Frets question

grappagreen

Having spent my first two days with SS frets I'm sold on them.. super slippery and make 10.5's feel like 9's. I think they may sound a little different but I'm not convinced that it's not psychological in honesty..

skunkwerx

skullfunkerry said:

skunkwerx said:

Interesting. I like a slippy slidey feel as my hands and fingertips are very grippy. Especially on slides. Clean or dirty hands make little difference. 

Dont much like the tone of coated strings but regulars are ok. 

Anyone care to comment how SS frets feel when sliding? Less speed bumpish perhaps?

Have you tried Fast Fret? I use it on all my guitars... back when I was gigging it went on pretty much every time I played; these days just now and again when everything feels too grippy

Heh yeah tried everything! 

Fast fret, talc, playing with freshly washed but bone dry hands. 

They get super grippy quick though and my callouses arent really hard, my fingertips on my fretting hand feel identical to those on my picking hand, ie seems like none are there! But the skin must be tougher as I can play for hours without them hurting.. though loads of bends and slides will make em sore. 

They developed when I first started but I guess my constant need to moisturise due to really dry irritated skin just prevents them or at least softens them before they can ever develop into hard ones. I reckon soft skin has gotta have more friction, especially when the sweat or oils get involved after a while of playing and it softens them more. 

Not as much of an issue as it used to be.. it really got me down at one point. I stopped trying to play bluesy stuff though which was lots of slides and bends. 

Now I just wash hands before playing, and wipe the strings down thoroughly once I’m done. 

It was only ever an issue on the plain strings too. 

BlueStrat

As john_A said, that speed bump feeling is due to the fret size. I notice that if i play my RG right after my Strat but after a few mins get used to it. 

SS does make bending and vibrato feel much nicer as its so smooth, I’d prefer all my guitars were SS

FelineGuitars

guitars4you said:

crunchman said:

I've heard a lot of stories about stainless changing the sound - more top end.

I'd go for a decent quality conventional wire like Jescar.  It's harder than the cheap stuff you tend to get on budget guitars, and does last significantly longer.  It will also cost you less to get a refret done.  As stainless takes longer and is so hard on tools, a refret in stainless generally costs significantly more.

I tend to agree with this

If the reason for SS frets is based on a tonal character than fine, then go with it - If it is because they state they last longer, then how long do you want them to last - How many of us have needed to get a guitar re-fretted, especially if it came with decent frets in the first place - Many players will get in excess of 10 years, maybe 20 years before even a fret dress is required, let alone a re-fret - You need to be playing many hours each week to be in need of a re-fret every 2-5 years or so - And with many of us not doing that, plus splitting time spent playing, over 2/3/-4 guitars, or more, then the workload on your frets is small 

One of the biggest causes of worn frets is dirty strings - I have known some customers 'squeeze' the chords/notes to tight and create grooves - But for many of us a fret dress and/or re-fret is a fairly small %

Jut a +1 for dirty /rusty strings killing frets . 

Corroded strings are way harder than fresh ones

some players do put a lot of war on stainless frets with how they play.....

clarkefan

p90fool said:

Stainless frets are the best mod I've ever done to any guitar in 40 years of modding them. 

@p90fool , I take it you don't hear any plinkyness?

I like the idea of more slippery, but I have to admit this tonal difference thing is a bit offputting.

p90fool

Not at all, it made no practical difference that I could hear, and it's my number one guitar I play all the time. 

If there is a difference in tone then being without it for a week while it was done masked it completely. 

HilditchGuitars

Stainless all the way for me, I only use that and evo gold but that depends on the aesthetics of the guitar.
I dont notice any difference to nickel, except how smooth they are on bends etc, as already mentioned

grungebob

It could be confirmation bias from internet folklore but the last guitar I had with stainless frets will be the last guitar I have with stainless frets. 

It played great but it sounded so zingy and had a ping to the notes that I heard amplified and acoustically that I couldn’t keep it. It also had a very hard ebony fretboard so some of it could have been that and the pickups but I put me off completely. 

BlueStrat

Typical guitar players - put 100 of us in a room you'll get 100 opinions

See if you can play one yourself and see what you think, you'll be opinion number 101

clarkefan

BlueStrat said:

Typical guitar players - put 100 of us in a room you'll get 100 opinions

See if you can play one yourself and see what you think, you'll be opinion number 101

No chance unfortunately, I'm a lefty  I'm enjoying all the replies though, it's amazing how different things can sound to different people.

On balance I'm going to look at Jescar nickel frets as suggested above which will be a huge improvement over my current cheapy frets and isn't risking a possibly very expensive mistake.

BlueStrat

clarkefan said:

BlueStrat said:

Typical guitar players - put 100 of us in a room you'll get 100 opinions

See if you can play one yourself and see what you think, you'll be opinion number 101

No chance unfortunately, I'm a lefty  I'm enjoying all the replies though, it's amazing how different things can sound to different people.

On balance I'm going to look at Jescar nickel frets as suggested above which will be a huge improvement over my current cheapy frets and isn't risking a possibly very expensive mistake.

I went shopping with a lefty mate a couple of years ago and there was barely anything in stock left handed, I was surprised how few options are typically available for a lefty.

Good luck with your fret dress/ refret

DefaultM

I've got them on most my guitars and they do feel different, but in a good way for me.
If you like to keep your nickel frets shiny with steel wool then you should love stainless, because they're like that permanently.

March

Tend to prefer good quality nickel, mainly Jescar. I can hear the zingy'ness with SS which puts me off them. Having said that, I do have an Ibanez AZ with SS frets and a roasted maple neck that has none of the zing I associate with other guitars I've had with SS and non roasted necks. Totally unscientific. but I have wondered whether the roasted maple tempers the SS frets? Could just totally be that one guitar though.