Stainless steel frets?

[tobereeno]

I just noticed that these are now available on guitars other than Parker....the idea of a fret that won't wear is appealing...but are there any issues with them that would make them less than desirable?

[jwhitcomb3]

The frets on my Parker Fly felt great. I sold it after six year of regular play and there was no fret wear. I loved how the guitar felt. Just didn't like the sound.

One of these years I'll get a Fly Mojo.

-Jonathan

[darc]

Jonathan I feel like a broken record sometimes, but check out a Nitefly! Same great feel, and something closer to a real strat tone. Added bonus: half the price.

[tone_loco]

I just noticed that these are now available on guitars other than Parker....the idea of a fret that won't wear is appealing...but are there any issues with them that would make them less than desirable?

I'm not a luthier so I could be way off but since stainless is so much harder than regular frets it might be pretty unforgiving and hard to work with, say on a refret. Refrets are pretty hard to do well as it is.

I also read that the stainless used for regular fret wire is not as hard as the parkers. Parker just glues them on top of the "board", so they can use a non-traditional shape - flat on one side - don't have that stem on the underside. With steel as hard as parker uses you can't really manipulate the wire into the normal fret wire shape. Can't remember where I read it but if I do I'll post a link. It might have been an interview with Parker in ToneQuest.

[MrGuitarguy]

Anderson uses stainless steel frets. They feel great. Since it's fairly recent that they've ben doing this I can't comment on their durability since the used guitars I've seen with them are from recent years. However, even those guitar sseem to have little to now fretware at all.

[Caddie]

Warmoth is offering stainless steel frets. http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks....action=fretsize scroll down a bit when you get to this fret page.

Perhaps a new neck with ss frets for one of your bolt-ons is an option for you?

Noonan

[BLuesBuster]

Stainless steel frets are great. They feel just a bit more slippery than regular frets but I guess that depends on the strings too. They're harder to work on so there's many luthiers that discourage their use. On the other hand, with stainless steel you don't really need to recrown the frets.

[gregc]

Got em on a Anderson Strat astyle guitar and love em desperaely. Iwish all my guitars had em. From what I hear, not a lot of fun to work with. Now, being that Hamer does so LITTLE fret dressing/work on their new-build guitars, maybe it wouldn't be so troublesome for them to use? I'd love to have SS frets on my Hamer guitars!

gregc

[Nuclear Wessel]

There's now a company offering ceramic frets too.

I like the idea of frets that don't wear out.

[Jimbilly]

I always thought that stainless alloys (isn't it Nickel mixed with steel that makes it stainless?) aren't as hard as other high carbon steels. Use knives for example, I thought that the hardest/best blades will rust? And 'hardfacing' on excavators and bulldozers is a higher carbon content, it rusts but it's way harder than other hard stuff. Unless stainless has improved, I'm skeptical, but if you have trouble keeping your frets from rusting go for it...

[Brownsound]

Some stainless is fairly mild steel so not very hard. Imagine frets that are file hard...man those would play like they were lubricated! Its certainly do-able.

[jwhitcomb3]

There's now a company offering ceramic frets too.

I like the idea of frets that don't wear out.

TrueFrets website

Now all they have to do is offer color choices. Imagine a clown puke scarab with hot pink frets!

Or how about white frets...or creme frets to match the binding. And black frets on a stealth guitar!

The mind boggles...

-Jonathan

[tobereeno]

dang, ceramic frets. way cool. if they did black and silver frets, you could do away with fret markers...simply make the 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc silver and the rest black.

A couple of my most-played Hamers are getting to the point where they could use a dressing, and they will certainly eventually require new frets at some point, unless I get CTS or something. Would be nice to only have to have a fretjob done once.

[MrGuitarguy]

Wow, those ceramic frets sound really cool. I'd like ot try them first, but I'd like to never have to refret my favorite guitars!

[Jimbilly]

Files, yeah, hard like a file. They don't make stainless steel files do they?, 'cause they're not hard enough. Ceramic would be cool, I agree w/ that.

[Steve Haynie]

I would expect a ceramic fret to change the tone of the guitar a lot.

Stainless steel is made with nickel and chromium added to the iron and carbon. Molybdenum is used to make the nickel more evenly distributed in the stainless steel.

The sound of Rotosound Swing Bass strings is unique because of the stainless steel winding. Unfortunately, they eat frets. It would be nice to have frets that can take the abuse.

[tone_loco]

Some stainless is fairly mild steel so not very hard.

But compared to bronze which is what normal frets are, I think its pretty hard.

[BadgerDave]

I've been using a Warmoth neck with SS frets on my main "Strat" for about two years (I bought one of the very early ones). These frets polish up like mirrors, don't show any corrosion, and feel great. I've been so impressed that I've ordered the SS frets on every subsequent Warmoth neck.

The two year old neck gets played regularly and so far shows no sign of fret wear.

[tone_loco]

I would expect a ceramic fret to change the tone of the guitar a lot.

+1

I sure wouldn't get them without hearing something with them first. "Plinky" is what I'm hearing - the sound of breaking glass

[rspst14]

I have a Warmoth Strat neck with stainless frets, I'm very happy with it. They are very smooth, and will likely never need even a light dressing in this lifetime. In my opinion, the feel is vastly superior to nickel silver frets, and any difference in tone is negligeble. People like Ed Roman love to bad mouth them, mostly because he doesn't want to go through the extra trouble of installing them. They are a bit more difficult to work with, but my understanding is that they're more difficult on cutting tools than they are on leveling/crowning files. As far as the tone, it sounds like a Strat should. The only problem you might run into is that some luthiers won't work with it, and those who will usually charge much more than they would for working with nickel silver wire.

Ryan

[JohnnyB]

I always thought that stainless alloys (isn't it Nickel mixed with steel that makes it stainless?) aren't as hard as other high carbon steels.  Use knives for example, I thought that the hardest/best blades will rust? 

Actually, nickel plus iron makes steel. Chromium is the added ingredient to make stainless.

Chromium should make steel harder, but yeah, for awhile there, the better cutting edges weren't stainless. Once the cutlery makers figured out how to do high carbon stainless, however, all bets were off -- hard steel, holds a great edge, easy to maintain with a sharpening steel, and no rust.

This the kind used by all that high-falutin' fancy cutlery by Henckels and Wusthof-Trident.

[Mindseyes]

They are a bit more difficult to work with, but my understanding is that they're more difficult on cutting tools than they are on leveling/crowning files

As a sheet metal mech. i work with alot of SS,you nailed it its a pain in the ass to mill and drill SS but it does file nicely.

[Brownsound]

I always thought that stainless alloys (isn't it Nickel mixed with steel that makes it stainless?) aren't as hard as other high carbon steels.  Use knives for example, I thought that the hardest/best blades will rust? 

Actually, nickel plus iron makes steel. Chromium is the added ingredient to make stainless.

Chromium should make steel harder, but yeah, for awhile there, the better cutting edges weren't stainless. Once the cutlery makers figured out how to do high carbon stainless, however, all bets were off -- hard steel, holds a great edge, easy to maintain with a sharpening steel, and no rust.

This the kind used by all that high-falutin' fancy cutlery by Henckels and Wusthof-Trident.

Iron + Carbon makes steel....who failed chemistry!?

Add nickel and chromium and you get stainless type steel...but you still MUST have carbon to get martensite and other crystalization inherent in the hardening of steel.