I am refretting one of my strat's with a maple neck and I am considering doing it with Stainless Steel Frets because it lasts ALOT longer with little to no fret wear.... Has anybody tried them or use them now? What did you think about the tone and was it a maple neck, which tends to be a hair brighter....

Thanks for the info,
Kev

Hello!

I had a MIJ strat with a nasty kayler locking trem that had stainless steel frets. It had an E serial number which at the lastest would have been made 1987. For a 22 year old guitar the frets (though in need of a little work) were in suprisingly good condition. Shame about the trem as it was a great guitar. The rosewood they used was one of the best i'd seen.

Hope this helps

Andy

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Pending Greatness

Dont use regular fret files on it. Stainless steel frets eat them for breakfast.

I didnt notice any tonal difference that could be attributed to the frets alone, on the few I've encountered.

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No no and no

They are brighter but that easy to compensate for with controls. Depends on the guitar as well; on some the difference is negligible.

They do last twice as long as standard silver nickel frets….that’s the Pro, the con is it costs twice the amount for a fret job because the material is so hard it tears up the cutters and files. A lot of places have to do a retool just to set up your neck if there used to doing standard frets.(that you’re going to pay for) In the long run you don’t save any money. You will pay about the same doing SS as you would doing standard twice…Unless you just don’t want to be bothered for a while having fret work done then it may be worth your wild… I been thinking about it I just can’t seem to take the bait and go get it done…


Cheers
Bill

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!