FretsDespite anything you might have heard, German silver AKA nickel silver actuallycontains no silver, and never did. It is an alloy of copper with a percentage of nickeladded for durability, as well as the silvery color. The most common alloy for goodtraditional fretwire is about 18% nickel, 80% copper, and the rest traces of variousother dreadful things such as zinc, lead and cadmium. Jescar's NS formula is 62%copper, 18% nickel, and 20% zinc.

The "gold" wire referred to below as EVO wire is Jescar's proprietary nickel-freehypoallergenic alloy originally devised to make eyeglass frames for folks with nickelallergies. It contains no gold either, of course, and makes wonderful fretwire. I wish itwas available in more sizes. As acceptance of this wire grows among players, I'msure other sizes will be added.

SS indicates Jescar's stainless steel wire. SS eats normal tools fairly fast, whichmeans you have to buy diamond stuff if you work with it very often. I was once told by agentleman at Jescar that it's not as durable as EVO, but he's backpedaled, nowsaying it outperforms nickel but not stainless. I did enough stainless to know what itdid to my tool budget, and saw that the frets still wore out pretty fast, and so I've stopped using it. YMMV. I'll stick withnickel or—when I can—with EVO, which is a dream to install. It's the most durable fretwire I know of.

I have posted more of my thoughts about frets and fretwire below the chart. I have rendered these charts in inches, tosimplify comparisons, and have skipped most wires with nickel content lower than 18%.

These charts range from large to small, more or less. Tang widths are to be double-checked, as different mfrs havedifferent ways of measuring them. Some include beading, some don't. For some strange reason, Stew-Mac lists tangheights, and simply says "Our tang is sized to fit a 0.023" (0.58mm) fret slot width." This is one aspect of fretwiremeasurement that is hardly standardized. I don't think tang measurement is very important, and am tempted to removethe entire column from this chart.

Mfr/Supplier

No. Material Crown width Crown height Tang width*

Dunlop 6000 18% NS .118 .058 .021

Dunlop 6110 18% NS .115 .050 .020

Dunlop 6120 18% NS .114 .051 .024

Jescar 57110 18% NS - SS - EVO .110 .057 .20

Jescar 55090 18% NS - SS - EVO .090 .055 .020

Jescar 55085 18% NS .085 .055 .020

Jescar 50078 18% .078 .050 .020

Jescar 51108 18% NS .108 .051 .020

Dunlop 6100 18% NS .110 .055 .021

Dunlop 6105 18% NS .090 .055 .020

Stew-Mac 146 18% NS .106 .036 .074 high*

Stew-Mac 149 18% NS .103 .046 .067 high*

Stew-Mac 150 18% NS .110 .053 .074 high*

Stew-Mac 154 18% NS .100 .050 .060 high*

Jescar 47104 18% NS - SS - EVO .104 .047 .020

Jescar 45100 18% NS .100 .045 .022

Dunlop 6105 18% NS .090 .055 .021

Jescar 47095 18% NS - SS .095 .047 .021

Dunlop 6130 18% NS .106 .036 .020

Dunlop 6140 18% NS .106 .039 .024

Dunlop 6150 18% NS .102 .042 .020

Dunlop 6170 18% NS .099 .043 .024

Mfr/Supplier

No.

Material

Crownwidth

Crown height Tang width*

Dunlop 6190 18% NS .084 .039 .029 See Stew-Mac's 148 below

Stew-Mac 148 18% NS .084 .039 .055 high* Their most common guitar wire and Huberbanjo wire

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Stew-Mac 152 18% NS .092 .048 .062 Dan Erlewine's Favorite

Stew-Mac 155 18% NS .080 .050 .048 high* Superb medium-large wire

Dunlop 6220 18% NS .079 .043 .038

Dunlop 6260 18% NS .079 .039 .037

Saga FW-1 ? .079 .043 .020 self-tempering guitar

Saga FW-2 12% .079 .043 .020 standard guitar

Saga FW-3 18% NS .079 .043 .020 stiff

Saga FW-20 12% NS .079 .035 .024 modern banjo/mandolin

Dunlop 6260 18% NS .079 .039 .037

Jescar 37080 18% NS - SS - EVO .080 .037 many tang widths now; for vintage Martin restoration— checkwebsite for details

