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What size fret wire do you guys like to use? how wide and tall? I realized I've never really experimented with this element. I've never even really measured what size mine is.
As a player I personally like 6150 size which is considered medium-jumbo by most suppliers. It's sort of in between 6105 (most guitars seem to have something similar to this in size) and 6100. I think the use of bigger frets is largely ignored in the flamenco/classical world but I love them!
I prefer narrow frets, 2/ 2,2 mm wide and about 1mm high. I feel liek i need to work on the guitra a bit but I get alot of control in return.
heres my take on fret sizes based on alot of personal experience through refrets etc. and my customers reactions after the refret.
low vs high frets: low frets require more strength in the hand to create a proper note. The guitar feels harder to play. With a high fret it feels easier to play. Hammer-ons, pull-offs and bends are easier to do.
just an example... I've had a customer that sings while playing, and when he starts singing he tends to kramp up and press down on the frets hard, causing him to detune the string slight, asif he is doing a bend. This was making it impossible for him to play and sing at the same time on a guitar with frets higher that 0,6 mm high.
wide vs narrow: Wide frets have alot of mass, making it a bit easier to get a sound from the guitar. With narrow frets you'll probally feel like you need to work a bit harder to make the guitar sound well, but in return there is a lot of feel with the guitar neck.
might add that i consider 2 / 2,2 mm wide frets narrow, and everythign above 2,5 wide. just for some reference point.
In the end its all a personal matter wich fret feels right, some people told me they never felt a diference between different sizes, and some customers of mine suddenly swear by fretsizes they had never used before
I'm with Dyingsea on this. Somehow I always feel that I can dig into the trebles a lot harder without them giving out when the frets are larger. Not that I have to have it this way, but I sure don't mind it. I have to wonder if the added leverage given by larger frets can give the player a chance to truly bring out the full voice of the guitar easier...
I guess this is a two part question. What are your preferences as far as using nickel-silver, gold or stainless steel? I've only used nickel-silver but have heard good things about the EVO gold.
Unless it's for a customer who really wants nickel silver , I'll go for the EVO. Some reports are that it is on a par with stainless for durability even on steel string guitars, yet I can use standard tools on it. I have Stainless in stock but have not got around to using it.
Evo is a little more difficult to use and has to match the fretboard radius or lack of radius perfectly, but I get excellent results, especially pressing.
I generally use 2mm wide 1.3mm tall, I work the the height later down to about 1.1mm
I use the hard Nickel frets opposed to the soft. I don't know the technical names. I usually just go into the shop and point!
Out of interest a lot of the old flamenco guitars seem to have really low frets! Is this how the players really like it or is it just wear and work over the years.
I had a guitar refretted with EVO gold frets. They looked nice and might have changed the tone of the guitar ever so slightly (perhaps that was in my head). The main drawback that the subsequent owner of that guitar noticed was how the frets caused his strings to wear out faster. There were these divots created in the strings where they pressed against the frets. Has anyone else noticed this?
There were these divots created in the strings where they pressed against the frets. Has anyone else noticed this?
In my experience different players seem to wear their strings (and frets) differently. I suppose it depends on the force used and maybe also the exact position where they apply the force behind the fret.
In my experience different players seem to wear their strings (and frets) differently. I suppose it depends on the force used and maybe also the exact position where they apply the force behind the fret.
I have different guitars with noticably different frets. I'm not a luthier so I can't describe them well but some are lower and finished flatter others a bit higher and rounder on top (could also be they are different material).
I couldn't say if frets make any difference to how a guitar plays because there are so many other factors involved. But I know that I wear the strings out much faster on the rounder frets. I suppose because there's less contact area with the string? I need to restring and move the D string along every 10 hours of playing else I wear the winding away where it meets the fret.
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