What were the fret's on Strats and Teles made of in the late 90's to early 2000's, nickel?
And why did Fender switch back to brass? Was brass just more cost efficient, or some other reasons?

I don't think they ever switched to brass. In fact I'm 99.9% sure they never switched to brass on their production models. Brass would be a horrible fret material as it's softer than nickel as well as it tarnishes much quicker (meaning fret wear would happen 2-3x as fast). As far as I know, it's always been nickel, I don't think you can get a different fret material unless you order it custom shop, and even then that's pretty rare.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Well, never mind. My wife tells me they're the same color. As I'm a touch color blind I'll take her word for it. Might be I was seeing the difference between brand new frets and frets with the top coat wore off. Coulda been the lighting too. Satin silver looking as apposed to a copper tint.


Sorry, I feel a bit embarrassed now, can a Mod kindly delete this thread (if it's permitted), ty.