Stainless frets

shanejw

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I'd like to hear everyones opinion on Stainless Steel fretwire.  I've recently ordered a neck with Stainless frets, but have never actually played them.  I know Ed Roman bashes them quite a bit, a long with everything else.
 
my opinion is they are much smoother especially when bending.  also ALOT harder ad last longer...I guess this could be a problem when trying to level/file
 
dmraco said:
my opinion is they are much smoother especially when bending...

I agree. I tried them on my first W and have them on all my guitars now.
 
fudge Ed Roman. I ordered SS frets on a couple of necks; ostensibly they will wear a lot longer than nickel alloy frets, but damned if I can feel/hear any differential between the two at all.
 
i have heard nothing but bad things about SS frets, so i have concluded to just stick with regular fretwire...

from what i have heard, SS frets are so hard that instead of the strings wearing them down, they wear down the strings.
so does that mean you guys need to change strings more often?

i have also heard bad things about the tone (but i dont remember off hand)

i have never tried SS frets (i have never even seen them in person either) so i am just going off of what i have heard.

btw, Ed Roman hates everything, i dont give a crap what he says about anything.
 
"from what i have heard, SS frets are so hard that instead of the strings wearing them down, they wear down the strings.
so does that mean you guys need to change strings more often?"

I use extra light gauge strings and bend the hell out of them, breaking strings on a regular basis. No difference between SS and regular frets in this regard from my experience

"i have also heard bad things about the tone (but i dont remember off hand)"

Anyone who says SS frets SOUND different from nickel frets is experiencing auditory hallucinations.
 
I've broken strings at the nut, bridge, even string tree, but never due to the SS frets.

As for the tone, can't tell a difference at all.  Ed Roman is on crack when it comes to that.

Feel, well.... at first they seemed a bit slicker, but now I can't tell the difference between them and my nickel frets.

Really the only disadvantage I see to SS frets is that not ever tech will work on them, that's about it.

The only difference I can really tell between the SS and my nickel is all my nickel fret guitars are worn down.

erik
 
I agree with Jack.  They are better from a functional perspective.  I tend to strangle the neck when playing open chords and always have worn spots at the 1st fret where the B and G strings are.  Stainless gets rid of that, well, it is going to take a lot longer.  I like them much better for that reason.  I forget that the frets are stainless and can't really tell the difference.  They allow for bends a bit easier, but the strings last just as well.  They are a bit harder to work on, and require a bit more patience to do a leveling job on, but I'll pay for that.  It isn't that big of an issue.  My neck didn't need the frets to be leveled anyhow.  The rest of the tonal stuff is garbage.  If it were true, the gold frets would sound different as well, as well as anything with a brass nut, or more durable tuners with different alloys that the pegs and gears, you see how this is going nowhere...  The one thing that would make me buy nickle brass frets is if I wanted binding on a neck.  Other than that I am going with Stainless for everything.
Patrick

 
what i mean by the strings wearing down is that the windings on the string get flattened out and give you dead spots.
i dont think i have ever heard of strings breaking with SS frets.
 
They seem fine to me. I didn't have a noticeably more difficult time rounding off the sharp ends and polishing my SS frets, it just took a little longer. There may be a slight tonal difference - you'd have to build two absolutely identical guitars, same weight, same pickups, wired from the same spool of wire - yeah right. If there is a tonal difference, you can take care of it by turning down the treble on your amp from "5" to "4 1/2" and turning up the bass from "6" to "7" - or you need a better amp.

(Hint: everyone always needs a better amp, you can tell your wife I said it's O.K.)
 
SS frets are the only way to go for bass!  I feel they offer slightly more solid fretting with slightly less pronounced string noise  :guitaristgif:
 
I love my stainless frets!

They absolutely feel more slick! Great Bending!
Can't say there is a difference in tone.. if there is, it's insignificant.
 
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