Martin 1833 Shop no longer selling fret wire

[Paul Breen]

Martin 1833 Shop used to sell fret wire with Martin's standard crown height and width dimensions in a variety of tang widths. There where maybe 10 (?) different tang widths available that all had the same crown profiles. Tang widths varied in .001" increments. It was my favorite crown profile for acoustic work and the variety of tang widths was great for odd fret slot widths or compression fretting. Not all fret slots are the .023" standard after all. I am aware of StewMac, Luthier's Mercantile, Dunlop and Jescar but they don't sell it like the Martin offereings with all of the tang widths.

I was very disappointed when I went on-line to the 1833 Shop and the wire was gone. I have left a phone messge with thier customer service hoping to be put onto their source for this very versatile fret wire. I am not optimistic though that they will reveal their vendor source.

Anyone know where I can get wire like this now?

[Grahame Myers]

Strange that nobody else has chimed in here, but here's my take: I'd guess in these days of being able to control the neck relief with a trussrod there's not enough demand any more for their fretwire. The only time it was really usefull or indeed nesassary (sp?) was when you had to refret an older instrument without a trussrod, (how long have Martin been fitting trussrods now? 25 years?, not sure), and wanted to control the amount of relief using the fret tang width. I never had the opportunity to use the Martin fretwire (I'm in Germany, too expensive to order it and let it ship over here), but what's the problem with using normal fretwire? Buy the fret fitter from Stumac: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Fretting/Fret_F... , and you're good to go. I think it's a bit pricey at nearly $ 76.00, but once you have it, you'll wonder how you ever did without it, at least that's my experience. You have to evaluate the neck before you whack the new frets in , but you have to do that anyway if you want to know what size tang you need to order from Martin, and with the fret fitter you can make any size tang you like, within reason.

Grahame

[Paul Breen]

I'd guess in these days of being able to control the neck relief with a trussrod there's not enough demand any more for their fretwire. The only time it was really usefull or indeed nesassary (sp?) was when you had to refret an older instrument without a trussrod, (how long have Martin been fitting trussrods now? 25 years?, not sure)

Funny you should mention that. Pre-truss rod Martins are my most likely application for this fret wire.

The Martin rep did call back, they won't sell anything that might be left in stock. I did find out over at the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum that Jescar was Martins vendor for wire. I asked the rep about this and he told me he could not divulge his source but said I had a pretty good lead. In so many words he was telling me I was correct. The only problem with Jescar is they only sell bulk. I'm too small time to make any major investments in stocking up on fret wire.

[Robert May]

I think you can currently buy as little as one pound per size from Jescar, but like you said, Jescar doesn't offer much of a variety of tang sizes (they might in the future if enough people would bug them about it, 'cause on their site right now, they have a new *slightly* different crown size that came to be 'cause of "popular demand"-- Although "popular demand" could very well mean one big guitar company requested that size). Pretty sure all their fret-wire has a tang size between .020 and .022

I would like to see a fatter tang size for those import necks with .024" fret slots. The necks that won't adjust straight enough even with the t-rod maxed tight. Not just a wider tang, but a little deeper tang too. Sometimes just a longer tang has a good wedging effect, and can always be filed down shorter.

Probably the only way it would happen, is for a place like StewMac or LMI to buy enough custom sized wire from a distributor like Jescar, making it worthwhile for Jescar's factory source to tool-up for the new wire size.

[Christian Johnson]

Too Bad. I used to buy from them. However, I made a pair of Frank's fret tang expanding pliers years ago. I use them on almost every fret job, especially imports.

[Paul Hostetter]

I keep a page of most of the important available wires here: http://www.lutherie.net/fret.chart.html

I think the issue of slot size and tang size is significantly over-rated. Find the crown size you like and there's bound to be a variant with a tang width you can use.

[Paul Breen]

Hi Paul, it is a helpful chart, I already had it bookmarked in my computer.

Find the crown size you like and there's bound to be a variant with a tang width you can use.

The Martin wire is/was my favorite crown profile for most acoustic work and they had all of the variants. I'm just disappointed about it, life will go on though and I'll get my wire somewhere else now.

[Hugh Hansen]

Good news.  Jescar now has Martin wire in all tang widths that Martin used to stock.  This is great because their fretwire is superior to what Martin was selling anyhow.  Martin uses Jescar fretwire on their new instruments, but from what I understand, all but the .0195 (which is the Jescar wire they use in production) was from an imported (Asian) source.  The ability to control neck bow with compression is crucial to a quality fret job, especially in challenging situations like ebony rod Martins, wartime Gibsons, and spongy square tube Martins from the 60's and 70's.  They went to a sizable expense to offer this, so I think it's only right to show em some love.

[Mike Kolb]

Hear-hear.... time to stock up, not just to show the love (and they deserve it) but for fear the plug will get pulled on their offerings at some inopportune time down the road.

[Barry Chern]

So, in the meantime, has anyone who did stock up on the Jescar got some of the wire with wide tang width that they would be willing to resell a smaller quantity of? I have a guitar that I got talked into trying to refret and it had .024 tangs to begin with, and even though I searched for a Dunlop wire that had that width of tang, its cleats are way too minimal and they still pop out. I don't see myself ever using anywhere near a pound of anything so specialized, but I would certainly like to get my hands on some.

[Paul Hostetter]

This thread is four years old. Time for you to start from scratch perhaps? Lots of vendors on eBay and elsewhere selling small lots of Jescar, and Jescar sells small lots now too.

[Barry Chern]

But, you saw my reply to the old thread!

Believe me, I searched long and hard. eBay, Amazon, the Jescar site. this particular specialized stuff is not among the small lots generally available, I'm looking for a personal connection from someone willing to break some off. I even wrote to Jescar twice with no response. Perhaps I _should_ try a new thread. But, I thought those interested in the topic in the first place would be a good place to start. (Remarkable resemblance to Flip, btw.)

[Paul Hostetter]

They make it for Martin, try the 1833 shop.