Not one being locked i mean. I mean the thread no longer even being listed I commented on a thread for the first time yesterday and now it looks as though it no longer exists

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

You must have blinked.

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Am. Std. Jazz / Maple / Olympic White
D'Addario ETB92 Nylon Tapewound Strings
Hartke LH500 head / Acoustic B410 cab

It was on the ask Mike Eldred or the custom shop one and it was about stainless steel fretwire. Some people wanted them fitted to their CS guitars.

IDK maybe the thread never existed and i just imagined it

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Ah-ha. Mike Eldred is not friendly to stainless steel fret wire and gets irritated when people demand it. They tend to think if they're ordering a custom-made guitar they should be able to have it any damn way they choose. Mike tends to think the customer is always right - except when he's wrong.

He probably decided: another stainless steel fret thread? Shazam - be gone!

So happens I've been fretting a new neck with stainless steel for the the first time in my guitar building experience. All of a sudden I sort of see Mike's point of view on the subject...

Cheers - C

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I haven't seen one disappear, but there have been plenty that I wish would have disappeared - they never do....

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Hi Ceri, that's probably what happened. There was a bit of talk from various folks saying they liked the SS fretwire and could see benefits but equally there were a number saying they didn't see any real benefit and they chew up strings? IDK much about fretwire so don't really know to be honest.

I thought if the customer wanted it and was willing to pay then they'd do it. Bearing in mind it might be a royal pain in the neck if the material is hard to work. I can see fender's point of view on this but equally i can see potential customers being a bit irritated when they want their guitar just so and can't get what they want.


^^

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

are you sure you're not thinking of the G****n forum?

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I've been installing SS wire on a (Ceri-built) neck with an ebony 'board because ebony is amazingly brittle and when the frets eventually need replacing it will likely do plenty of damage to the slots getting the old ones out. Therefore I want them to last as long as possible before they have to be removed - ideally for the player in question's lifetime. Stainless steel is amazingly hard compared to nickel sliver and lasts far longer.

The downside for the builder is that SS simply destroys your fretting tools incredibly quickly. Two snips with my beautiful and expensive fret-end cutters instantly ruined their cutting edges. I immediately switched and did the rest of the job laboriously with a hacksaw which was insanely slow - but the damage was already done. I did as much of the dressing as possible with mounted emery paper to save the files, but then I'm not doing this commercially so cost-time isn't an issue...

I absolutely get why Mike Eldred doesn't want to wreck an entire set of tools for every neck he makes with stainless steel frets. He'd rather the customer pay out for a re-fret when the time comes.

I see both sides of that. If a guy is paying several thousand for a custom order guitar from the leading custom shop in the world he should be able to have it any way he wants. And if that includes the cost of a new set of tools for fretting the neck, so be it. On the other hand, from the maker's point of view it is a royal pain in the behind: I found it interesting to do a SS fret job once, but I'd sure hate to have to do it repeatedly. It is really hard work as well as heavy on the tools.

So Mike thinks; what the hell - it's his custom shop, he'll run it how he prefers. Don't like it? Go elsewhere.

Add to that, everytime the subject of SS frets comes up there is usually a dreary ten page row about whether they give a meaningful tonal difference to nickel ones and I can see him just thinking; let's not do this all over again.

Mike Eldred: the man with his finger on the thread-delete button.

Cheers - C

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Hi Ceri, yes i can see why Mike doesn't fancy them very much. i would not be happy either every time a customer requested them, if it ruined a good set of tools. I can also see the other side of the argument too; the CS is called the "Dream Factory" and if someone's dream guitar has SS wire then...! what to do?

In a situation like that fender may end up losing a sale. I suppose they would have to weigh that against the replacement of tools and how much that would cost and maybe they just think it's not viable i really don't know what to think of this as i can see things from both sides.

I know one thing fretwear is a real pain in the backside.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.