OK... SS frets... Reality check

[Chuck H]

I need to refret my Warmoth strat. The neck is no longer made. I'm fond of it and I can't replace it. I wore out the frets WAYYY too fast for an amp builder that doesn't play all that much. READ "SS frets last five times longer"... I'll never need to replace my frets again in my lifetime!!! Sounds good in specs. But how does it sound on the guitar??? I've read "a bit brighter" and "no difference". What is the reality??? This guitar has a particular sound. I can live with a small change, but not a big one.

I can, and will be doing the refret myself.

Please, any practical experience appreciated.

TIA

[Bruce Johnson]

Chuck;

I switched over to using stainless frets on all of the instruments I build about two years ago. I get all of my wire from Jescar. Installation is no big deal at all, in fact, I've found that the stainless wire actually takes less labor (time) to polish up than the traditional nickel-silver wire. Durability is still a guess. I'll guess that it will last 3-5 times as long as N-S. The stainless is harder than the N-S, but it isn't that much harder. It bends and files about like mild steel. It isn't going to last forever, but it will last several times longer than N-S.

Many of the stories that you hear about stainless fretwire are from ten or so years ago, when it was first coming on to the market. Some of that wire was very hard and difficult to work with. But not the stuff that's available today.

How does it sound? I'd say somewhere between "a tiny bit brighter" to "no difference".

For me, it's a no-brainer to use the stainless wire on all of my instruments. The wire is a little more expensive, and the benefits are well worth it. I suspect that in a few years, N-S wire will become harder to get and more expensive than stainless.

[tedmich]

I refretted my old Carvin DC150 (my only guitar for the last 30y) with Jescar SS a while back, and I can say the brightness did increase. This guitar is 100% hardrock Eastern maple with a set neck and ebony board so brightness is quite pronounced to begin with! I have recently started using EB Cobalts for even MORE brightness but as I only use fingers (no picks) its just what I need to get more attack. The SS wire is only a pain to work with if you're used to the softer stuff, which I never worked with. Initially the biggest impression I had was the lack of fret "grab" with bends, the fret/string battle is no longer a fair fight as the hard fret "wins" so maybe the strings last a bit less but the frets are bombproof and one of the best updates I can imagine. I did have a high fret but made a "custom" fret crown file with epoxy putty over a masked fret then added a strip of carbide paper the same thickness of the masking tape. Used a sharpie to find high points and a diamond stone helped rough the height, then recrowned with file. Over bending radius helps keep fret down and I left the ends fairly straight to maximize my bend space.


of course you CAN go really big, check the bars on this TK Instruments guitar!