odd fretwire size?

[Brian Hart]

I just pulled a fret on an early 80's Japanese Fernandez strat copy.  The frets have a rather large tang, measuring pretty consistently at different spots of the tang at .030.  I tested the last fret with some Stumac Med wire with a .023 tang, radiused slightly more than the board.  I should also mention that the board has a lot of radius, even a tad more than 7.25.  I can get it so sit flush, but it pulls easily.  Long story short, does anybody know of a wire with a more suitable tang width or will I need to use my crimper / expander tool?  Should I explore a glue in method, and if so what will i use to hold them in place being that the radius is what it is.

[Robbie Collins]

Fretwire Chart:

http://www.lutherie.net/fret.chart.html

[nathan clark]

I think those have a 6" radius.  What crown width and height does your customer want?  Some of the jescar jumbo sizes have fat tangs.

I refretted a Fernandez a couple + years back with the jumbo jescar stainless 110x57 which has a fat tang width and there were no problems.  I glued and clamped the frets with my arbor and 6" radiused caul.

[Brian Hart]

Looks like Jescar tops out at .022 unless I missed something, and Allparts medium wire is .65mm which gets me to .0255 in inches, so only a minor improvement.  I did see that I can get the 6'' radius insert for my Jaws tool, so that makes me happy.  

[nathan clark]

The little barbs on the fret tang also have an effect on how tight the fretwire fits.  For example the 110x57 has an overall tang width of .036" which is definitely a tighter fit than, say, 80x43 which has an overall tang width of .032"

As an aside, the stew mac fret barber tool does a great job of dialing in the fret tang if the stock tang width is too tight.