finding narrow fret wire

[August Watters]

Does anyone have a source for narrow fret wire? I had my modern Italian bowlback mandolin refretted with .053 wire, which was the smallest I could find, but appears to be still quite a bit wider than what came on it. I need to find narrower wire, for restoration of antique instruments, and maybe to go back to something more like the original frets on my concert instrument. The original fret wire on my instrument was also flat on top, not crowned.

Also interested in finding bar fret wire for old instruments. Maybe for new also - I've heard varying opinions on whether this is a good idea. Thoughts?

I'm in Italy now, and about to visit some builders -- do I need to bring home some fret wire?

Thanks for your help!

[HoGo]

Jescar 039x039, I believe I've seen it in SS or NS

[multidon]

Old prewar Gibson fretwire was .034 wide, many complain about not being able to get it anymore. .053 is the arrowest commonly available but the fret wire makers list some narrower sizes. Dunlop lists #6330 at .043 and #6320 at .047. Jescar lists #39040 at .040 but please note it is available in stainless steel only.

[Jim Garber]

T J Thompson has bar fret wire for guitars. Not sure if it is as thin as bad frets for vintage mandolins.

[pops1]

I got some thin S.S. fret wire for refretting my Gibson, but the tang is tiny and wouldn't work without changing the fretboard.

[sunburst]

I have a stash of old fret wire. I've bought abandoned fingerboards, tenor banjo necks and other sources, and I've saved old fret wire that I've removed from instruments. I'll be the first to admit that it takes a while to accumulate enough old fret material to have useful quantities, but the sooner we start collecting the sooner we have enough.

[Jeff Mando]

I also recycle old yellowed binding from broken guitars and necks to repair missing sections on vintage instruments -- usually looks less obvious than new binding that has been tinted, IMHO.

[sunburst]

I also recycle old yellowed binding from broken guitars and necks to repair missing sections on vintage instruments -- usually looks less obvious than new binding that has been tinted, IMHO.

It goes even farther than that. I have boxes of binding scraps, top, back and side scraps from broken old guitars, a tuner graveyard that will fill several 5-gallon buckets, old necks, guitar bodies...

[gtani7]

You could email LMI, Phiiladelphia Luthier, stewmac etc. Maybe something they don't advertise but there's definitely lots of old banjos and mandolins that people play and regularly need to refret 1-5.

http://www.lmii.com/products/mostly-...g/bar-fretwire (don't know what rolling on jewelers mill entail but you can get ir thinner

http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/

[tonydxn]

For bar frets you can get brass and NS sheet on eBay in a variety of thicknesses. All you have to do (haha!) is cut it into strips. If you just want enough for one or two frets you can get some old guitar frets and hammer them flat.

[August Watters]

Thanks to all for your suggestions! It turns out that the standard-width frets for my Mazzaccara mandolin are 1.3mm. Not much different than the .053 inch (1.35mm) fretwire available from Stuart MacDonald and Philadelphia Lutherie. And Carlo M didn't recommend the bar frets. So I guess there's no need to bring home narrower fretwire; I'll just go with the smallest wire available in the USA.