Fretwrap DIY solution?

Dimiguitar

Dimiguitar

Roadie
Messages
435
Dear all,

I realize there's many videos on this. That said, I wonder if anyone here has a relatively easy but cool method to mimic what fret wraps/fret dampeners do. I know nothing about stitching.

In Finland, a single gruv gear fretwrap costs 21.90 euros. That's, like, 25.5 dollars, man. I look at the quality of the velcro and feel ripped off. This aggression will not stand. My wallet is entering a world of pain with these prices.

The hair scrunchie solution? Someone suggested this, but that's just, like, their opinion, man. The problem is you can't adjust how tight it sits. Need something where I can dial it in properly.

I'm just looking for a budget solution that abides.

Any ideas? New shit has come to light with all these DIY videos, but still haven't found the right answer. And they do sell some really cheap ones on AliExpress, but don't know about their quality. Maybe someone here has experience with these.

Thank you
 
I've been hanging on to a pile of these finger splints for years now, meaning to experiment for this very purpose. They come in various sizes; you'd obviously want to smallest one you can find. (When I bought them, I was thinking I might be able to repurpose one as a slide, but they're too flimsy and neither sound nor feel right.)

1760622252427.png


1760622291690.png
 
The thick black hair bands (they’re like a rolled material not a wrapped piece of elastic) and a Velcro cable tie, I’ll see if I still have one laying around. I ended up getting a 3 pack of the Gruv gear wraps for like $12 on Black Friday a couple years ago and a woman I used to date made some very nice ones from moleskin cloth that I have for one guitar now, but the hair band/velcro worked great for years.
 
ian_dissonance said:
This one is a little wore out (it’s gotta be 12-13 years old), but simple, effective and pretty low visibility.
View attachment 53699View attachment 53700
Click to expand...
Nice solution. One issue I have with the official fretwrap btw is that it takes too much space right behind the first fret when on the fretboard. Is that the case with yours?

Problem comes to be I can't quite play notes there cleanly. Not enough space. And I don't like having to push the "fret wrap" behind my locking nut after use. For this reason, among others, I ended up using a relatively thin hair band by itself. No velcro even.

So far, I mostly leave it on the first fret and push it to 5th fret or so for the double handed tapping stuff. It doesn't mute open notes entirely when on the first fret, and there's enough space there for chording.

I had assumed much more work would be needed. Aaaand then a freaking hairband just by itself seems to work best for my use.
 
Dimiguitar said:
Dear all,

I realize there's many videos on this. That said, I wonder if anyone here has a relatively easy but cool method to mimic what fret wraps/fret dampeners do. I know nothing about stitching.

In Finland, a single gruv gear fretwrap costs 21.90 euros. That's, like, 25.5 dollars, man. I look at the quality of the velcro and feel ripped off. This aggression will not stand. My wallet is entering a world of pain with these prices.

The hair scrunchie solution? Someone suggested this, but that's just, like, their opinion, man. The problem is you can't adjust how tight it sits. Need something where I can dial it in properly.

I'm just looking for a budget solution that abides.

Any ideas? New shit has come to light with all these DIY videos, but still haven't found the right answer. And they do sell some really cheap ones on AliExpress, but don't know about their quality. Maybe someone here has experience with these.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Btw: my post was full of quotes from the big Lebowski movie. I thought people would notice, lel
 
Dimiguitar said:
Btw: my post was full of quotes from the big Lebowski movie. I thought people would notice, lel
Click to expand...
I’m 41, my friends speak almost exclusively in Big Lebowski quotes, lol.
Dimiguitar said:
Nice solution. One issue I have with the official fretwrap btw is that it takes too much space right behind the first fret when on the fretboard. Is that the case with yours?
Click to expand...
That Velcro strap is like 1/4” wide and the band barely comes around the sides of the neck, never noticed it in the way.
Dimiguitar said:
Problem comes to be I can't quite play notes there cleanly. Not enough space. And I don't like having to push the "fret wrap" behind my locking nut after use. For this reason, among others, I ended up using a relatively thin hair band by itself. No velcro even.
Click to expand...
I don’t typically move these things when I’m playing live and recording I’m stopping between parts where I’d want the mute over the frets, but I imagine anything wide enough to give cut some ring would get in the way on a locking nut. I would probably just lift the hair band itself from the front to move it instead of trying to slide from the sides/back of the neck.
Dimiguitar said:
So far, I mostly leave it on the first fret and push it to 5th fret or so for the double handed tapping stuff. It doesn't mute open notes entirely when on the first fret, and there's enough space there for chording.

I had assumed much more work would be needed. Aaaand then a freaking hairband just by itself seems to work best for my use.
Click to expand...
Use whatever works! I could probably just use some foam under the strings but I like the obnoxious fret wrap.
 
I've had a couple. I took a velcro strap, wrapped it behind the nut, and put some foam underneath it. While it's not movable like a Fretwrap, it fixes the "strings ringing behind the nut" issue.

Another method that worked great was a little strip of velcro where the underside is the part that sticks to it. I think these came from some cable ties or something. I just made a little loop of it and slipped it behind the nut of my ESP/LTD KH-V.

I don't like the Fretwraps because they're so needlessly chunky.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top