Are some brands/types of nickel fret wire "better" than others?
At some point soon I'll need to think about some sort of fret work on at least one of my Wolfgang Standards (the cheaper Indonesian ones). The frets are getting pitted in places.
I've never had a guitar's frets dressed before which I believe would remove the pitting, but my head tells me the process would make the guitar feel different and maybe I should just go for a refret.
That leads me to thinking about material. I'm ruling out stainless steel.
So, if I do go to the trouble and expense of getting this refretted, are some nickel wires better/tougher than others? Thanks all.
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I've no personal experience with SS but the only way to hear stainless for myself is to play an SS guitar of some sort. But I'm left handed so that's not an option for me, so I have to scratch SS. Otherwise I'd be relying on Internet videos.
The frets we’re marginally lower, but not enough to warrant any concern on my side. Of course the upside is they were levelled in uniform and played exceptionally well.
Definitely less invasive than a refret...
Its so hard that it never needs a dress or polish ever, awesome stuff.
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They seem to alter slightly the mid push of the guitar, as if they sound more "hollow" in a way. Again doesn't bother me, and you can compensate on other areas of the guitar to offset this.
Lastly they feel different under the fingers when playing as the strings really slip on them. So you might find yourself overbending, until you learn to adapt to the different feel.
Another good option is EVO fretwire, it's really brittle, but very resilient once set it. It's quite slippery, almost as durable as stainless, it maintains an attack very similar to nickel. But it does look slightly golden (the colour of the alloy).
One consideration, which is valid as any for all you OCD people out there, is that if your guitar should fall (for example) and get a dent on a fret, a nickel fretwire would be much easier to smooth/even out. Whereas stainless could still dent, but would be a massive pain to do a simple fix.
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 %
SS frets - I love them but they do feel different. I've had them on a couple of necks and they feel a tad more 'slippery' to me, which I see as a good thing for bending. I don't use SS frets now though as I only play my own guitar builds and I can't be arsed with all that extra work!
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