Comments on: Vintage Martin 518 Repair and Restoration

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:08:16 +0000

PS: on the concert zither note. It’s bar frets stand as much as 3mm above the fingerboard, as it is played horizontially with fingering from above. The strings are not to touch the fingerboard, so enough space needs to be there to avoid string contact with the fingerboard. This allows tremolo, bends and slurs, etc. So there is a big use for bar frets.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:56:26 +0000

There are other instruments which still use bar frets, one of which is the alpine concert zither. In fact because it has a shorter scale length than a guitar, it can have multiple thicknesses of bar frets progressing from the lower note end to the higher note end of the scale where the frets are much closer together. The concert zither has a following in the US but is still largely European, mainly Germany and Austria. Just lookup concert zither on wikipedia.com.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:10:44 +0000

David,
We did actually contact Martin and found that they are willing to sell some bar stock. Though their response was along the lines of ‘Um, sure we could send you some, but why would you want to use that stuff?’ Funny. Thanks for the additional source info. I’ll look him up or let you know if we can’t find him.

By: David Ziegele

David Ziegele — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:20:32 +0000

Nice work on the 5-18. FYI–you said in the piece that bar fret wire is no longer being made. It’s true that Martin doesn’t sell it anymore, but luthier T.J. Thompson of West Concord, MA now offers bar fret stock for sale in different widths. He found a manufacturer who could replicate Martin’s original wire.

Feel free to drop me an email if you want his contact info.

David

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:16:41 +0000

Good questions John. We did raise the frets to try to get cleaner notes. In general, a neck reset almost always requires a refret as well. In this case, we didn’t want to use modern fret wire. We did actually just find a source for bar fret wire that will need to be cut and shaped so conceivably we could refret your guitar using new bar frets. I’ll email you with some additional estimates for the work you’ve requested. We can certainly deliver on all of those issues.

By: John Evans

John Evans — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:30:56 +0000

First question: did you make the bar frets in the Martin 518 repair taller just to make them easier to play cleanly. I have this problem on my 1890s 1-21. What would it cost to have these frets raised up. Gruhn did the refret on it.
Second question: I have a 1927 Martin O-18 that needs (1) neckset (2) clean up original bar frets and reseat 2 of them that have shifted sideways – and make the frets taller? (3) new pirimid bridge, rebore pin holes or new bridgeplate (4) 3″ back crack. Could you give me an estimate for these repairs and I’m really curious about having bar frets made taller. – John Evans