stainless steel frets vs nickel-silver?

[Guitartom_ca]

I am wanting to get a new neck for my Tele soon but i am not sure if i should get stainless steel frets or the nickel-silver ones. I hear that the SS fret will last longer but sounds to bright.
Will SS frets sound much different than the regular frets?

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by Guitartom_ca

I am wanting to get a new neck for my Tele soon but i am not sure if i should get stainless steel frets or the nickel-silver ones. I hear that the SS fret will last longer but sounds to bright.
Will SS frets sound much different than the regular frets?

I really can't imagine them sounding too bright. I have played a couple guitars with SS frets, and they sounding like NS frets. I couldn't tell.

The one thing with the SS frets is that strings wear quicker. So I think you should factor that into the benefit of longer lasting frets.

[David Collins]

The only people who hear a difference are those who expect to.

It's a hot-button issue, and you'll undoubtedly hear claims of absolute certainty from both sides. My experience, I've done a lot of refrets with stainless, and though they feel different, I've never heard a difference in sound that I could attribute to the material. Yes, I've heard differences after the refret, but no different than I would expect to hear after a refret with identical sized nickel wire. When you pull out old frets that are low, poorly dressed, loose and poorly seated, then install new frets that are well dressed and firmly anchored in the board, there is going to be a potential effect on tone. When this change happens with traditional nickel wire, it is heard as a great improvement. When the same change is heard after a stainless refret, some seem to interpret it as negative. Go figure.

I've done many partial refrets with stainless, on acoustics and electrics. Not once, never, has anyone who's played them been able to hear a difference in tone when transitioning from the stainless to nickel. I believe Joe Glaser did a test and article for ToneQuest, where he installed alternating frets of nickel and stainless in a neck, surveyed many players, and no one could identify a difference in tone between them.

Unlike conclusions based on playing different instruments with different wire, or comparisons of a refretted instrument to their tonal memory of how it was before (non-blind testing, therefore filtered through subjective or subconscious predisposition and perception), these comparisons of Joe's and my own were done in real time.

When transitioning from one fret material to another, played on a single instrument in real time, and if the player is not told where the transitions occur, no one ever seems able to hear the difference. If a player has an idea in the back of their mind that it may affect a change, and they know what they're playing is fretted with stainless, then they may very well hear a difference. I would be willing to bet that if you told them it had stainless, when in fact the frets were simply well polished nickel, they would hear the exact same brightness they would expect to hear from stainless.

It works kind of like this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3RjPGOEFhE

[macatt]

They do not wear out strings faster.

[Robertito]

My strings are lasting longer with the stainless steel frets.

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by macatt

They do not wear out strings faster.

Originally Posted by Robertito

My strings are lasting longer with the stainless steel frets.

That's good to hear, a buddy of mine swears his strings wear out quicker with SS.

[middy]

I love SS frets. Very slippery and bendy! No signs of fret wear after 4 months of daily playing.

[fendertastic]

What is the difference (if any) in price for complete refret? I think a refret here in philly with reg 6105s is (I think) 225$ Are SS less, more or same?

[Colt W. Knight]

Originally Posted by fendertastic

What is the difference (if any) in price for complete refret? I think a refret here in philly with reg 6105s is (I think) 225$ Are SS less, more or same?

The actual cost of the frets is only a few dollars more, but people tend to charge more for installs because its harder to crown and polish the SS, and it wears tools out quicker.

[Telenator]

SS can be a bit more expensive because it takes it's toll on the luthiers tools, which they comment on regularly.

Personally, I like SS frets. They last so much longer and I really don't hear any difference.