Jescar 50078 18% NS .078 .050 .020

Jescar 50085 18% NS .085 .050 .020

Stew-Mac 147 18% NS .080 .040 .062 high Really good "old time" "banjo" wire orGibson '30's guitar wire

Stew-Mac 148 18% NS .084 .039 .055 high Their most common guitar wire and Huberbanjo wire

Jescar 43080 18% NS - SS - EVO .080 .043 .020 In EVO, a great wire for mandolins and onup

Dunlop 6230* 18% NS .078 .043 .035 Classic Martin guitar wire, highly regardedfor mandolin, too

Dunlop 6280 18% NS .076 .044 .035± No longer made, darn it, but a very goodmandolin wire

Dunlop 6290 18% NS .078 .040 .030

Dunlop 6240 18% NS .080 .037 .031

Dunlop 6250 18% NS .075

.030 .036

Dunlop 6270 18% NS .075 .030

.036

Mfr/Supplier

No. Material Crown width Crown height Tang width

Jescar 37053 18% NS - EVO .053 .037 two tang widths

Stew-Mac 764 18% NS .053 .037 .054 high

Jescar 39040 18% SS - only .040 .039 .020 Wish this came in EVO

Dunlop 6310 18% NS .053 .031 .037

Dunlop 6330 18% NS .043 .031 .031

Dunlop 6320 18% NS .047 .029 .028

Saga FW-10 ? .063 .028 .024 Vintage mandolin/banjo

Gibson old ??% NS .034 .032 .025 mandolin, etc.

Open this image in another tab and it will be much larger.

In answer to many inquiries, preferences...

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Some thoughts about frets

Fretwire size has no real effect on intonation, but it has everything to do with playability. Taller frets make it easier to get clearnotes: less finger pressure is required, a fact that some people don't notice, but which makes a life-and-death difference toothers. Some folks really like teeny frets, but more and more makers, following the lead of the players who showcase theirinstruments, are going for larger frets than Gibson has ever used.

Taller frets also last longer as well because you don't have to press so hard to get a clear note. Again, some folks have toadjust their touch to take advantage of this. But you don’t need to press your finger to wood to get a clear note.

Mandolin

I keep about 20 different wires for different applications, but formandolins I have used mostly the old Dunlop 6280 or theDunlop 6230 mentioned above. I'm keeping my old 6280 forpartials now, and am moving to Jescar's 43080 and 37053 (inEVO). Stew-Mac's 147 and 148 wires are also hard to beat.

The typical vintage Gibson mandolin fret, at .034” wide and.032” tall when new is, to me, absurdly small. Most (though notall) of the serious pro players in my mandolin clientèle prefermuch heftier ones, such as the Dunlop 6230 or the lamentably extinct Dunlap 6280 (it was really close to 1930's Gibson guitarfrets). The old Dunlop 6280 was .076” wide by .044” tall. I wish it was still available, I like that size better. Both are about thesame height, but the 6230 is a tad wider and feels different. Jescar makes a wire that seems to have all the answers though,their 39040 (in either 18% NS or stainless), it’s .039” tall by .040” wide. That’s practically half-round. For folks who preferreally narrow wire, as in the days of yore, I use Dunlop 6310.

Stew-Mac wires are made in Japan and are a bit harder than the Dunlop wire. And some by Jescar, made in Germany, aredifferent than anything offered by the other people. With the exception of stainless, which I don't care for at all, the biggerand/or harder the wire, the more trouble it is to install, but the longer it will last. I believe it's worth the effort.

Guitar

My standard wires for my serious guitar clients are, at the very least, Dunlop 6230 *, at .043” tall and .078” wide or Jescar 's43080 EVO wire which is nearly identical. Going a little larger, Stew-Mac's #155, a very fine 18%+ nickel wire which is .080"wide and .050" tall. These are fairly narrow wires, not like "jumbo" or electric bass frets anyway, but quite tall. They seem toframe the industry standard for guitars.

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A number of folks, particularly in the gypsy guitar world, are turning to the Jescar 57110, .050” tall by .110” wide, whichcomes in nickel, stainless or EVO gold, which is hands-down the most durable wire on the market, better than stainless, andinfinitely easier to work with. My experience with this wire over the last few years has been a real revelation.

