Stainless steel frets

[Gavin Baird]

Four years ago I built a F4 Manolin for a professional Musician. It was fretted with Mandolin sized frets. The player has a very strong fretting action and within a year came back with the first 7 frets almost gone. I replaced the frets with stainless steel and this past month he returned from touring and I had a look at the frets. The first five frets just showed the presence of where the string contacted the fret but no grooving at all.. Pretty good for three years of hard playing...Gavin

[pjlama]

Do they affect the sound at all? I'm getting a lot of wear off my main mando in first six months and think it will need attention by the end of the first year so maybe a refret with stainless will help that out.

[mandroid]

I have been Enjoying my Lebeda 'Jazzica' for a number of years, as evidenced by deep fret notches.
And have been considering the stainless option for the refret assignment.
rather than 'banjo' fretwire it has wider, low frets,
probably a guitar style..

how many shapes are the fretwires made in?

and who would my local Instrument Ace call for supply source.

Translation: who sells that stainless stuff?

[Jim Roberts]

I have a Baird "Sunflower" A4 with the SS frets and neither I nor anyone else who has played it has noticed any tonal differences.

It's a great mandolin built by a super nice guy!

[danb]

My Wiens has the last of Charlie Derrington's "loar spec" ss wire. The couple of instruments Charlie refretted that I played looked brand new after XX days of playing. We'll keep you updated how long these last after 4 hrs/day for however long I last

[Gavin Baird]

Jim,
Thanks for the accolades..Will be sending you photos of the latest F4's soon..Gavin

[jmkatcher]

All of my electric guitars are now fretted in stainless and I greatly prefer it. I don't notice a change in sound and love the feel. When refretting becomes necessary, I'll have my mandolin done as well.

[mrkrishna]

Gavin ,Howdy from Prince George BC. Has anyone talked to you about change in sound? I would think that the customer you mentioned would be the perfect guy to comment on the before and after sound. How difficult is this stuff to work with anyway compared to reg frets?You have done both...Kerry K...

[Michael Lewis]

I find there is a difference in sound between regular frets and the stainless material. It is not a dramatic difference but it is noticeable to me. I find the stainless frets give a brighter tone, slightly more edgy. Most folks like the difference but I have now had two customers that did not. This is so far about one in ten that didn't like the stainless, or to put it another way 90% preferred it. I think most folks could easily live with the stainless frets, and might not notice any difference if they weren't looking for it.

[Gavin Baird]

Kerry,
The material is tough and you have to develop a different way of fabrication. It only comes in roll form [approx 24"dia.]. As a result for flat f/b you have to straighten. I have found that it is very accurate in the way it is made, a lot better than the standard fret material. With respect to sound; Cory Ticknor, the F4 guy I mentioned, says it is great and smooth at least for him.
Under cutting is only easily done by filing. Cutters won't hack the pace..Good to hear from you...Gavin

[buddyellis]

Have you tried the EVO wire? I REALLY like that stuff. It's not quite as hard to work with as SS, and not quite as bright, but much harder than NS.

[sambolin]

I recently had them installed on my Collings MF5 and love them. Definitely recommended. Did not change the tone at all to my ear. At least anything noticeable...considering it was in the shop for a few weeks. There about a hundred bucks more if you get the entire fretboard done.

[Mario Proulx]

Under cutting is only easily done by filing. Cutters won't hack the pace.

I've been using SS frets on all my guitars for a couple years now, and my Stew Mac nippers(the ones to undercut the tang) are still going strong, and they had at least 100 fret jobs on them before that.

It's not THAT much harder to work with.... but definitely worth using! Never going back.... I can't tell a difference in tone. Only complaint have been two guys who felt they were too smooth! They complained of it being too easy to pull the strings off the edges. A quick dulling of the frets with 0000 steel wool did the trick for them.

Michael, perhaps the instrument were brighter because of the overall setup having improved? oftentimes, just having a good hand(yours) work the setup can really bring a lot out of an instrument that wasn't there before.

[Gavin Baird]

Mario,
Can't believe that the stew mac cutter does the job.But if you say say so it must be true..Gavin

[David Houchens]

This might seem a weird question, but being alot harder, does it shorten your string life? Seems the wear might go to the strings. I've been thinking of using some but don't want to add to this years inventory. I'm gonna try some in 2008.
David

[Fretbear]

It has to...if two hard objects collide and one is damaged less than previously, then the other one must be taking the hit. In this case it is the more easily replaced and deposable of the two, so that is not a bad thing. As long as string life is not severely shortened, which I don't think would be the case, then it would just be a matter of strings getting pitted before corroded, both of which are inevitable anyways.

[Mario Proulx]

Actually, I'm finding better string life. The frets take such a high degree of polish, and hold that polish so well, that string wear seems better, and perhaps not having nickel and tin causes less tarnishing of the strings themselves, also. At any rate, string life seems to be improved.

I didn't think the SM cutter would last long, either! It cuts with a hard "snap!", and I figured she'd die quickly, and then I'd get the LMI/Frank Ford jig. But I'll be d#&^*ed if it still isn't cutting like the first day! Now, not all of my fretwork is on bound boards, but there are at least 20-25 bound SS jobs on this cutter so far.

[mandroid]

I think Carbon Steel in music wire [ASTM A228] is still harder than nickel-stainless alloys, the difference is much less, though .
the winding alloys are already softer than the usual fret-wires

[but I have no experience with nickle-plated steel-wound strings , the winding , also being steel would be the exception to that observation.]

[Michael Lewis]

Mario, the guitar customer that had to have his SS frets repalced plays a guitar that I made for him. All considered, I think that new frets sound brighter than old ones, but in this case I could hear the "edge" to the tone. Granted, it was subtle, but there none the less. That is the trouble with givng folks a choice!

[Trip]

I am ready for a refret and I really want to use SS wire, but I am having a hard time finding anyone in the Atlanta area that has ever used SS wire on any instrument, and most say they wouldnt try it because it would be tough to level anything that didnt start off perfectly level......does anyone have a good luthier that will work with SS in my area?

[Trip]

this slipped on down the board....so I thought I would try again to get any feedback on an Atlanta Luthier that works with the SS frets.......I would love to get them done at my next string change thats coming up.......