When you are buying fret wire for your cigar box guitar build there are a few decisions that you need to make. These involve things like the color and width of the wire, but also the form that you buy.
Your main choices are:
- silver or gold color?
- Buy in short lengths, foot lengths or rolls?
- Which metal to use?
- Light gauge, medium gauge, jumbo gauge or super jumbo gauge?
- Medium height or tall?
Color Choices Of Fret Wire
Fret wire tends to come in 2 main colorways: with a silver tone or gold tone. Some of the gold tones are almost brass-colored
I like to choose a color theme for my builds. If I’m using silver fret wire, I like to use silver box corners and silver machine heads. Conversely I might choose to go for gold tones on all of the above. As they say, there are no rules when it comes to building cigar box guitars so you can choose to mix and match as much as you like.
Some people like to distress metal box corners and tail pieces etc., but I would not recommend doing anything to the fret wires themselves. You need these to be as smooth as possible and you certainly don’t want them pitted with any kind of distressing solution.
Table To Show Pros And Cons Of Buying Different Lengths Of Fret Wire
| Pros | Cons | |
| pre-cut lengths | cheap, easy to use | not always good quality, wasteful of wire |
| ready to cut longer lengths | usually better quality, more economical | still a bit wasteful of wire if you plan on a lot of builds |
| rolls of wire | usually better quality, more economical | a bigger outlay, too much wire for the occasional build |
Pre-Cut Fret Wire Lengths: Pros And Cons
Even Amazon sells fret wire and you are likely to come across cut lengths of fret wire. Bear in mind that these will normally be designed for regular 6 string guitars so the lengths will usually be too wide for a cigar box guitar.
They are inexpensive and one set will probably be enough for your build, unless you have chosen a very long neck. In this case it is worth checking that one set will be sufficient or your inexpensive fret wire could end up being twice as expensive as you first thought.
These shorter lengths are easy to handle and you can get away with making just one cut if you line up one of the cut edges with the edge of the fretboard.
I bought cut lengths for my first fretted build and found this a convenient beginner option. I couldn’t get 2 frets out of 1 length so I just had to throw away the waste which seemed a bit wasteful.
Ready To Cut Longer Lengths Of Fret Wire: Pros And Cons
Fret wire can also be bought in lengths of about 12 inches ( 30 cm) or so. This is less wasteful and can end up being a better value option because there is far less waste, especially on the narrower neck of a 3 or 4 stringed guitar.
The lengths will usually be packaged in cardboard tubes for protection so you shouldn’t have any problems with the lengths being damaged.
I bought this kind of fret wire for my 2nd fretted build and found this to be a good option for me. The longer lengths made it easier to hold when I was offering the fret wire up to the fretboard prior to cutting. I also had less waste than with the pre-cut lengths.
Rolls Of Fret Wire: Pros and Cons
If you build a lot of cigar box guitars, you might want to consider buying fret wire in bulk. This comes in loose rolls and needs to be bought from a luthier supply or a specialist cigar box guitar store. Although the initial cost will be higher, it will work out cheaper in the long run.
Before you invest in buying a bulk supply of a certain color, width and material, make sure that you are happy with the quality of the wire and that it will be useful for many builds.
Fret wire is metal and although it is designed not to tarnish, holding too much in stock for too long could cause problems, especially if stored in a damp shed.
Metal Composition Choices For Fret Wire
Fret wires are usually made of alloys containing nickel and copper ( these are often called nickel silver but they don’t actually contain silver). Stainless steel is also available.
Stainless steel is a hard metal so doesn’t wear as quickly. This might be a consideration if you intend to use stainless steel strings which will wear down the softer alloy frets faster.
Bear in mind though that stainless steel fret wire is more difficult to work with because it is so hard and this makes it much more difficult to cut to the correct length and smooth the edges ( This process is called dressing the frets)
There is also an alloy called EVO gold that doesn’t contain any nickel and has a gold color. EVO gold is harder than nickel wire but not as hard as stainless steel.
Some people have an allergy to nickel so you may want to avoid alloys containing them. Remember that nickel can also be present in the guitar strings if you have a problem with nickel yourself.
Brass fret wires are available containing copper and zinc. These are gold colored. Brass is a fairly soft metal and can wear out a bit more quickly than other alloys.
Although the name fret wire might make you think that it is shaped like traditional wire, fret wire is in fact more like a mushroom shape in cross-section:
As you can see the top section is rounded but the bottom “stalk” is thinner and it is this thin section that actually slots into the frets that you cut into the fretboard. This leaves the rounded section sitting proud above the fretboard so that it looks as if a piece of round wire has been glued into the slot.
Gauge Choices For Fret Wire
Fret wire comes in various sizes. The height of the wire from the fretboard ( crown height) and the width of the wire across the frets ( crown width) varies. Personal preference will dictate what to use, but here are a few things you might want to consider:
Medium height frets (between .039″ – .045″ tall) are fairly easy to play and a good beginner choice.
Jumbo fret wire is quite a bit larger ( 0.051” tall). Some people like to use jumbo wire for the zero fret ( see the paragraph below for an explanation of this).
If used as the fret wire throughout the build, jumbo fret wire can make the intonation ( that’s the tuning of the instrument to itself) a bit difficult. This is because the strings need pressing down so far to touch the fretboard that they can end up sounding a bit sharp. Perhaps this is better suited to those who prefer to play slide guitar but with a fretted instrument for some fingering of the frets.
Using a slightly taller fret wire makes it easier to bend notes, so depending on your style of playing, you might want to look at a taller and not necessarily wider fret wire.
Using A Zero Fret
Setting the height of the nut to get a good action on your guitar build can be quite tricky. Some builders like to use a zero fret to help with this. Occasionally a zero fret will sit slightly in front of the nut. In this case, make sure that you do all your fret measuring from the zero fret and not the nut itself or your guitar will not sound in tune with itself ( that is, the intonation is bad).
Some builders opt to do away with the nut completely, just using a zero fret. This can give a nice low action. However you probably want to step up to jumbo or even super jumbo fret wire for a zero fret rather than using the standard fret wire used in the rest of the build.
How Many Times Can You Re-fret Your Guitar?
Fret wires can be replaced if needed, but the slot may then be too wide for the new fret wire. Usually this problem can be overcome by adding a few drops of glue to hold the fret wire in place. Superglue has worked well for me when my fret slot cutting was not quite as accurate as I’d hoped and the fret wire kept slipping out.
Can You Do Anything About Scratchy Fret Wire?
Fret wire can be polished with very fine steel wool or a specialist gritted rubber fret eraser but this will damage the fretboard if you don’t protect it. You can buy metal fret guards that have a slot that fits over the fret wire leaving the fretboard itself protected. You could use tape for this, but the tape itself could damage the wood of the fretboard. Alternatively, you could use a piece of cardboard like a cereal box.
Tools For Installing Frets
Tools you will need to install frets and my recommendations:
- Wire cutters
- Soft hammer
- Saw to cut frets
- You might need some glue to secure any loose frets
- A long metal rule or similar to check that frets are roughly level
- A fret rocker to accurately check for high and low spots
- Files for smoothing cut edges
- Something to protect the fretboard as you dress the frets
- Wire wool or a fret eraser to polish the wires
Look at my resources page for some of the tools I like to use.
Further Reading
Other articles that you might find helpful:
https://beginnercbg.com/what-are-the-differences-between-a-fretted-and-fretless-cigar-box-guitar/
