Official Luthiers Forum!

I've seen a lot of videos on YouTube where people either rig up their own or buy a $150 fret wire curler/bender. You can even dial in the radius. I am no way NEAR qualified to pass judgment or even comment because up until now, all I've done it buy finished necks for my projects. But now I am ready to fret my first neck, and... I can't help but wonder... can you really not just like... cut each fret to length, leaving enough overhang on each side, and then maybe just... use your fingers to smooth the wire into a slight bend? Or maybe take a 12" radius sanding block, turn it upside down on your bench, hold a piece of fret over it with your fingers pinching the tang, right in the center, and then just push it down into the "mold" of the sanding block to get close to the final radius?

I mean... I've watched people wack the frets in with a hammer, and I've seen them press them in with a fancy arbor press... Am I really dead wrong in thinking that making sure to accurately pre-bend fret wire with a device is maybe not necessary, and the wire will bend just fine by hand or when you whack it in with a hammer?

Why do you think everyone goes to the trouble of buying or making a fret bender? Because it helps to have the fret pre-radiused. Otherwise your fret ends will pop up. And the fret wire is too stiff to bend by hand, unless you are working with a long length of it.

What Barry said and this will be immediately clear to you when you actually are working the fret wire. Much of Lutherie is like that the mysteries of the materials reveals itself to those willing to venture into its realm if only to learn and observe.

Slot a sacrifice board and radius it and practice "tapping" non-radiused wire into a radiused slot and see how many colorful words you can share with those around you....

I'll add that any fret wire that can be manipulated with your fingers is too soft for Lutherie use. When we started Ann Arbor Guitars we inherited some crap wire like this and Dave used it make a sculpture of an L-OO all out of soldered fret wire. Buy him a new $1,000 soldering station and he gives it a run for it's money right away.

Anyway fretting is an art and can make or break a guitar project since it's absolutely key..... to the success of the instrument since it's the user interface. If it were me I would be open to how it's done commercially and learn why.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Do yourself a big favor and order your fretwire from LMI. They sell Jescar which is a top notch product and it comes in a coil pre bent to a 12" radius.

If you are not making a lot of guitars quickly, just by the coiled fretwire from LMI. It is over radiused for nearly any application. I like it that way as I can tap in at the edges as there is a small contact point and then hammer toward the center. because the over radiused cut fret is slightly long as it is hammered in the barbs are pushed laterally a bit. Helping to lock them in. All that is what I do anyway and my frets are easy to hammer in and they stay in.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Or you could make one like I did. Slot for the top wheel mounting allows for radius adjustment. I turned the wheels on the lathe and put a grove in them so the fret wire didn't get off track.

I made almost the same thing, but used parts from a fidget spinner for the wheels. If you have kids you probably have a few of those around. It works really well and cost about $1.40 to make.


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I should probably make a fretwire bender. I'll share my cheap guy approach without recommending for it or against it. It would be nice to get feedback from others on the technique.

I clamp a hardwood block with a slot in it to the edge of my bench. I grab one end of the fretwire with some vise-grip pliers and put the tang in the slot. I press down on the crown of the wire with a gloved thumb as I draw the wire out at a downward angel with the pliers. It takes a little practice to get the motion down right and sometimes the actual bend is not very consistent across the length of the wire. I don't mind too much as long as it is slightly over bent.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

AKA the Mario technique.

Could very well be! I'm sure I picked it up somewhere but have (had) no idea where. Probably from him long ago on MIMF. Just add it to the long, long list of things I picked up from him when he was posting there regularly. I wonder if he still does it that way.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.