Fret wire choices

[Colin_Mac]

In the spectrum of fret wire materials, nickel-silver is too soft and stainless steel is very hard on tools. Jescar EVO Gold is the happy medium, but the makers of the alloy have chosen to stop making it.

So what are the alternatives? StewMac has a 'gold' option, and 'cryowire' - had anyone got any experience of either of these? And are there any other options for a hard-wearing fret wire?

[Fathand]

Nickel silver was the standard for a long time and is not considered too soft by many people. I am sure at least 90 % of guitars sold today have it. ( unscientific guess)

I find Stainless not too hard on hardware store type cutters and files. Fine fret files maybe.

LMI has 3 or 4 sizes of gold "evo" currently in stock although they no longer seem to list the standard FW74GOLD. If they have a size you like, maybe stock up and buy a 100 ft roll?

[David Eastwood]

…never mind…

[Colin_Mac]

Originally Posted by Fathand

Nickel silver was the standard for a long time and is not considered too soft by many people. I am sure at least 90 % of guitars sold today have it. ( unscientific guess)

I find Stainless not too hard on hardware store type cutters and files. Fine fret files maybe.

LMI has 3 or 4 sizes of gold "evo" currently in stock although they no longer seem to list the standard FW74GOLD. If they have a size you like, maybe stock up and buy a 100 ft roll?

Maybe even more than 90%. But if there's an easy way to avoid the need for a fret dressing every few years then it's a no-brainer that I'd go for that.

[redir]

Really? EVO is no longer a thing?

I have some of the SM cryowire but not on guitars that have been played long enough to know if it's truly longer lasting. I always thought the SM gold was really just Evo by another name.

[Colin_Mac]

Originally Posted by redir

Really? EVO is no longer a thing?

I have some of the SM cryowire but not on guitars that have been played long enough to know if it's truly longer lasting. I always thought the SM gold was really just Evo by another name.

So I had been told. But when searching for a source I found this, which may or may not be accurate:

In 2018, the metallurgy company that makes the proprietary EVO alloy used in this premium fretwire decided to discontinue making it. This is the only worldwide supplier for this special metal alloy. As the only major commercial user of the alloy, Jescar negotiated long and hard to convince the supplier to continue producing it. Thankfully, they were successful. Unfortunately however, the cost per-pound went up dramatically and that is reflected in the new pricing.

Another website says this:

The metallurgy company that makes the proprietary EVO alloy used by Jescar to make this fretwire decided to discontinue making it. Unfortunately, despite a great deal of negotiating from Jescar, and others in the guitar industry, they are sticking to that decision.

So it's hard to know the exact situation, but lots of suppliers seem to be out of stock of EVO Gold.

The StewMac version may be a viable alternative, but presumably from a different source if the quotes above are accurate.

[printer2]

I used to work in a test lab and the first day of work I was given a task of determining if the special wire we had made conformed to spec. Well it failed. I did not feel all that great when the old guy in the lab was all excited saying we never had a failure of it before. The engineer and his boss had to recheck my work as they never had it fail in this way before. In the end my work was right and the wire failed. There was only one company willing to make it at the time and they wanted full payment whether it passed or not (it was truly a one of a kind thing). I bet we were their smallest product lot, we only bought a couple thousand feet at a time. Can't say what made it so special but I doubt there was another manufacturer that would bother and the only reason they did is they still had the original tooling.

[The Bard Rocks]

A HUGE shame, not only is EVO super long wearing, but it's gold color complements most woods in a way that silver cannot. This goes to show us once again that the guitar-making community is so small that they cannot influence decisions of large producers. I saw this with Royalex on canoes. Like EVO, it occupied a position for which there were no good substitutes, but we did not have enough clout to keep them making it.

FWIW, I have 2 guitars with SS frets. In each case, the luthier said he had no problem working with it. And I asked.

[Rudy4]

I dislike stainless because it's difficult to work with. I switched to EVO several years ago and it's a totally superior product for a number of reasons.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about its "demise" because the manufacturer has (possibly temporarily) declared they are no longer making it. Where there's a need someone will fill it and we'll have EVO or its equivalent back in production.

EVO's manufacturer, Sintoms, produces the product exclusively in Belarus, so take that into consideration when thinking about the reasons why it is at least temporarily unavailable. I have purchased super high quality optics from Belarus that are also no longer available, but production in that area of the world will eventually return to normalcy.

EVO fret wire resulted from drawing the alloy that was already long used in eyeglass frames as a hypoallergenic material for those with nickel allergies. It's more difficult to feed through the drawing dies, but not nearly as difficult as stainless steel.

It WILL return!

One of these days a major manufacturer like Taylor will adopt it and you'll see it become commonplace. It's not all that much more to use it, and I'm sure the additional $10 is going to mean nothing for guitars that are selling for a couple thousand on up.

[Colin_Mac]

Jescar still have EVO gold fret wire in stock, but they charge $66 to ship $28 of wire to the UK...

There are other places with stock though, it's just kind of expensive to get hold of it.

I saw one comment where someone wrote that the Stewmac wire had started to wear after 6 months in a way that EVO does not. But I haven't seen any long term reports.

[Fathand]

I did my first fretboard with evo gold yesterday, purchased from LMI a while back. I have to say it was lovely to work with. Hammered in easily and seems to hold well. The tangs undercut very cleanly with my adapted nibbler. Looks great on a Padauk fret board.

[Bleydito]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I dislike stainless because it's difficult to work with. I switched to EVO several years ago and it's a totally superior product for a number of reasons.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about its "demise" because the manufacturer has (possibly temporarily) declared they are no longer making it. Where there's a need someone will fill it and we'll have EVO or its equivalent back in production.

EVO's manufacturer, Sintoms, produces the product exclusively in Belarus, so take that into consideration when thinking about the reasons why it is at least temporarily unavailable. I have purchased super high quality optics from Belarus that are also no longer available, but production in that area of the world will eventually return to normalcy.

EVO fret wire resulted from drawing the alloy that was already long used in eyeglass frames as a hypoallergenic material for those with nickel allergies. It's more difficult to feed through the drawing dies, but not nearly as difficult as stainless steel.

It WILL return!

One of these days a major manufacturer like Taylor will adopt it and you'll see it become commonplace. It's not all that much more to use it, and I'm sure the additional $10 is going to mean nothing for guitars that are selling for a couple thousand on up.

EVO Gold is made by Jescar, not Sintoms, and Jescar has confirmed that production has ceased indefinitely. Martin and Ibanez already use(d) EVO Gold, don’t know why Taylor would be a game changer. Love your optimism though.

[John Arnold]

I keep hoping that someone will offer frets that are 30% nickel. That is what Martin specified in the old days, and it is very durable. It is also very easy to work.
One thing I have noticed about the Evo wire is that some player's chemistry (acidic?) will corrode them in a way that I have not seen previously. The result is dips in the frets between the strings.

[jonfields45]

The Jescar website still shows EVO for sale in all the usual varieties. My primary (Ibanez) guitar has had EVO since the first week of March 2022. If it was nickel silver there would be large divots under the unwound strings. So far the EVO looks brand new.

[Shuksan]

What I noticed is that it's hit and miss as to which form the fretwire varieties are available in. They sell it in 2-foot lengths, in 25-piece sets, and by-the-pound coiled. What's missing in particular is the by-the-pound coiled option which sells for a much better price than either of the other two options. And since it's coiled, it's already radiused which eliminates a step for fret installation and makes it faster.