Fender Stratocaster Quickly Pitting/Denting after 4 Months

Squier wire can definitely be on the soft side. A friend has a Squier Strat that is just awful. Never seen anything like it. Of course, he didn't make things any better by habitually playing and tuning with a capo on.

p.s. Also, how long do you reckon it sat in Guitar Center getting played off-and-on by folks walking through the store? Or did it come out of the back NIB when you bought it?

 

I have a 1 year old tele which I've played for maybe 2 hours a week since I got it. I use stainless steel .10 Ernie Ball strings - I noticed some fret wear when I last changed strings, but not to the extent you show. I hate to say it, but the wear could be caused by the heavy strings and a heavy touch.

I prefer a guitar with worn down frets, so it's not an issue to me, but I can definitely see your point about the frets wearing out quickly. I'd say - get a crown and level and see how you go - then when you need to, refret with stainless steel.

 

Interesting, this hasn't been my experience.

 

I think premature fret wear may be a Fender problem across the board. I play all of my guitars pretty regularly. The oldest are my MIM Telecaster and my Gretsch Anniversary. I see almost no wear on the Gretsch but my Telecaster may need a leveling and crowning. I see some wear but not enough to do anything about on my SG. My American Standard Strat is in about the same condition as my Telecaster in half the time. I’ll probably start a thread asking for advice on how to deal with one of my Fenders before long. They don’t seem to age gracefully. I wonder if CS does relic guitars with preworn frets.

 

I have to correct myself, my apologies. I just checked with my buddy that worked on my guitar about 2 years ago. He not only hand made me a new bone nut (awesome), he also recrowned my frets. He said my old ones were wearing a flat on them. I never noticed it affecting my playing, but they weren’t pitted like the OP’s pics either. It also went over 20 years without severe wear. Perhaps the fret wire used in the 90s was harder than what they use now?

 

Unfortunately, I think the OP is screwed on this one.

"The owner is obviously a death-gripper."
"The owner has obviously played it more often than he realizes."

Gonna be hard to 'win' this one.

 

I can't explain that either, except to guess that the Deluxe uses harder frets.

 

I’m sure I’m in good, educated company here, but I’d feel better stating that the durometer and density of materials can differ wildly. A maple body is much denser than pine, and sounds different. In the same vein, aluminum has a lower durometer than steel. When we get into the differences in material, it’s a crazy world. 405 stainless is a very different beast than 416, and has different characteristics, just as different grades of aluminum, or even plain old steel. It’s most likely that the fret material fender has started using is a lower grade, and has different characteristics... they are, after all, in it for the dollar like any other company. I just hope the OP can find his happy place with this guitar.

 

I have an 1983 Strat, original frets. It doesn't have that amount of fret wear.

 

I have had a similar experience, albeit with a " Tribute" G&L Blueseboy.

Bought new ... several frets below fret 10 started to feel "gritty" after a few weeks. With postively troughs starting to be felt on some fret positions and strings.

Being a Tribute model I primarily bought for slide I wasn't/am not to bothered.

But, to get back on topic, I honestly wonder if it had ended up in some wierd position in storage (it was in a soft case) resulting in undue pressure over a prolonged period of time on certain fret-string combinations?
I find it had to believe it left even the CorTek factory in the state I received it in?
Sub-note ... Don't be scared of getting a set of fret/needle files and sorting the frets out yourself .