Stainless Steel Fretwire...The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

[Frank Medina]

Please tell all! Love it? Hate it? Why?

[Frank Ford]

Me, I like it just fine. The potential for longer fret life makes it appealing to me. It's a bit nasty to work with, particularly in the jumbo size because it's harder to cut and bend. So far, I've only had one player complain about a tonal change. Others have been impressed by the lower friction for string bending.

[MrGlyn]

I've done maybe 10 fret jobs with it and yea its ok. A bit hard to cut but I charge extra so thats always good.
I thought there would be more tonal change than there is.
I'm happy to fit it if requested but I don't usually go out of my way to offer it as an option.
Glyn

[Frank Medina]

Hi Frank,
Have you used the ”Evo” alloy fretwire, and do you like it?
Thanks Frank

[David Newton]

Not Frank, but I used Evo on my latest guitar, and I may change over to it as my standard, I love it.
The tangs are very sharp.
Beautiful wire.

[Frank Ford]

No, I haven't used it myself, but generally I've heard good reports.

[Matt Mustapick]

Can you nip and dress and level and re-crown and sand and polish these frets the same as you do normal frets?

[MrGlyn]

You can do everything the same only its a bit tougher.

[Bob McRee]

I am using SS frets on my mandolins. I have found it to be hard on files, especially crowning files. I have been testing some ceramic stones for crowning. These need to be dressed as the stone wears but are much cheaper than buying new crowning files. I am making these and so far they are working well. One side is a 150 grit stone and the other is 320.
By the way, I am very happy to find frets.net and hope this will be a great success. I have used Frank's frets.com many times and it has been a great help to me.

[Frank Medina]

Thanks everybody for all the great tips. I use diamond crowning files. I don’t think I will have problems with them, I’m I right?

[Mike Kolb]

That's a good question.... I'm about to do my first stainless steel refret (at a customers request). Will the diamond crowning files "plow through" the stainless as easily as it does standard fretwire?

In any event, using SS is making me re-evaluate the preparation of the neck beforehand, to reduce (if not outright eliminate) the need for "hogging" to get the frets where they need to be.

Most curious to hear any other SS stories.....

[Brian Farrell]

Mike,

What do you mean by "hogging" ?

[thefishinmusician]

hogging....grinding something down to the point where the frets are level...also,something you can do with your hog.