Official Luthiers Forum!

I just bought the Stewmac medium/high fretwire, and installed it in my most recent build (the jumbo). I discovered I need considerable force to hammer the frets in, this is even after I have flattened the barb. The weird thing is, I measured the tang with a dial caliper and it is about .023". Stewmac says their fret saws are designed to cut the .023" slot too. I measured the slot cut by the Stewmac fret saw, and it checks out. However when I try to install the fretwire in such a slot, the installation was hard (very tight fit) and the guitar's neck ended up with a considerable backbow because of such tight fret tang fit. I ended up using a saw I bought from the hardware store, and removed its set, and the fret slot comes to about .030", but the fret tang went in smoothly.

I wonder has anyone experienced such a disparity between fret tang width? I feel the wide tang is probably perfect for those who beds the fretwire in glue....

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

+1!

I used Stewmac wire with the "Sheffield steel" fret saw on my last build and fretting was kindof a nightmare. I just cut the slots on my current build and did a test with the fretwire I bought over here and I noticed immediately how much easier it was to knock in. 5 taps rather than 10 whacks!

StewMac 0152 is my preferred wire. I use it all the time, with their Japanese fret saw, and have never experienced a single problem in this regard.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Well problem is LMI wire is just right with the Sheffield Steel fret saw. If I try to install it in a .030" fret slot, the wire will not seat at all. I wish fret tang width were more uniform or at least Stewmac should say their wires are thicker than LMI wires. It creates nightmare when you use a normal fret slot and the tang is too wide, or too narrow when using wide slots. Also since LMI/stewmac fret wires aren't cross compatible (the size are all different, even between similar sizes) you're forced to stick to one system. I kinda leaned towards Stewmac simply because the wires are cheap and when you buy it in bulk, it's easier to store (the straight tube makes storing easy). You have to bend the wire yourself however...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hi Tai

I experienced the same problem with the Stewmac tang width.

I then bought their 'Fret Barber' tool. It's really quick, easy to use and sorts out the problem. It is yet another outlay but it would be useful to have for any brand of wire.

Mat

Have you spoken to StewMac about this?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

This seems to me to be a simple matter of know your wire, know your tools, formulate a plan to get it done correctly.
Experience will be your guide, and it seems you've devised a solution for the future.
FWIW I find myself always cleaning out and opening up the slots with the little router bit Stewmac sells for pretty much every guitar I refret now, as ALL the tangs on my replacement wires seem bigger than the ones that were originally installed from the factory.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I've said this many times: Learn to sharpen and set your own saws. It's not rocket science and can be learned on a basic level in a couple of hours. You only really need the basic level. No need for serious teeth reshaping, just a quick 'touch up' on saws that are in good order but a little dull. Buy the Somax saw set for fine teeth. You will almost certainly need to use it on it's highest (lowest?) setting. Any over set can easily be removed by using a coarse/medium stone.
This way you can have any amount of set that you want. Your saws will always be truly sharp. The world will be a better place.

Where can I find saw sets? All I can find on ebay seems to be vintage ones. Also I found for some reason, saw teeth on most saws seems to have a steeper angle than any triangular files I've seen. Do saw files have a steeper angle than normal triangular file? Or maybe I need to use a feather file?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Search for Somax saw set. They do 4 models (all based on the old Eclipse 77). Two are with an inbuilt magnifier, two are without. You want the model that does the fine teeth without the magnifier - the magnifier isn't very good. There are other ways to set saw teeth but a good saw set is one of the easier methods, the others require much more practice.
All western saw files are at 60 degrees. The difference between a saw file and a regular trangular needle file is the type of cut on the teeth of the file and the corners are a little more rounded on a saw file. You will get a little more of a rounded gullet using the dedicated saw files. That's designed to help clear the waste faster - much more important on coarse teeth that are removing a lot of wood.
The news on the street is that a better quality saw file is going to come onto the market. Standards have dropped, which is why I search for old stock saw files made when standards were higher. The new quality files are a few months away. Until then buy Bahco or new old stock.

http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html

yea, I got some Bahco triangular file, but no idea if it's a real saw file or just triangular file. I just noticed the teeth on some saws are sharper (as in more acute angle) than the triangular file... and we're not talking Japanese saws either.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

So the oversized SM fret tang isn't supposed to happen? I thought fret wires are manufactured that way so it means the next batch of SM fret wire would have the same fret tang size?

It's easy to deal with undersized tang... I can use that Stewmac tang sizing plier to expand it and fit it into oversized slots (I've done a guitar with oversized slot this way)

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com