Did you know?

Discuss anything in general that has to do with music.

Moderators: MrSpall, bassjones, sevesd93, zenmandan

Post Reply
boxofrocks
Regular
Regular
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:51 am

Did you know?

Post by boxofrocks »

Fret wire is made of nickel and LEAD? I just learned that from How it's made on the Discovery channel. I might think twice about kids playing my axe from now on.
kylek
I Been Around
I Been Around
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:08 am
Contact:

Post by kylek »

unless the kids are gumming the fretboard I wouldnt really worry about it
Two wrongs may not make a right, but they do make a point.
Silencio
RockStar
RockStar
Posts: 562
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:12 am

Post by Silencio »

Fret wire does not contain anything as soft as lead. From the Warmoth page:

"We offer only quality fret wire drawn from the finest 18% hard nickel/silver to give long life with steel strings. The composition of this fret wire, while called "nickel/silver", contains no silver at all. The ingredients are brass and nickel."

18% nickel is just enough to make brass look like silver. The stock Dunlop wire everybody uses is 18% nickel/silver. Some frets are made of stainless steel for even longer wear. I love How It's Made, but they either got it wrong or that was some shoddy manufacturing.
boxofrocks
Regular
Regular
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:51 am

Post by boxofrocks »

They were at the Godin guitar factory. Must have been a mistake. Everything I found says nickle/silver. I hit the back button a couple of times on the DVR to make sure he actually said what I thought he said, and had a flash back of all the times I licked my fretboard :P
bassjones
Staff Member
Staff Member
Posts: 4270
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 1:36 pm
Contact:

Post by bassjones »

Godin makes far too nice of instruments to be using something that soft for fretwire. You might as well make wooden frets.
"brad!
...your tunes and your playing sound really great... all the best to you and god bless-
adam nitti" www.myspace.com/adamnittimusic

www.bradjonesbass.com
http://groups.myspace.com/northeastindianabassplayers
www.myspace.com/bassjones
www.myspace.com/whitehotnoise
www.esession.com/bradjones - hire me for your session from anywhere in the world.
Garr
Too Much Free Time
Too Much Free Time
Posts: 4805
Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2002 2:22 pm
Location: Fort Wayne
Contact:

Post by Garr »

Having worked in the metals industry for about three and a half years (and my best friend is metallurgical engineer), I can tell you that lead is used in alloying as a grain modifier which adds to the tensile strength and flexibility of an alloy. There very well may be lead in that wire, but it's likely to be under 10% and bonded with aluminum or copper or iron as the primary metal.

The brief reading I did with this said that most fret wire is primarily iron and brass (brass being copper and tin) with nickel added in to make it bright. The lead is likely there to soften up the iron or affect it in some stage of heat treating or something like that. I'd have to do a bit more research to get a better answer.
There are 10 types of people in the world.

Those who understand binary. . .

. . .and those who don't.

[url]http://www.garrmusic.com[/url]

Check out these sites:

[url=http://www.OhSoHumorous.com]OhSoHumorous.com[/url]
[url=http://www.TopDailyMemes.com]TopDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.RandomDailyMemes.com]RandomDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.BestDailyMemes.com]BestDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FortWayneMusic.om]FortWayneMusic.om[/url]
[url=http://www.Kwalis.com]Kwalis.com[/url]
[url=http://www.SoHumorous.com]SoHumorous.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FailUniversity.com]FailUniversity.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FaceFullOf.com]FaceFullOf.com[/url]
[url=http://www.NuZuDu.com]NuZuDu.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FireFlyGoods.com]FireFlyGoods.com[/url]
[url=http://www.ThePeopleBlog.com]ThePeopleBlog.com[/url]
[url=http://www.StealMyMemes.com]StealMyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.DontStealMyMemes.com]DontStealMyMemes.com[/url]

More to come...
Silencio
RockStar
RockStar
Posts: 562
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:12 am

Post by Silencio »

That may be true, Garr, but the fact remains that saying frets are made of nickel and lead is like saying salad dressing is made of oil and salt.
HillgrassBluebillyFTW
Hillgrass Bluebilly FTW
Hillgrass Bluebilly FTW
Posts: 2517
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:50 pm
Location: 46802
Contact:

Post by HillgrassBluebillyFTW »

just think of all those prison tattoos that were done with...

oh wait, I was thinking guitar strings nevermind.
1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. - Romans 15

If you want to know what I am working on check out these sites:

OhSoHumorous.com
TopDailyMemes.com
RandomDailyMemes.com
BestDailyMemes.com
FortWayneMusic.om
Kwalis.com
SoHumorous.com
FailUniversity.com
FaceFullOf.com
NuZuDu.com
FireFlyGoods.com
ThePeopleBlog.com
StealMyMemes.com
DontStealMyMemes.com

More to come...
Garr
Too Much Free Time
Too Much Free Time
Posts: 4805
Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2002 2:22 pm
Location: Fort Wayne
Contact:

Post by Garr »

Silencio wrote:That may be true, Garr, but the fact remains that saying frets are made of nickel and lead is like saying salad dressing is made of oil and salt.
Which is why I stated that they are primarily (70% or more) made from a ferrous brass alloy. There are spectrometric traces of nearly every metal in any alloy, but most often, it's in trace amounts. For instance, alloyed aluminum contains over 12 different metals in it including iron, nickel, zinc, strontium, antimony, tin, copper, chromium, and others.

I don't believe that I was saying that fret wire was made exclusively or even predominantly of those metals (i.e. lead and nickel), but to say that they are not used at all, well, is just wrong.
There are 10 types of people in the world.

Those who understand binary. . .

. . .and those who don't.

[url]http://www.garrmusic.com[/url]

Check out these sites:

[url=http://www.OhSoHumorous.com]OhSoHumorous.com[/url]
[url=http://www.TopDailyMemes.com]TopDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.RandomDailyMemes.com]RandomDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.BestDailyMemes.com]BestDailyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FortWayneMusic.om]FortWayneMusic.om[/url]
[url=http://www.Kwalis.com]Kwalis.com[/url]
[url=http://www.SoHumorous.com]SoHumorous.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FailUniversity.com]FailUniversity.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FaceFullOf.com]FaceFullOf.com[/url]
[url=http://www.NuZuDu.com]NuZuDu.com[/url]
[url=http://www.FireFlyGoods.com]FireFlyGoods.com[/url]
[url=http://www.ThePeopleBlog.com]ThePeopleBlog.com[/url]
[url=http://www.StealMyMemes.com]StealMyMemes.com[/url]
[url=http://www.DontStealMyMemes.com]DontStealMyMemes.com[/url]

More to come...
Post Reply