Banjo

There are so many different sizes of available fretwire—not to mention what has been used historically and how the varioussizes and types are used these days—that the term "banjo wire" means next to nothing. It's like talking about "rosewood" -another vague and extremely subjective term. I prefer more precise descriptions instead: the crown height and width, thealloy makeup, and to some extent the work-hardness.

Some players want narrow, others want wider and taller. I deal with a couple of these each week, week in and week out, and Ido what folks ask for. The skinny frets seem to be favored by players who, for one reason or another, are reluctant to breakwith the old look. Often, once they've really tried wider and taller frets however, they see they're easier to get around on andlast longer, and then they make the jump.

Speaking of which...

These are Lloyd Loar's "Fairy Frets" which wereused on his Viva-Tone guitars. It's the notion that 'ahigher fret is easier to play because getting clarityrequires less finger pressure' carried to an extreme!I have only played on these a couple of times. Isuppose I could adjust to them, but doubt I'd reallywant to try. I'd have loved to hear Lloyd Loar playthem though!

Digressions

Another factor in regarding fretwire is how people'splaying touch can change over time. Years ago Irefretted a mandolin for a guy who had bought hismandolin new in 1955 or so. By 1985 he needed arefret real bad. I did it with fairly similar wire(medium height and width) and within six months he was getting real anxious about how the new wire was so soft andshowing wear already. I explained that the wire I used was 18% nickel, the hardest available. Dubious, he said “It must bemade of lead solder!” To prove his point, he took one of his original frets and some of the new stuff I'd used and had themassayed at a lab. The original was 11% nickel and the stuff I used actually came in at over 19%. What had changed was thatthe guy was older and his touch had changed. I've found that older players generally squeeze harder. Squeezing harder causesmore/quicker fret wear. (I guess I'll have to be more careful, now that I'm heading into those final laps myself!)

Another little anecdote. My main playing partner for many years was awonderful Sicilian mandolinist named Tony Flores, who burnedthrough two sets of frets a year. Every year. He had two identicalmandolins, and he played hours and hours every day, and he managedto wear divots in every fret from 1 to 11 under all four courses thatwere so deep that milling was simply not an option. These werestandard old Dunlop 6280 frets: hard, 18% nickel. Imagine a "partialrefret of the first 11 frets every six months. It's a good thing he knewme! Other players using these frets (myself included) get way more useout of them because of how they/we play.

Milling and dressing

You need to mill and dress frets when they're freshly installed to get ridof minor buzzes and so forth, to make them feel smooth under yourfingertips, but not to make cosmetic divots go away.

Fret milling as a routine maintenance procedure is so, um, Sixties. When you do it, you lower all the frets to the lowest pointof the most worn fret, and in most instances, that’s just a few frets. A ll you accomplish in milling old frets is a look, at theexpense of a lot of fret life and increase playing difficulty, for no good reason. I'd like to think the state of the art has advancedsome since then.

If one or two (or a typical situation where frets 1-5) are so worn they are causing audible or physical playing problems, Ireplace only the bad ones. In other words, if you notice that the frets are wearing in spots only because you can see the wear(but you can't feel or hear it), keep playing and save your money for getting it done when it really needs to be done. Replacethem when they’re not working right anymore.

Sources:

Jescar Enterprises, Inc. (They say they will make any wire in any alloy for a reasonable minimum order)Nanuet, New York Phone: 845-352-5850 877-453-7227http://www.jescar.com/fretwire.html

Stewart-MacDonald Athens, OH http://www.stewmac.com/ 800-848-2273 9am-6pm EST, M-F

Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. P.O. Box 846 Benicia, CA 94510

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707-745-2722http://www.jimdunlop.com/

Resellers:

Luthiers MercantileHealdsburg, CA1-800-477-4437http://www.lmii.com

Warmoth Guitar Products Inc. West Coast USA 253-845-0403 www.warmoth.com/

This is not intended to be an endorsement of anyone. There are other good wires available, but these are the main ones Iknow of and deal with in the US. These are not the entire offerings of the suppliers noted above, merely what I thought wasimportant.

If you have comments, or corrections, please drop me a line.

Here's a simplified old Dunlop chart. Their sizes have changed a bit, though I have never found their specs to be very reliable, even within a single roll.

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