler gage would go into them tightly. This should work fine now with the fret wire I bought from Jescar. So that is my final planned solution.

Bump

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