Which gauge of fret wire to use.

Hi to everyone ...

I can't start to explain how excited I am to have found out about CBG's.I've been playing guitar since I was 10 yrs. old but I only recently heard about CBG's and had one made for me by a local musician and builder in the "Cariboo" dist. of British Columbia. Canada ...... I love it... and thanks Peter Thorne

Anyway I am also excited about starting my first build of a 3 string CBG. once I get settled in my new "digs". I have a few things to buy when I set up my shop.... getting away from mechanical wrenching and doing more wood work projects instead. I have a few of my needed items for the CBG guitar on a wish list at C.B. Gitty but I'm stuck at which fret wire to buy. I'm hoping someone with more knowledge than me can make some suggestions. I have always just gone with what feels good and is already installed on my acoustic guitar, but have no idea on what to install on the CBG ..... I don't do a lot of "bending" as they say but this is all brand new to me so who knows what I'll be doing.

I look fwd. to hearing back from someone on this. Thx in advance.

"rickyboy"

Welcome to the start of a new hobby...or obsession, as my wife calls it. Can't advise you any different than what's been already posted. I use Gitty's medium fret wire for the board, and Jumbo fret wire for the zero fret.

And, after going through every type of saw I had at my disposal, and a lot of superglue to fix frets in too-big slots, I got Gitty's Zona brand fret saw. To me, worth the reasonable price to get a saw that I could use to cut proper fret slots.

I pretty much make my all of my CBG's with frets, but my first 5 or 6 were fretless, which eased me into making a good playing guitar without the additional learning curve of fret boarding (there was a pretty good learning curve for me..still ongoing) And, they can sound pretty sweet...real smooth playing.

I jumped in hoping that there would be progress with each build, and recollecting that I seemed to have learned more from things I did wrong than things I did right the first time. There's a little bit of science, but it's not rocket science! Get going, learn, and most of all....Enjoy!

Replies

Bluesheart January 26, 2016 at 10:29am

I use Med/Med most of my build and narrow/low for ukes.
Paul Craig January 24, 2016 at 6:02pm

Really all about preference. I used medium/medium when I was younger. Now that I'm older with arthritis in my hands, I like the jumbo since it requires less pressure to fret and if I press all the way to the board I can get a slight bend effect.
JL January 22, 2016 at 6:29am

For my first build with frets, I went with medium width and high crown.

The high crown gives more room for correcting errors after gluing the frets in in with superglue because they fell out due to using the wrong saw and the slots are not all deep enough and they cant be pulled without trashing the fingerboard and starting over so a few needed filing a LOT to come down somewhat even to each other and the action at the nut was too high because of being afraid of going that one tiny step too far and can't uncut a nut slot but was still playable with the extra crown height allowing painful fingers to push it down and still make good solid contact on the fret because of the depth and ..... um .... er ..... yea ... I was glad I tried my first with high crown frets.
Grandpa January 22, 2016 at 1:54am

Welcome to the start of a new hobby...or obsession, as my wife calls it. Can't advise you any different than what's been already posted. I use Gitty's medium fret wire for the board, and Jumbo fret wire for the zero fret.

And, after going through every type of saw I had at my disposal, and a lot of superglue to fix frets in too-big slots, I got Gitty's Zona brand fret saw. To me, worth the reasonable price to get a saw that I could use to cut proper fret slots.

I pretty much make my all of my CBG's with frets, but my first 5 or 6 were fretless, which eased me into making a good playing guitar without the additional learning curve of fret boarding (there was a pretty good learning curve for me..still ongoing) And, they can sound pretty sweet...real smooth playing.

I jumped in hoping that there would be progress with each build, and recollecting that I seemed to have learned more from things I did wrong than things I did right the first time. There's a little bit of science, but it's not rocket science! Get going, learn, and most of all....Enjoy!
sparky37 January 21, 2016 at 9:18pm

I have used medium/low for the frets and medium/highest for the zero fret works great!

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Tom T January 20, 2016 at 5:22pm

Hello Rickyboy.

Welcome to the site. There are a lot of really knowledgeable folks here who will gladly provide answers to all your questions.

As for fret wire size, I wouldn't over think it. I've used medium/medium, low/narrow, jumbo as well as others. I have never found any of these difficult to play. If you've been playing since you were ten, then you already are acquainted with fret sizes. I would look at what you are playing now and see what kind of frets it uses. Then use something similar on your first CBG.

More importantly, get the frets installed properly and level them after installation That way you won't be fighting when you play your first build.

Oh yea. search "Zero Fret" and consider using it on your build. I takes a lot of detailed work out of the build.

Good luck

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