exaN said:
I still like them all though
. I think I'll go with ebony.
One question: what would be the best fretwire to choose if I don't want to feel the wood of the fingerboard when I dig into notes? (I don't want it too high either though)
One of the reasons I like ebony so much is that it doesn't punish you for touching it. It's very smooth without feeling sticky like a finished 'board does, or offer any resistance like some unfinished 'boards do. So, you can put just about any fret on it you'd like. Some of the early Les Pauls could use shorter, wider frets because of the ebony 'boards they put on them that let them play very fast and accurate. Lead players liked the speed, and rhythm players liked that they weren't fretting the thing out of tune by sharping notes. I really think the larger radius and ebony 'boards were one of the reasons Les Pauls became so widely sought after. It certainly wasn't because they were comfortable to wear.
Personally, I like a large fret; what I like to call "railroad ties". Tall gives me a positive sense of the string and where it's at for stretching and vibrato, and wide allows for several redressings before refretting if you play it long enough. Warmoth only charges a $20 adder for stainless steel, so dressing isn't an issue, but tall takes getting used to if you haven't played that dimension for a long time. It's easy to put chords out of tune. Another nice thing about SS, as long as we're on it, is it doesn't change the tone at all, but they're glassy-smooth and stay that way. Just a joy to play. There's no difference at all in tone between those and the traditional nickel-sliver frets, although it does show up if you do a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs. The notes played that way don't sound like ghost notes, they sound deliberate and articulate. Combined with a touchy and compressed tube amp, it'll sound like you're picking at lightning speed. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are big on that sort of thing.
