Fret Wire, Humble but Important Parts on Acoustic Guitars
Humble But Important
Although all of us noticed that there are metal strip inlays on the fret board of acoustic guitar or classical guitar, those tiny parts are frequently forgotten, only builders always pay attention to them.
But actually, frets shouldn’t be forgotten by anyone, builders, players, etc. They are tiny and humble but important in making sound. Besides, the frets greatly influence the hand feeling, thus, it impacts the playing skills, too. This is the reason why frets are important.
In this article, we try to discuss as much as knowledge about frets to show how important they are.
Material, Shape and Size for Frets
Copper-nickel, brass and stainless steel are three types of metal material to make frets. Frets made of copper-nickel are the most commonly seen today. Based on our experience, we will show you why frets are made of different metal material.
Copper-nickel is popular mainly because of its ability to resist waring. Another reason is this metal material is relatively cheaper. So, it is widely used today.
Brass is relatively beautiful but softer. However, the high anti-rust ability makes it favorited by many players. It is not so common as copper-nickel frets mainly because of the cost. The cost of brass material is not only high, but also keeps changing every day even every minutes. Unless to stock a certain quantity of the material, it is very difficult to remain the cost to be acceptable.
Stainless steel frets are not so usual mainly because of the high price. And the high price is mainly caused by difficulties of machining. The advantage of stainless steel frets is that they can be used for a very long term without maintenance or replacement.
In common sense, we know that the flatter the area, the easier the pressing. Thus, in imagination of many people, the head of the frets should be flat and it should be large enough. But actually, it can’t be a complete flat head. Otherwise, it is very difficult to make right sound. As we can see, the head of the frets is arced but it is also cannot be shaped edge. The arced head will increase the force of pressing to make the sound clearly.
There is another thing that really need to be focused. There’s much to discuss about the size of frets. But we should focus on three main parameters firstly as following diagram.
- The width of fret head.
- The height of fret head.
- The height of the foot.
There are sizes of the width of fret head. And we have seen many thought that there is only one size for frets. So, when they do some replacement by themselves, there is a big problem. The usual width of the head is: 1.6mm, 1.8mm, 2.0mm, 2.2mm, 2.4mm, 2.7mm and 2.9mm. Among them, 2.0mm and 2.2mm is usually for acoustic guitars and classical guitars.
The height of the frets is normally fixed, but can be customized for special requirement.
Why Distance between Frets is Different?
Once you have noticed, the distance between the frets is not equal. This because we need different vibration frequency to get different pitches. And when this is organized following some order, different pieces of chord are created.
How many frets we should use? This is related with scale length.
Can I Customize Frets When Custom Guitar?
Customize frets won’t be necessary when custom guitar.
Because the shape and the size of the frets is fixed. There’s little room to change anything. But once your design of the guitar is very creative, we think it is better to discuss about applicability before production.
Once you have any idea or needs, please feel free to CONTACT US.