JMguitars
New member
Here's a thread from another forum on fret material and its effect on tone.
http://69.5.7.106/board/showthread....91db9f&threadid=43080&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
To summarise, a forum member was asking around if others shared his experience that the Stainless Steel frets made the guitar sound brighter.
Here is one excerpt from Bill Chapin, a guitar luthier ......
"Well, as one of the few here who has actually heard the same exact guitar fretted with both stainless and nickel silver (I did it to test stainless fretwire for tone) fretwire, I have to say it sounds pretty different to my ears. The stainless is brighter and adds a certain edge to the note in the upper mids. Based on my own instruments that I prefer the Nickel Silver. That said I have heard other instruments that sounded nice using stainless wire. These instruments simply had a different type of sound which voicied nicer with the extra edge added by the frets (which in the end some will prefer the sound of, others won't and yet others won't hear a difference or won't attribute the sound to the frets). Stainless does feel very smooth for bends and stays feeling that way so that is in its favor."
.......... for what its worth, most guitars are built stock with nickel frets except maybe Parkers. If anyone is looking for stainless steel frets, last I remember checking was that SS frets are available in only 1 size - 6105.
http://69.5.7.106/board/showthread....91db9f&threadid=43080&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
To summarise, a forum member was asking around if others shared his experience that the Stainless Steel frets made the guitar sound brighter.
Here is one excerpt from Bill Chapin, a guitar luthier ......
"Well, as one of the few here who has actually heard the same exact guitar fretted with both stainless and nickel silver (I did it to test stainless fretwire for tone) fretwire, I have to say it sounds pretty different to my ears. The stainless is brighter and adds a certain edge to the note in the upper mids. Based on my own instruments that I prefer the Nickel Silver. That said I have heard other instruments that sounded nice using stainless wire. These instruments simply had a different type of sound which voicied nicer with the extra edge added by the frets (which in the end some will prefer the sound of, others won't and yet others won't hear a difference or won't attribute the sound to the frets). Stainless does feel very smooth for bends and stays feeling that way so that is in its favor."
.......... for what its worth, most guitars are built stock with nickel frets except maybe Parkers. If anyone is looking for stainless steel frets, last I remember checking was that SS frets are available in only 1 size - 6105.
