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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on December 9, 2019 at 9:24am

Hi, could be grain orientation. My fingerboards are always quarter sawn.

The tang stays the same no matter if jumbo, medium or narrow frets, if the same brand used. Cheap fret wire my not have uniform sizing. Use glue and clamp down every three or four frets. That's what I do.

Not all hardwoods are "hard", mahogany, for instance, is classed as hardwood but not used for fingerboards as it is softer and it's fibres do not grip the barbs on the tang.

maybe you are doing something different.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 9, 2019 at 9:54pm

Are you using the Jesco fret wire? I had a hard time with it on Red Oak fretboards using a fret hammer. Switched to pressing them in and all went well.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Lynas on December 10, 2019 at 3:50am

I had a hard time fretting because I wasn’t going deep enough (especially in the middle of my fret slot. The wood used didn’t matter as much as my cutting. I finally got a preslotted fretboard with deep slots. It worked great! Gitty’s preslotted boards are not deep slotted yet work great. I started going deeper and making sure I didn’t rock the saw while cutting. Also cleaning the slot after sawing helps. I use my knife to clean the slot. Now I’m having good results. I also buy pre slotted boards when I can. 
Oak is open grained compared to Walnut and Maple. This may let the barbs pull out easy. Also when hammering the fret in, don’t hit the edges hard. Soft taps work best. You may be bowing the fret a little which pulls it loose.

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