Stainless Steel Frets - Leveling needed out of the box? How hard to work on?

[RockStarNick]

Hey guys, this is a question for those of you that have ordered a Warmoth neck with Stainless Steel frets.

1. How low was the action right out of the box?
2. Did you have to do any leveling yourself?
3. What did u use to polish the stainless steel after levelling?

I've leveled some SS before, but polishing them was alot harder than regular nickel silver frets, and I could never get the glassiness back like when it was from the factory.  WIth Nickel silver, polishing is easy...

 

[DocNrock]

I go SS whenever I can.  The action is usually pretty good right out of the box, but I've taken all my Warmoths to a wizard of a luthier I met here in town, and he has these things smooth, polished, and the action is as good or, dare I say, better than my Jackson USA, SL2H.  I particularly love the playability.  Bends and vibrato are slick as s....

 

[Creepies]

I just got my neck a few days ago, and the SS frets are fine, won't need any work at all.

 

[RockStarNick]

Cool, good to hear.

I just did a neck for a friend, Warmoth 12" straight radius, and the frets needed a little leveling in spots... very different than the other compound radius neck that I got, which was just perfect out of the box.

That's why I was wondering.

 

[-CB-]

stainless... bending is like buttah!

I had ONE fret that I hadda seat on this last neck... and I put a small dingus in the top of the fret (I have no idea how....but there it was)

I just barely touched the ding and worked it out with 400 paper, then some 800 on my finger tip till the paper wore out and naturally became fine enough to leave a super bright finish.  Looks and plays fine.

 

[blue313]

My last neck needed zero leveling.  It was just as dead flat as the fretboard once the neck was adjusted.

I did recently roll the edges of the board and had to subsequently dress the ends.  It wasn't much tougher than standard fret material.  I polished the crowns and ends out with some micromesh paper over a medium-stiff foam rubber pad and finished with a touch of white automotive rubbing compound.  They look just as good, if not a little better, than when it came out of the box.

stainless... bending is like buttah!

QFT

 

[rahimiiii]

I hate installing stainless steel fret. It's not that it's hard to install but good luck trimming them once installed. Most normal fret tool will be destroyed by it and I use a hacksaw blade to trim them... very tedious!

 

[stubhead]

I was surprised that it seemed as easy as it was. (It's also not SUPER-hard, it's wearing at maybe half the rate of normal wire - I play a lot.) I have long ago gone over to using abrasive paper to do most of my fret work, the gray wet/dry stuff in progressive grits. I can see how a normal tech guy doing lots of fret work would dislike SS and even claim that it "ruined" his files - hey, if he can get free files.... most good techies by now have a set of diamond files for SS. People who dislike working on guitars shouldn't work on guitars, in my estimation.

 

[po_0784]

Mine needed work right away, maybe I was just unlucky who knows. Bad seated frets, frets too high (little high spot on fret board). Nothing that a good setup could correct or make it decent even with an high action. Also it is about 100% sure that if you take a precut nut, its gonna be too high, so expect to pay someone to do it if you dont have the tools.

No complaining here. Add a 100-150$ to your neck price for a proper setup on the instrument once its assembled (fret level and nut height adjustement) unless you play with strange super high action settings?!?

 

[rahimiiii]

Now if someone uses hardened tool steel (or at least something like 416 stainless) as fretwire... that would be super hard. Not sure if it would be possible to install them onto a fretboard though.

 

[stubhead]

Parker Guitars use a half a stainless rod superglued to an ebonol board, and I've (somewhere...?)  seen an arrangement of super-hard rods inlaid halfway into the neck. I imagine you end up making choices about string wear, somewhere down the line towards knife & tool steels. It almost seems that with the cost of a great refret vs. the cost of a great Warmoth neck, necks are becoming just another disposable item.
Oh well, the old ones'll make great clubs when we're fighting over food next decade. arty07:

 

[jackthehack]

I've gotten a couple of necks with the SS frets installed, but frankly don't see what the big deal is. They don't look/feel/sound any different, only ostensible difference is that theoretically they should wear a bit longer.  The longest I ever kept a guitar was a '65 Gibson for 19 years, and even though it just had stock nickel frets in 19 years of being my main guitar and being played every day, it needed fretwork a grand total of once.

Neither neck I got needed any fretwork at all out the box, but I'm starting to think from the sound of a lot of the posts I read here that an awful lot of people are more incredibly sensitive to this than I ever would have thought.

Back in the olden days we didn't have all these new-fangled custom guitars/modeling amps/effects boxes and if you wanted more than one sound you had to carry a couple of guitars, typically an old Fender and Gibson and learn to deal with moving back and forth with different nut widths, fret sizes, back contours, etc. Guess that desensitized us old geezers?

 

[kreig]

Back in the olden days we didn't have all these new-fangled

It's"Back in the day" , Jack  :laughing8:

 

[-CB-]

Back in the olden days we didn't have all these new-fangled

It's"Back in the day" , Jack  :laughing8:

Hey I resemble that!

 

[GoDrex]

but I'm starting to think from the sound of a lot of the posts I read here that an awful lot of people are more incredibly sensitive to this than I ever would have thought.

I've noticed this too. I must be weird because I actually like the differences in guitars. I'm really looking forward to someday getting a neck from Warmoth with a profile other than Standard Thin - just for the variety.

 

[kreig]

I think what I'm hearing , is that there is now and has been a preference/desire
among guitarists to attain the lowest action as possible . . . :icon_scratch: even "Ultra-low"

I personally asked Mike Lull to do this 10 years ago, and of course, he did a fantastic job, and I've NEVER had fret buzz from his work.

To some, it goes right along with sweeping, tapping and all those other speed picking techniques, helping to *economize* your motorskills.
And they have it down to a science.

Sure, there is a place for guitars with higher action, but I was sold on super-low action the first time I tried it, just like Jumbo frets and scalloped fretboards.

Humbly Yours,

Kreig

 

[blue313]

I'd have to agree with you.  I enjoy the differences between my LP, Strat, C-1 and new Warmoth Tele (and this Gretsch I'm borrowing and thinkin of buying).  All completely different animals. 

Some peoples play styles just lend themselves better to low action.  Some also are fairly aggressive with their vibrato/bending or capo use and wear their frets out faster than others.  If SS sounds and feels the same to you, and you fall into that category, why the heck not.  It'll give you more time until a refret on a neck you really fall in love with.