Stainless Steel frets

I've been using SS frets for more than 15 years and I say "not enough to make a player decide against them."

I notice no difference.

In fact, the positives outweigh the negatives (if any at all, really) because they remain glass smooth and they last virtually forever. I'm so convinced about this stuff that I had both my CS Fenders refretted with SS.

Anytime someone tells me they brighten the sound of a guitar, I remind them there's a tone control on there. Personally, I think those claims of added brightness are simply parroted opinions from guitar blogs, etc.

Try 'em and you'll never go back to conventional nickel alloy frets.

This exactly. I would not refret with anything else (except maybe EVO).

THAT is a great video. The difference is really subtle.

You could pull two new identical make/model guitars off the rack and compare them, and they would play and sound noticeably different from one another. Far more differently than this test.

But like he says at the end of the vid, we're fortunate to have choices and we can get what we want.

Thanks for the review. I will wait until I am close to needing new frets and have them install SS 😁

That's a curious thing about hearing: if a person thinks they hear a difference, they hear a difference. On the surface that sounds like a dopey statement, but it falls right in with another quirky thing about how guitarists often "listen with their eyes."

^^^ Like ^^^

It totally depends on whether you're a gripper or not. If you press hard/grip hard, yeah--the wound strings will get dents in them where they hit the frets. It's not really a bad thing because it doesn't weaken the strings or make them sound bad. But this issue really isn't exclusive to stainless fretwire, because standard nickel alloy frets do the same thing over time. The big difference is that with stainless steel frets, you can replace the strings and the frets remain pristine.

One thing that is critical with the SS frets and the string wear issue is the frets need to be mirror polished, or they will wear the strings. Even a little haze on the fret tops makes them abrasive. But once they're polished to perfection, they stay that way forever and don't wear the strings any faster than common alloy frets.

No significant difference in string life. Theoretically yes, but in practice it is not an issue.

My only spin on stainless is the work that needs to be invested when leveling and crowning. Understand that I personally invest overkill time into fret leveling. I put more time into leveling than is necessary or useful but I can't help myself.

With common nickel alloy frets, my process can go from 600 sandpaper to mirror gloss using my rotary tool with no intermediate steps. I may sometimes employ 1200 grit when the fretboard is rosewood. On a maple fretboard, its simply 600 grit with a fretboard protector and then the rotary tool.

You cannot do this with stainless steel. You need to use 400, 600, 1000, and 1500 in procession and then use a rotary tool. If you don't have a rotary tool, you also need to use 2000 and then polish by by hand. You cannot skip a step. With a rotary tool, the stainless steel heats up quickly enough to actually burn the wood if you dwell too long. Any and all imperfections in the crown are detectable via the feel of the string if you bend. These imperfections will not go away because the fret material is harder than the metal of the string. With nickel, they will.

On the other hand... Stainless will not gum up your diamond tools like nickel will. It can ruin your diamond tools if you use them hard enough to generate heat so just go slow. I haven't had any problems with good quality conventional files or crowning files but I employ strict good discipline with my files.

I'm gonna guess that a standard refret takes me about 20% longer if I use stainless and its harder on my already weary finger joints.