Fret tang depth

[Brian Farrell]

First refret...

Fret slot depth is 2/32" or .0625", with some spots being a hair deeper. Do I want to select a fret wire that has a tang depth as close to that number without going deeper?

The slots are pretty clean (I think...my first refret) and are from .021" to .031" wide.
(.031" where the tang barbs were). Stewmac says their tangs are designed to fit a .023" slot width.

The width of the previous frets themselves were about .078".

My thought is to choose a fret that is a tad bit wider. I'd also like a little extra height for leveling/crowning.

So, the two options I am looking at are:
Medium Highest
Width: .080"
Crown: .050"
tang: .048"

OR

Medium Higher
Width: .092"
Crown: .048"
Tang: .062

Should I clean the slots out really well and go with the deeper tang?

Do you think I will have issues with the slots being too wide?

I'll f/u with a pic soon.

Best,
Brian

[Brian Farrell]

Actually, I think my most important question is.....who sells short lengths of fret wire (4-6 ft) that come in coils????
I don't have a tool to radius the fret wire, so having it come in coils, and somewhat radiused already, would be helpful.

thanks,
Brian

[Ralph]

You can get coils from Luthier's Mercantile:

http://www.lmii.com/

They sell 4-foot coils. I just got their 6105 fretwire for $4.95 for 4 feet. It has a crown height of 0.055" and a width of 0.090" -- a bit wider and quite a bit higher than medium wire. If it's your first refret, you may end up taking quite a bit off the top trying to level them -- or not, depending on how straight the neck is, and luck.

I would recommend getting two 4-foot coils. Four feet is just a couple of frets over a complete fret job, which doesn't leave much room for error. As you'll probably see, some frets go bad -- they kink, or twist, and you have to toss them. Having extra wire will save you a lot of headaches. The coil is radiused just about right for my Martin D-18 that I'm currently refretting.

Also, you don't need a fancy tool to radius wire -- I've put the fret in a ChannelLock pliers and bent them gently by hand when I needed a greater radius. I put masking tape on the jaws to keep from scratching the fret.

You don't want a wire with a 0.048" tang if your slots are 0.062" -- the frets won't seat fully, and the crown will stick up and not make contact with the fingerboard. I think the LMI wire I mentioned has a tang of 0.063, so you should be good with that. But they have a lot of choices if you want something different.

You're going to have some trouble getting the wider slots to hold the fret, I suspect. But there are ways around that -- you can hit the tang with something sharp to improvise a bigger barb, or you can run some thin super glue in the slot and hold the fret down until the glue hardens. That's worked for me on frets that wanted to pop up.

Another tip: nip the fret ends as close as possible to the fingerboard to save a lot of filing later. And definitely clean the slots (an X-acto knife works fine), but be careful not to deepen them. But if you do, it's not the end of the world. Again, thin super glue will run down and fill them, and help hold the fret.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend reading Frank Ford's article on refretting the Martin 000-28. You'll get lots of good tips.

I did my first refret not too long ago, so I remember the learning curve, which seemed impossibly steep at times. But my first refret turned out nice in the end, and now I'm doing more, and still learning a lot. Plan on the first one taking many, many hours. Go slow, and most importantly, have fun! Let me know if I can answer any more questions. I'm no expert, but I have done it.

[Brian Farrell]

Great info Ralph...thanks! I was actually just on the LMI site and wrote down the 6105 wire as the most likely choice. Camera is not cooperating, but hopefully i can post pics when work is under way or completed.
Thanks again.

[Ralph]

My pleasure. Out of curiosity, what kind of guitar are you refretting?

[Brian Farrell]

Its a 1970 Guild D40. I've got a real affinity for the old guilds.
I've got a '78 D25 that is a cannon and sounds amazing.
Got this old D40 on the bay last year and just got pulled away from it.
It had two really bad back cracks (one was 10" long, sides separating from the back, fingerboard top cracks, loose braces, etc. Someone likely cooked it in a car for a while. Well, I'm determined to bring it back to life. Have gotten some glimpses of the tone potential, but we still need a new bridge/saddle, new nut, refret, and neck reset. Finish is a mess, but that just makes me less worried about cosmetic mistakes as I learn.

Ordered the 6105 wire last night.

[Ralph]

I had a '70s Guild for a while -- I really liked it. It was a dread, but I can't remember which model. It was great for the bluegrass I play. It got away from me in a trade though. Wish I still had it.

That size wire should work well on that guitar. Seems like a good choice for my Martin -- a 1960 D-18 that is cosmetically beat but sounds killer.

[steve curtis]

i've always found its best to spend as much time as is needed cleaning out the fret slots and prepping the fret board.
That way, when you start to put the frets in its the easiest part.
Dan Erlewines dvd's are well worth a look - you'll most likely find you'll pre-empt any problems if you absorb all the info on them.
cheers