Stainless fret wire

[jack briggs]

Chuck,

Your concern is a real one. Since their board is of a compound radius, they must use a press caul that has a radius no greater than the smaller end (nut end) and possibly a flexible shoe that bends to accomodate any radius between the minimum and maximum. As stainless steel wire has more spring to it, the frets at the flatter heel end are relying on the backfill of whatever glue they'll use to keep them from springing out in time. But the risk would be in the center, rather than the ends.

With constant radius boards as I use, this isn't a concern as I prebend to the exact radius of the board minus about 5.-1" for end hold down. I haven't had any issues to date.

[Chuck H]

Thanks Jack, for being the first to actually read my post and recognize my concearns. I suppose I'll just check out their warranty and see if I find it an acceptible risk.

The good news is that Warmoth offers SS for only $30 US. Not bad IMHO. And their necks usually (but certainly not always) need very little work to get them level.

Chuck

[David Schwab]

I put a guitar together for a guy recently that supplied the parts. He got a Gibson scale Warmoth Strat neck with medium wide, but tall, SS frets.

The fret work was quite good, and I didn't have to do anything to the frets. I'm not crazy about their neck shapes, but the CNC work is high quality.

This was the guitar. It was a Kramer body that was originally made to not use a pick guard, but the guy wanted one, so I had to design a shape that looked like a Strat, but fit the body. This included moving the pickups.

It's got one of those Trem-King vibrato bridges... very odd device.

It came out nice considering the disparate collection of parts! I would have preferred a full scale neck myself. The SS frets definitely had their own tone, very crisp.



I used it on this track:

Bass Head