Just realized it´s been one year since I joined the Forum!
Thank you all for the friendship, advice and good times!

I am wondering about frets.
I have two custom-made acoustic guitars which I ordered with ¨fat rails.¨ Love them. I get such life out of vibratos.
As a side-kick to my CS Strat with 6105 frets, I am considering an American Vintage, yet I suspect the frets it comes with will be too thin and shallow for my way of approaching the instrument. Sustain, yes. But do you find frets also affect tone?

Cheers, and enjoy the week-end!

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FIGHT!

I think everything on the neck of a guitar will ultimately effect the tone, (this is where the rubber hits the road right?) but the question is, negative effect, positive effect, or just "different"?

for me, I've found Vintage style frets are really a love / hate situation. Not huge fan. Where you're going to notice this the most is bending. Vintage frets just have a bit more resistance as there's more flesh of your fretting fingers making contact with the fret board. Maple boards I find more it's even a bit more noticeable than rosewood/ebony board.

I would seriously consider test driving a few before you plop any cash down. They maybe are NOT for you.

The size of the fret doesn't have as much impact on the tone as the material of the fret (to my knowledge). My custom strat has stainless steel frets, and they sound a bit snappier. The size of the fret might have something to do with tone, but much more to do with playability. I'm a 6105 person myself, I love tall, narrow frets. I find that I have to adjust my playing to guitars with vintage sized frets, and in general I usually find that's a bad thing. If you have jumbo frets, and you like jumbo frets, then you're going to find vintage frets annoying and uncomfortable even if your guitar is set up.

But I like the American Vintage series too, and if I had the bucks to spend on one I'd probably get one and find a reputable tech to do a refret on it. It would vastly improve the guitar's playability. If you go the refretting route, keep in mind that rosewood is easier to refret and tends to be able to take more fret and fretboard levels over time. But if you aren't refretting it yourself, maple would be fine too since you'd probably end up paying the same for a refret either way.

(EDIT: Forgot to mention that refretting with taller frets makes a neck feel thicker. Keep that in mind, because if the neck feels perfect to you with vintage frets it's not going to stay that way after you get taller frets in.)

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"My custom strat has stainless steel frets, and they sound a bit snappier. "

I agree, the other thing about stainless steel frets is they will last almost forever without needing a recrown. The only negative thing here is if you happen to ding one, it's hard to get that fret repaired.

Maybe I should get stainless steel frets. I've had to have the ones on my Telecaster touched up a few times already. Maybe I play too much

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Right, so now I´m wondering about the difference between
the 6105 Dunlop frets and what Fender calls medium jumbo frets...
any thoughts guys?

Have a great week-end you all!

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FIGHT!

I've been playing mostly on that Strat for about six months now and the only touch of wear I have isn't really wear at all. It's just a little discoloration under the b string on the second fret, and that will come right off with a little polishing. If they weren't stainless, I would probably be thinking about getting a fret level in another few months.



I had some major reservations about the stainless steel frets on Fenders at first, but really it didn't make the negative impact on tone I thought it might. It's snappier, but it's not icepick-in-your-ear harsh trebly like I thought it could be. If given the choice, I'd refret everything I own with stainless. They feel so much smoother when you're bending and I probably won't have to worry about refretting my custom Strat for another 50 years.



Fender's medium jumbos are still pretty small. They are vintage fret tiny, but they still aren't 6105s by any means. But they are playable for bending if you have a 9.5" radius fretboard or flatter. A 12" radius board and medium jumbos almost feel like 6105s on a 9.5" (as far as playability goes), but not quite.

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