I seem to remember seeing a post somewhere (maybe facebook) about someone using fine nails as fret wire.
Any thoughts or has anyone tried it with success?
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Well, the flying pig is pretty much finished! Still need to adjust the bridge to get the string height right. But other than that its ready to go to its new owner. Im now in two minds as to whether i'll try using finishing nails again or just buy some fret wire. Picked up a nice set of needle files today which will hopefully help set the depth right if i do decide to use nails again.
There are several who seem to use these with much success. I tried this, and bobby pins on two of my earliest of builds. The bobby pins worked, but were simply glued to the fretboard (no clean way to do it... lots of squeeze out with no good way to clean the board after the glue set). The nails were a pain in the butt, made the frets too high (similar to how a scalloped fretboard acts if you are used to applying full pressure). Everything fretted sharp, despite the intonation being set somewhat correctly.
I would go with traditional frets over anything else.
I use bobby pin frets, as supplied on my custom SwampWitch by the anonymous pick. They are easily replaced with a VERY SMALL amount of CA glue. If you are careful, there's no mess. You're using far too much glue if you have extensive squeeze out. A small dot is all you need. And I can get 200-400+ frets from a 100 flat bobby pin pack for around 5 bucks.
Working on an experiment at the mo, initial thoughts are like Brian said and they'll end up sitting to high. But you never know unless you try. Ill post some pics at some point too
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I have used them and they work ok but they can be hard to set in straight.
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There are several who seem to use these with much success. I tried this, and bobby pins on two of my earliest of builds. The bobby pins worked, but were simply glued to the fretboard (no clean way to do it... lots of squeeze out with no good way to clean the board after the glue set). The nails were a pain in the butt, made the frets too high (similar to how a scalloped fretboard acts if you are used to applying full pressure). Everything fretted sharp, despite the intonation being set somewhat correctly.
I would go with traditional frets over anything else.
Here's what they sound like:
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/oily-s-guitar-lounge-6-take-an-...