Music wire requires tight tolerances and careful consistency.

In the 1950s, Mapes was having difficulty finding wire that was consistent enough to meet their stringent quality standards, so they began making their own.

Mapes internal quality control exceeds industry standards for the finest music wire available worldwide.

Today string makers worldwide benefit from Mapes finely-tuned quality wire. Mapes produces music and guitar wire for leading string makers worldwide.

The fine brass, bronze and nickel alloy strands produced by Mapes’ quality wire mill are ready to be precision wound around Mapes’ World Class Microlloy® high carbon steel cores to create music strings.

This precision quality wire and wrap ensures the most uniform string manufacture possible in the world. Millions of musical instrument strings are hand wound by Mapes and wire is supplied to many string manufacturers. Mapes actively works on the research and development of new products and string manufacturing methods.

Currently Mapes produces: Microlloy Brand Music Wire, Cherokee Brand Music Wire, CCB Brand Music Wire, WX Brand Music Wire, Missile Wire, and Cold-rolled square and flat wire.

Mapes also produces private label guitar, banjo, and mandolin strings.


A few of Mapes musical string products that are sold online direct from our manufacturing facility in Northeast Tennessee.