Cagey
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For those of you who might be curious, this is how bulk fretwire comes. This is a pound of what Warmoth calls "6150SS". Jescar (the manufacturer) calls it FW47104-S. Stainless. There is no other. Well, maybe EVO (Gold)
This is only a pound, but it's a little over 56 feet long, so that's enough for about 15 guitars. What's interesting here is it only costs $62, which works out to a little over $4 per guitar. Not per fret, per guitar. This is why Warmoth can offer it for only a $20 adder on their necks. I know that sounds like a helluva markup, but the thing is, the stuff is like weapons-grade relative to using nickel/silver fretwire. It's a pain in the shorts to bend and grind, so there's some extra labor that needs to be paid for. Also because of that difficulty in working, many techs/luthiers will charge upwards of a $200 adder to level/crown/dress/polish them. Takes a bit longer to do and it's hard on tools. On the plus side, the stuff lasts forever plus 100 years and it polishes up like glass so bends and vibrato are much easier. On top of that, it stays that way. The mirror polish isn't a showroom trick. Then, regardless of what you've heard, there's no change in tonal character on your guitar. Sounds exactly the same as the nickel/silver fretwire. If there's anything at all to be said for its sound, I'd say that hammers and taps are slightly more articulate, but even that might be my imagination.
Wonderful stuff. If you're going to throw $200-$800 at a custom Warmoth neck, you owe it to yourself to unclench another $20 and get stainless frets. It's a tiny bump for a huge improvement.
This is only a pound, but it's a little over 56 feet long, so that's enough for about 15 guitars. What's interesting here is it only costs $62, which works out to a little over $4 per guitar. Not per fret, per guitar. This is why Warmoth can offer it for only a $20 adder on their necks. I know that sounds like a helluva markup, but the thing is, the stuff is like weapons-grade relative to using nickel/silver fretwire. It's a pain in the shorts to bend and grind, so there's some extra labor that needs to be paid for. Also because of that difficulty in working, many techs/luthiers will charge upwards of a $200 adder to level/crown/dress/polish them. Takes a bit longer to do and it's hard on tools. On the plus side, the stuff lasts forever plus 100 years and it polishes up like glass so bends and vibrato are much easier. On top of that, it stays that way. The mirror polish isn't a showroom trick. Then, regardless of what you've heard, there's no change in tonal character on your guitar. Sounds exactly the same as the nickel/silver fretwire. If there's anything at all to be said for its sound, I'd say that hammers and taps are slightly more articulate, but even that might be my imagination.
Wonderful stuff. If you're going to throw $200-$800 at a custom Warmoth neck, you owe it to yourself to unclench another $20 and get stainless frets. It's a tiny bump for a huge improvement.
