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Question for Sterling re: fret material

tommyindelaware

tommyindelaware

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Guitarburetor said:
Sorry!!!!,

I've just returned from a wild weekend of trenching, gluing PVC pipe, and tipping over large equipment!! Perhaps they should put a warning on PVC glue not to operate heavy machinery under the influence? I welcome questions about GUITARS...

The fretwire we use is "18% Nickel Silver". Obviously you are looking for more specific info than that, so I will "dig up" (I'm getting quite good at that...) some more info for you and get back ASAP.

Dudley
Click to expand...

The composition of most fret wire, while called "nickel/silver", contains no silver at all. They are brass and nickel. Apparently, 18% nickel is sufficent to make brass look silver!
i've seen 12%........a softer fret....... it wears ALOT quicker than 18%...........but sounds warmer to me. it wears real quick though.....not worth the extra refrets you gotta go through to me.

typical (not necessarily ebmm) fret specs are :
brass or copper: 63.5% to 66.5% Nickel: 16.5% to 19.6%
lead: max. 0.05% Iron:0.25%
magnesium:0.05% Zinc: balance


stainless steel last really long & are very hard. alot of folks are starting to use them.......but i find they seem to exaggerate the sound of fret rattle ALOT. mabey if i could play with PERFECT technique....i would like them more.......but i can't.......so i dig the warmer brass or copper w/ 18% nickle......:)
 
Last edited:
Figjam

Figjam

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thanks. I like the frets how they are also. I think they just seem to have a really tough durability (dont see many ebmms with really worn frets).
 
tkarter

tkarter

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tommyindelaware said:
The composition of most fret wire, while called "nickel/silver", contains no silver at all. They are brass and nickel. Apparently, 18% nickel is sufficent to make brass look silver!
i've seen 12%........a softer fret....... it wears ALOT quicker than 18%...........but sounds warmer to me. it wears real quick though.....not worth the extra refrets you gotta go through to me.

typical (not necessarily ebmm) fret specs are :
brass or copper: 63.5% to 66.5% Nickel: 16.5% to 19.6%
lead: max. 0.05% Iron:0.25%
magnesium:0.05% Zinc: balance


stainless steel last really long & are very hard. alot of folks are starting to use them.......but i find they seem to exaggerate the sound of fret rattle ALOT. mabey if i could play with PERFECT technique....i would like them more.......but i can't.......so i dig the warmer brass or copper w/ 18% nickle......:)
Click to expand...

Whom here considers themselves the perfect player? Whom here deserves stainless frets? Wait you could do way with a lot of pedals and effects. Maybe stainless should be the standard?

No value added just an observation.

tk
 
Colin

Colin

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tkarter said:
Maybe stainless should be the standard?


tk
Click to expand...

I asked the question about stainless frets awhile back. BP said "Yeah we have made many proto's for artists with Stainless steel frets. The artists and all of us preferred the feel of the nickel ones". They definitely would last longer. I also hear they are very bright sounding, not to everyones taste.

Colin
 
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SteveB

SteveB

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Guitarburetor said:
Sorry!!!!,

I've just returned from a wild weekend of trenching, gluing PVC pipe, and tipping over large equipment!!
Click to expand...

Dudley,

Are you installing pools in your 'free' time now? :D
 
Golem

Golem

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Dr Stankface said:
Personally, i'd like to know the material used for the tuners and bridge.

Is it for a class? No. It'd just be something cool to know. :D

Andrew
Click to expand...
I've seen bridges that are made of [under the color or chrome] Brass, pot metal [don't ask], pressed steel, pressed aluminum.
I've seen pegs that are brass, aluminum, and mystery metal. There is sometimes some steel in the gearworks, and some brass, or both.
 
Guitarburetor

Guitarburetor

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Fretwire specifications, the real story!

Ok, I'm back with all the info you requested and basically all there is to know about the material. A big thank you to Enjoneer for helping me put this together, and making me look good. To quote him-

"The material we use is a copper alloy referred to as 18% Nickel Silver.
The material composition is 62% copper, 18% nickel and 20% zinc, with
some other alloying materials comprising less than 1% of the volume.
Material properties are as follows:

Density: 8.71 g/cm^3
Modulus of Elasticity: 135 GPa
Hardness: 215-240 HV5 (Vickers Scale)
Ultimate Tensile Strength: 650 - 750 GPa
% Elongation: 3%

The "Nickel-Silver 65-18 (752) Hardened" on the MatWeb site is very
close, except that our material is harder so that is has a higher
resistance to wear. The Ultimate Tensile strength also increases as the
material is strain hardened."

As for my weekend follies, I'd like to be putting in a pool, but it's only irrigation. My favorite pool quote came from Chet Atkins, who said "I've got a swimming pool shaped like a guitar...amplifier!"
 
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