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Hi there folks. A friend of mine insisted to give me some fretwire for free. It looks like a very high quality fretwire, but It has a completely smooth tang. My friend said that he tried to use it but it was impossible to sit. He wouldn't know what to do with it. He said he would either give it to me or throw it away. So I take it but I don't know how to use it. Any idea on how to put barbs?

I believe stewmac sells a crimping too. Thats what you would want to use....however I would recommend getting fretwire with barbs on the tang because it will sit better for sure. No matter how good a job you do crimping barb-less tang, you're probably gonna have to glue it down, (which I think might have been the original idea behind the stuff) and its better in general if you can avoid that.

So I'd say get some fretwire that's a more typical, and use that for your builds. Youll have better results in the short term and will be much less likely to find frets popping up later on. As far as the barb-less smooth tang stuff, I would save it. If you ever have to refret an instrument and are struggling to get the frets to seat, you may find that this stuff will be a life saver.

practice compression fretting?

I believe you dent the tang with blows from a hacking knife much like you do with bar fret wire.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Sounds like T-bar wire. Kindof expensive stuff that somebody might want to buy. You might want to sell that on ebay and get some real fretwire.

I've seen it easily done with blows from the corner of a large file.

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Pat

I'd like to see fretwire without barbs, but holes through the tang, instead. I'm real fond of my fretwire crimper.

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

Check the thickness of the tangs. Are they all the same, or does the thickness vary?
If they're all the same, glue them in.
If they vary, it's probably made for compression fretting.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon