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Most of the frets I see for sale have fret tangs from .020 to .021. I know you can buy frets with other sized tangs for use in compression fretting. But my question is this. Most fret saws, including the stew mac and LMI versions cut a .023" fret slot. I want to use stainless steel frets which have a .020" tang. Is this going to be a problem? It seems that most people just use one fret saw and then use different frets. But, isn't this going to invariably cause the neck to bow a bit? Obviously the truss rod would take care of the neck bow, but wouldn't it be best to have fret tang width that is the same as the fret slot, and wouldn't this creat a neck that is as stiff as possible? Or is this minor difference in fret slot to fret tang width not a big deal?

While the tang width may be 0.020", the dimension to the outside of the barbs is often more than 0.032". I have no idea what proper clearance is though. I have been wondering about this myself, but as it applies to re-frets, at what point do you need to start crimping the tang to tighten the fit?

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Brian

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I've wondered about this as well. It probably also depends on the hardness of the wood used... the barbs should penetrate more deeply into rosewood than ebony. I do wonder though, if after months/years of string tension, even ebony would fully bite down on the tang itself. But does bedding the fret in glue fill the space and retain the original barb penetration depth forever? In that case, it may matter less if the slot is significantly oversized. Then again, most glues shrink quite a bit when drying, so if there is any significant space, it might not be completely filled by the glue.

Thank you so much for your replies. It is interesting what you said, Dennis, about the different wood types possibly allowing the barbs to penetrate more or less depending on how hard it is. Im using sugar maple which isnt so hard.

Obviously, using frets with tangs that are slightly smaller than the fret slots is okay, as it seems that almost everyone does this. But I would think that it must be better to have the same fret tang width and fret slot width, at least in terms of the stiffness of the neck. People mention the stiffness that using bar frets imparts on the old Martin necks, and the necks fretted with bar frets usually only had an ebony rod as the non adjustable truss rod. I assume this is due to the bar frets being the same width as the fret slot. So I assume the same would apply with tanged fret wire.

For now I will just glue in the frets with hide glue, and use a .023" fret slot. I would just like to hear if anyone does use fret slots that are the same width as the fret tangs or if this is at all important.

Thank you,

Jonas