Vintage Frets (SS6230)

[migetkotla]

While jamming with friends some of their favorite guitars (belonging to me) are my vintage Fenders (primarily my '62 strats and my '62 tele).  I have tried larger frets on some of my Warmoth builds and because I do not play much lead I've always ordered necks with radius measurements of 7.25 - and I love the feel of that curvature for chording and strumming.  My question is do the smaller vintage frets (which I have yet to order) contribute substantially to the easy feel most of us get when playing the vintage guitars or do you think that comfort comes mostly from the 7.25 radius fretboards?  I haven't yet, but I am thinking of ordering a 7.25 radius fretboard and including the smallest frets...the vintage Fender frets which would be stainless steel but would be the SS6230 frets.  I've also read that with lighter gauge strings and smaller frets I can get lower action.  Thanks for sharing any experience you might have in this area!

 

[stratamania]

I've owned and played lots of Strats with various radii over the years. I would say the comfort that comes from a 7.25 or 9.5 radius is mainly the radius and the neck profile rather than the frets.

I have frets from almost vintage size up to a 6000 which is on a scalloped neck. The fret size doesn't make a difference to the guage of string and it's action. A well set up neck with level frets will of course.

So where might the idea of low frets with lighter strings can give you a better action come from ?

I believe the answer is this, a number of people play quite heavy handed and there has been a propensity towards heavier strings since SRV. Now if someone who has used heavier strings picks up a guitar with 6100 or 6000 jumbos and lighter strings they press too hard and then have tuning issues as the notes go sharp. This gets worse when such a player picks up a scalloped neck.

No more pressure should be applied to a string than is needed to make it touch the top of the fret rather than trying to press it to the board in between. Too much pressure is bad technique regardless of fret size, just on larger the frets the consequence of going out of tune is greater due to pressing too hard.

Larger fret sizes also may be more noticeable at the ends than smaller frets if the ends are not properly dressed.

The action is also measured from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string. So the distance between the top of the fret and the fretboard is not part of the measurement of action.

All the above said if you mainly play rhythm you may prefer smaller frets as a preference. No right or wrong really. Stainless steel frets are well worth it and will last longer than nickel.

 

[migetkotla]

Thanks so much for the info and explanation too!

 

[stratamania]

Thanks so much for the info and explanation too!

Your welcome the other thing I didn't mention is that with higher frets an action may appear higher than lower frets, but if measured between the top of the fret and the bottom of the string e.g. at the 12th fret it may be the same. How something looks isn't always what it actually is.

Also how it feels to you is subjective, if it feels right for you that's what's important.