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Is .022 tang going to introduce some back bow on a strat refret? I was going to order some because I like the particular w/h dimensions, but usually tangs seem to be .020. I do not want to add back bow. (It's rosewood)

I see that the oversized tang fretwire for fixing guitars without a truss rod are sold at .0225, .0235, .0245.

Pat

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Pat

I always though that fret slots were 0.023. I know thats what my saw is and it works fine with any of the wire that I have bough from StewMac. If you are worried just pull a 0.023 thru the slot to clean it out.

Edit to add, if you are working with a side fretted board I don't know.

What is side fretted?

Pat

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Pat

Certain Fenders, in my experience.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Just looked up side fretting, interesting! Anyways, this one is from 2004 so not side fretted.

Pat

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Pat

Some fenders had their frets pushed in from the side - Dan Erlewine talks about them in his repair book. I've never done one, sounds like a PITA. I did do a lacquered maple fender f/b once, it was also a PITA. Rosewood should be straight forward.

Thanks. Yeah, just a little concerned about the tang width.

Pat

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Pat

Take a piece of your fret wire and file the barbs off. I like to put a little L kink in it. Use that to tell if your fret slot is clean and deep enough. I once got blind sided by some StewMac wire that had a deeper (not wider) tang than their other stuff - I always check each slot to make sure the fret will seat.

Just to follow up, I ended up using standard width fret tang (.020). I'm pretty sure the .022 would have added a little unwanted pressure as .0225 is sold as oversized and used for introducing back bow to truss-rod-less guitars. I did not want to widen the slots any.

Pat

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Pat

Yeah, I have encountered that too. Also I got some narrow wire from LMI and had a Dickens of a Time pounding it in. I thought it must be because I was using an ebony board that was too hard, then later I realized the Tang is .024!



Pat

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Pat

I made my own version of a Fret Barber to handle oversize fretwire. I also use it for frets on the fingerboard extension when I want to be able to easily tap in the frets with a light hammer. It has become a useful tool to have.

The first actual re-fret I did for someone else was a 60's music master (or some other weird Fender I can't remember exactly) neck and it had been sideways fretted. I'd never heard of that before either, and luckily I accidentally stumbled across the information before pulling the old frets out. The frets actually came out really easily, in the end it was simpler than dealing with some of the other fret boards I've done (here's looking at you chippy ebony fret boards).

I just check the slot width with feeler gauges before re-fretting

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I built a diy fret barber last year and am starting to use it for almost every fret job that comes in. It gives me the ability to adjust the fret to kerf fitment.