FRET WIRE , WORN OUT FRET WIRE & BEST RE-FRET EVER in Singapore!!! We welcome any Challengers!!! (we do Stainless steel re-frets too!!!!!!!!)
#You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell you that all guitars have frets (except you are fond of fretless guitar).
1)Nickel-silver (NS) fretwire:
it’s the standard materials and most often used on fretted instrument
Cheaper as compare to other fret wire materials
Worn out rate is faster than SS & EVO fretwire
2)Stainless steel (SS) fretwire:
HELL !!!! lot of request for guitar player to have this SS fretwire on their guitar fretboard
EXTREMELY HARD!!!! for guitar builder and technician to work with & blunting our cutting tools in fast pacing rate.
EXPENSIVE !!! but WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!
Hardly oxidized/ Tarnished, stay shinny .. like ..forever
By far, it’s the hardest to worn out
It’s golden in colour (OMG !!!!!!!!! it looks FUCKING awesome!!!)
Slightly harder for guitar builder and technician to work with as compare to NS fret.
Harder than NS fretwire but softer than SS fretwire
EXPENSIVE !!! (in fact more expensive than Stainless steel fretwire) but WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!
There are several conditions we probably seen it and overlook it:
- Dirty frets (photo above)
-Worn out fret (photo above)
- flat fret & extreme low fret (photo above)
-loose fret (photo above)
- Uneven fret height (The photo above are served as an example, the uneven fret doesn’t only apply on fret#2 or 1, it applies to any fret on a guitar fretboard)
(note: To check uneven fret you need to ensure the neck is dead straight by adjusting the trussrod, use a straight-edge to compare one fret with the adjacent fret on the fret board)
Generally, refretting job is painstakingly time consuming job and required hell lot of attention to details and focus.
A professional guitar builder/ technician will advice you whether your guitar need a full refret or partial refret
Below are the example & general steps taken to do a full refret from NS to SS fretwire :
-Proper heat up the fretwire to loosen up the glue (just in case there is glue inside the fretwire slot)
-Carefully and slowly pull out the fret wire (photo shown below).
- Clear the debris away from the fretwire slot. (photo shown below).
-Adjusting trussrod to straighten the neck to dead flat
- Leveled and smoothed up the surface by fine sanding it using radius profile sanding block. (photo shown below).
- Used long straight edge to check the evenness of the fretboard.
- Bend the SS fretwire into desire curvature (photo shown below).
- Cut the SS fretwire according to each length of the fret slot.
- Cut away the excess tang by using tang nipper
- Manually bend the SS fretwire again whenever necessary before hammering into the fret slot
- Carefully hammered in the SS fretwire into the fret slot. (photo shown below)
- Carefully filed away the sharp edges of the SS fretwires. (photo shown below)
- The smooth edge of the fretwire not only looks good , it also ensure the safety of the guitarist hand won’t be cut by the fretwire. (photo shown below)
- The guitar will go into our PLEK STATION for fret leveling
- In Maestro guitar Hospital, we are confident that we can offer the BEST re-fret job in Singapore because we engaged PLEK station which can deliver the BEST OPTIMIZED!!!! fret dressing in the whole universe. (photo shown below)
- After the fret wire being PLEK’D, all SS fretwire will be polished (photo shown below)
- String up the guitar will new set of strings
- Do necessary setup for the guitar
Will SS fretwire affects the playability and tone?
Tone: Yes, you will get slightly brighter tone. The effect is more noticeable on acoustic guitar
Playability: Yes, improved. AND if you want an extra slippery feel along with super smooth bending.
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Maestro guitar HQ & Hospital
9 Kaki Bukit Road 2
Gordon Warehouse
Unit #04-34
Singapore 417842
Opening Hours:
Weekdays -9am to 6pm
Saturday - 10am to 2pm
Sunday & PH - Close
Tel: 6844 6030 (Maestro guitar HQ & Hospital), 63378687 (Maestro Concept store)
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