Brass frets?

[Mike Kolb]

I'm doing a neck reset and partial refret on a fine old Kay archtop. I couldn't talk the owner into a full refret, nor (hence) could I talk him out of keeping the original brass frets.

Which leads me to my next dilemma... who sells brass frets?!

[Frank Ford]

Mike -

Welcome to the forum - it's good to hear from you


Dunlop has brass fret wire available.

[Mike Kolb]

Thanks, Frank...it's nice to be anywhere! Good idea for the sourcing... Some of the sites are hard to pin-down part numbers, but GuitarPartsResource is right there with a standard 6180 in brass, so that works. http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/hardware_fretwiredunlop.htm In a perfect world they'd offer 2ft lengths instead of precuts, but what the hey.
An old note reminded me that jumbo bass brass fretwire used-to be available through Dana B. Goods for Warwick refrets, but I've haven't tried to get any for 5 or 6 yrs, so who knows.

[Ron Frazier]

If you need just a few brass frets find a old junk guitar and rob some!! I have had a full roll for 40 years and not used one piece. I just rob some from else where.

Robro Ron

[Tyko Runesson]

You can find Dunlop brass fretwire on a 21 meter spool right here:
http://www.banzaieffects.com/Dunlop-Fret-Wire-Spool-6180-pr-22121.html

There was no problem for me when I ordered it from there.

[Mike Kolb]

I appreciate all the good tips!

Frank, you've started an excellent resource here at Frets.net... so where do you find the time to repair guitars anymore?! Thanks again...

[FRANK]

NO ONE I BELIEVE I HAVE SEEN LMII WITH GOLD WIRE

[Ned Knepp]

Paul,
Are you talking about color or metal. I've seen gold (metal) wire too but not as fret wire. Some people in the jewelry trade use it and extremely fine gold wire is used in the electronics industry. I don't know if LMII ever carried it or not but if they had what I've seen, it would only work for ornamental purposes. I suppose you could use it for fret markers on a fretless bass but it wouldn't work for fret wire, it's just too soft. Gold alloys are fairly soft compared to fret wire.

BTW, Stephen mentioned this yesterday but I think you missed it. It would be very nice for the rest of us if you would turn off the "caps lock"on your computer. It's usually one of the keys on the left hand side of the keyboard but is sometimes above the cursor keys.

In Internet forums terms, typing in caps is usually only used for emphasis on a word or two. When someone types everything in caps, it is usually considered to be the same as shouting all the time. I recognize that not everyone is good at typing and this isn't the easiest way to communicate but it would make reading your posts much easier for a lot of us if you could refrain from typing everything in caps. Thanks.

Ned

[Jeffrey L. Suits]

The "Gold" fretwire is an alloy called Evo, in between nickel-silver and stainless steel in hardness. Polishes up right nice.

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Jeffrey,

Have you worked with it? I'm wondering how close to real gold it is in color. I did a quick search on the Internet but didn't find anything that gave me a good look at the material. Lots of things are "gold" but often end up being closer to bronze or brass than true gold. I guess that what I'm asking is if it is comparable to the gold plating on decent machine heads.

Ned

[Mark Dobbins]

Hi Ned its pretty close to to the gold on tuners, i bought some at lmi havent used it yet but put it next to some gold grovers and its looks like when it gets polished it will be a nice match.

[Ned Knepp]

Thanks Mark,
I think I'll get some and check it out. I need to order some fret wire for a project anyway and I've got some gold tuners available already. They're for slotted headstock but I can adapt if the match is close.

Ned