Evo wear

[David Houchens]

Heres a Mandolin I put evo wire in 2 years ago or less. It's not worn under the strings but between coarses. The owner has another mandolin with nickel/silver wire. While he doesn't play it as much, it doesn't show any of this wear.

[Marty Jacobson]

Very interesting. Is it possible that somehow the owner's skin chemistry is causing corrosion of the frets, while the work hardening properties of copper alloys and the continuous polishing action of the strings against the frets has kept those areas from wearing in the same way?

[David Houchens]

Must be. I've never seen it this bad and on Evo to boot.

[Dale Ludewig]

That's really strange. If it is skin chemistry, how do his strings fare?

[Jstring]

Is it possible that the fret slots are oversized or the wood in the fingerboard is soft? Is he somehow pushing the frets into the board?

Even if he has super acidic fingers, does anyone really touch the frets between the strings?

Bizarre!

[Lynn Dudenbostel]

I've done dozens of EVO fret jobs and haven't seen this myself, but Tom Ellis described the exact situation in the photos, but only on one mandolin. It has to be a chemistry thing.

[Tavy]

Yikes!

It's almost like the shadow of the strings is protecting the frets? Is the instrument hung on a wall and exposed to "something"? Some kind of photo-chemistry going on?

[dschonbrun]

Lynn, I'm also wondering if perhaps it might have been a bad batch of Evo, where the particular alloy was off.

[Austin Clark]

I've seen this a handful of times but never with EVO wire - only nickel/silver. I've even seen the scooping of the frets between the courses without there being much string wear.
I have to believe that it is body chemistry that does it. Anecdotally, the players whose instruments I've worked on with this problem also kill string very quickly. Like, in days!

I doubt very much it is a problem with the EVO wire.

[CES]

Stainless steel for the next refret, maybe? That is bizarre...

[sunburst]

Lynn, I'm also wondering if perhaps it might have been a bad batch of Evo, where the particular alloy was off.

Most of us, and I assume David, buy fret wire in quantity and thus fret wire from the same "batch" would end up in quite a few instruments. If it were a bad batch, why would it be only one mandolin?

For what it's worth, I've been installing Evo frets in most of my work for the last seversl years and I've never seen anything like this. It's a mystery to me.

[Bertram Henze]

That's what you get when you let Salvador Dali play your instrument...

[AlanN]

Don't eat the brown acid...

[Steve Sorensen]

Just did some work on a player's mandolin with gold EVO -- he's a teacher and a jammer and probably plays 3-5 hours every day.

After more than five years, there was almost no visible fret wear.

Did the player mention being one of those folks with metal-killing sweat? I've seen a couple of guys who could literally destroy a set of strings in 5 minutes of play . . .

Steve

[David Houchens]

He plays professionally so it does get nailed every day. I've never seen this, this bad before.

[Frank Ford]

Sure enough, we see frets damaged in a number of ways. Frets eaten away between strings is not all that rare, and perhaps because the strings don't abrade the fret, we see it more often on high-mileage classical guitars.

Here's another example of chemical etching of frets - this photo shows the result of severe nitric acid damage to Gibson mandolin frets as a result of pickguard deterioration - the frets are actually cracked all the way through:

[John Morton]

David, that photo is remarkable. I concur that skin chemistry has to be the culprit. I suspect a high copper content because of EVO's gold color, and skin chemistry is known to attack brass, which can be 60-80% copper. LMI describes EVO as: "CuSn15Fe1Ti0.1", which might mean 15% tin, 1% iron, 0.1% titanium, with the remainder being copper, about 84%. There must be something in the combination of elements that makes it durable. Of course copper can be work hardened during manufacture, maybe that helps.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From John above - "...copper can be work hardened ...". I think that has to do with a lot of the longevity of the EVO Gold fret wire. Friction between the strings & the wire should,theoretically, cause it to harden locally.

I'm at a loss to think of a reason that would cause the frets to appear to 'wear' between the string courses more than under the strings themselves. Even considering erosion due to acidic sweat doesn't seem right somehow - very odd indeed - 'nother one for the 'X Files',
Ivan

[mirwa]

Wow, that is one unusual wear pattern.

I also suspect the persons skin chemistry as the cause of the situation, evo golds are great and hard but they were made for people with nickel allergies.

Time to switch back to Nickel Silver or go Stainless.

Steve

[Austin Clark]

Time to switch back to Nickel Silver or go Stainless.

Steve

This is wear pattern is not specific to EVO. It happens with other wire, too.

[j. condino]

Repeat after me: "No thank you. I'm the wrong guy for your fretwork.Take it to John Hamlett, he loves this stuff"

[V70416]

Oops.

[Dale Ludewig]

I agree with James. Take it to John Hamlett. He loves these challenges and he's got a new shop in which to work on them!

[Tobin]

I've seen this a handful of times but never with EVO wire - only nickel/silver. I've even seen the scooping of the frets between the courses without there being much string wear.
I have to believe that it is body chemistry that does it. Anecdotally, the players whose instruments I've worked on with this problem also kill string very quickly. Like, in days!

I doubt very much it is a problem with the EVO wire.

I'm one of those people who can kill strings with my skin chemistry. I can turn a new set of strings black and rough in 20 minutes.

I get similar wear patterns on my frets. I was thinking of upgrading to EVO, but after seeing these photos, maybe stainless is the best choice for me.

The wear between strings is usually not so much from fretting as it is from sliding. Sweaty callused fingertips rubbing on those frets day after day, year after year, will do that. When I was a teenager, I wore the frets on my guitar down to the wood between the strings. Copper is no match for corrosive skin.

[darrylicshon]

Sweat can do crazy stuff , I have handed my instruments to friends and gotten it back and my strings are all eaten up , I always say to myself never again, but it happens. An old drummer of mine had this girl friend that kept breaking out in a rash after the doctor did every test he could he said bring your boyfriend in and guess what she was allergic to his sweat. They quickly broke up