Nickel Silver Fretwire #152 - Oversize Medium Gauge - 1.8 metres

Nickel Silver Fretwire is the standard for fretted instruments and is used most guitars, basses, ukuleles and mandolins.

The alloy is soft enough to work with using standard woodworking files and abrasives, but hard enough to resist the wear of guitar strings. It takes a bend well but will maintain its shape when being installed.

Nickel Silver (often just called 'Nickel') frets have a pleasant tone and don't add bright metallic tone to a guitar like Stainless Steel.

Radius - Our Nickel Silver fretwire comes in straight lengths, it can be bent to a radius for use on curved fingerboards using a fret bending roller.

Choosing Fretwire

Slot Width and Compatibility - The width of the slots in the fingerboards of guitars and other instruments is usually quite standard and all of our fretwires will fit the majority of guitar fingerboards. A slot width of 0.55-0.6mm (0.022-0.024”) is standard.

The tang (the part of the fret that goes in the slot) is always wider than the slot, especially where it has knobs on the sides. This extra width helps hold the fret firmly in place in the slot.

Fretting a New Guitar - If you are building a guitar you can use any size fretwire. You can look at the description of each fretwire type we stock for guidance as to which instruments it’s best suited to. In general you can’t go wrong with the Standard/Medium, Oversize Medium and Jumbo/Large sizes on most acoustic and electric guitars.

Refretting a Guitar - If you are replacing the frets in an existing guitar it’s conventional to choose a size of fretwire which closely matches the original fretwire. Unless the owner of the guitar specifically wants a different size of fretwire it’s best to use a gauge of wire that matches the dimensions if the fretwire used used when the guitar was made.

Accurate measurement of the width and height of the original frets is important and the best way to measure these is with our Luthiers Digital Caliper.

Size - Fretwire is available in a number of different sizes. Some guitarists prefer a particular size of frets while others don’t notice much difference.

If you are unsure of what size to buy the safest sizes are Medium, Oversize Medium and Jumbo.

Width - As a loose rule narrower gauge frets are preferred for rhythm guitar, while wider gauges are better suited to string bending and lead playing. Some players prefer narrower frets as they give a little more space between the frets.

Height - The height of the frets is a personal preference. Some players prefer the feel of low frets while others don't like them because their fingers are too close to the fingerboard.

Very Large Frets are becoming popular, especially on electric guitars and amongst metal guitarists. Super Jumbo fretwire is a little wider and taller than traditional jumbo frets and Double Jumbo is larger still.

If you are unsure of what size to buy the safest sizes are Medium, Oversize Medium and Jumbo.