Most popular fret wire from Jescar for basses?

[tjclem]

Just wondering what wire most of you use?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Fender Medium Jumbo. I don't have a fret radius bender, so I buy pre-cut packs of 24 bent to 9.5" radius, which works perfectly for 10" radius boards. I don't know what that translates to for Jescar, but it's standard for Fender P and J basses, and leaves enough "meat" for my amateur level fret leveling and crowning skills.

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[Quills]

a.) 57110 "jumbo"
b.) 47104 "medium jumbo" (this is the jescar equivalent of the fender ones Gilmourisgod posted (1 thou larger in both dimensions ...))
c.) 55090 "narrow tall" (some call them 'medium jumbo' as well, but medium-jumbo is an old fender standard which is (b))


All are available in both stainless and 'nickel silver'. Think I prefer 57110 on balance when correctly crowned.
I like tall frets and I cannot lie ...

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Just wondering what wire most of you use?

Hello Tom;

These days, I use Jescar's FW37080S wire on all my fretted basses. That's the smallest size classic-shape fretwire, in stainless. It's 0.037" high x 0.080" wide, only a little bit taller and wider than Banjo size wire.

I like small fretwire on my basses because of their sound and the style which they are designed to be played. Flatwounds only, played old-school upright-like style. Small fretwire helps out with warm gentle tones and slides.

Way back, 20-25 years ago, I was using Nickel-Silver mandolin-size wire, Jescar's FW39040. That's the smallest size wire you can get. When I switched over to stainless wire, about 12 years ago, I found the stainless mandolin wire to be a little too sharp and annoying feeling. So I went with the 37080.

Understood that small wire is not for everyone. My basses are in a specialty niche market. Basses built to be played modern style, with a zillion notes of pinging steel tone, will usually get the taller and wider Jumbo size fret wire.

 

[tjclem]

a.) 57110 "jumbo"
b.) 47104 "medium jumbo" (this is the jescar equivalent of the fender ones Gilmourisgod posted (1 thou larger in both dimensions ...))
c.) 55090 "narrow tall" (some call them 'medium jumbo' as well, but medium-jumbo is an old fender standard which is (b))


All are available in both stainless and 'nickel silver'. Think I prefer 57110 on balance when correctly crowned.
I like tall frets and I cannot lie ...

Thanks just for the hell of it I asked them if they knew what was the most popular for basses. Waiting to hear back...

 

[tjclem]

"Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your email and interest in Jescar fret wire.

I can't say that there is one most popular fret wire for bass guitars, however the 47104 is very commonly used."


That is some big wire

 

[tjclem]

Hello Tom;

These days, I use Jescar's FW37080S wire on all my fretted basses. That's the smallest size classic-shape fretwire, in stainless. It's 0.037" high x 0.080" wide, only a little bit taller and wider than Banjo size wire.

I like small fretwire on my basses because of their sound and the style which they are designed to be played. Flatwounds only, played old-school upright-like style. Small fretwire helps out with warm gentle tones and slides.

Way back, 20-25 years ago, I was using Nickel-Silver mandolin-size wire, Jescar's FW39040. That's the smallest size wire you can get. When I switched over to stainless wire, about 12 years ago, I found the stainless mandolin wire to be a little too sharp and annoying feeling. So I went with the 37080.

Understood that small wire is not for everyone. My basses are in a specialty niche market. Basses built to be played modern style, with a zillion notes of pinging steel tone, will usually get the taller and wider Jumbo size fret wire.

For years I always used the standard wire from LMI not sure how that equates to Jascar

 

[Will_White]

I like the 55090, I like the extra height with the little narrower width over the fender medium jumbo.

 

[micguy]

My basses all have "vintage" size Jescar stainless (.080 x .037 in "Murican" units, IIRC) wire on them - the fairly small stuff. I like stainless frets conceptually (for wear), but the bigger the wire is, the "clackier" the sound is; using smaller wire mitigates that somewhat.

 

[gormsby]

For all the "numbered" frets, 47104 nickel/silver. For the zero frets, I use 55-something stainless steel. I want to say 55105, but don't see that in the current listings on Philadelphia Luthiery Supply, and digging out the old shipping receipt is too tedious The 55 was the important part, anyway, to give it just a bit of height over the 47 (roughly analogous to the commonly-advised 0.01" height off the nut for fretless basses). I did not put a lot of thought into the 47104 choice, but it's been fine and haven't found a reason to change.

 

[Root 5]

I like huge wire on bass guitars. I use Jescar .058" x .118" stainless steel given the choice

 

[Root 5]

For all the "numbered" frets, 47104 nickel/silver. For the zero frets, I use 55-something stainless steel. I want to say 55105, but don't see that in the current listings on Philadelphia Luthiery Supply, and digging out the old shipping receipt is too tedious The 55 was the important part, anyway, to give it just a bit of height over the 47 (roughly analogous to the commonly-advised 0.01" height off the nut for fretless basses). I did not put a lot of thought into the 47104 choice, but it's been fine and haven't found a reason to change.

.055 x .090? It's equivalent to Dunlop 6105

 

[gormsby]

.055 x .090? It's equivalent to Dunlop 6105

Most likely so. Eyeballing it, the zero frets do look a hair thinner than the 47104 first fret next to it.

 

[chinjazz]

My standard, like Bruce is Jescar's FW37080S. Years ago I tried a Jazz bass with them and was hooked on the low feel to the fretboard feeling. Also had an MTD 535 with them as well.

 

[Lo-E]

For most of my refrets over the years, on guitars and basses, I've used either Stu-Mac's Medium/higher (.092x.048) or their medium/highest (.080x.050). I'm not sure which Jescar wire that would be close to.

I like the extra height for leveling on necks that have issues but I also like the way they feel and the few clients I've done work for have also liked them.

On my most recent refret I went with very large wire (Jescar .118x.058, I think) because the fret slots were a little chewed up. This is bigger wire than I usually like to use but it seemed like a reasonable choice given the circumstances.

Lately I'm noticing that I like smaller wire on basses so I may start leaving the tall stuff for guitars or for problem necks and go with something smaller for basses from now on.

 

[gormsby]

This thread got me thinking about habits and complacency. Decided to go different for my next build (but not too different, no need to go crazy here.) So I ordered some 43080 for my next build to challenge my 47104 rut.

 

[Flying B]

Sintoms Elite, 25% Nickel Silver Fret Wire - The Tonebar Sintoms Elite, 25% Nickel Silver Fret Wire - The Tonebar

I'm also deviating from my standard medium jumbo on my current build. Trying out this stuff which is supposed to be harder than regular fret wire, but not as hard as stainless.