Sintoms HV 400 stainless steel frets.

[Eagle]

Sintoms fret wire is made in some interesting varieties. They make a hardened stainless steel HV 400 that is the highest rated hardness I see, Jescar SS is around 280 Hosco 300 and nickel around 160.
They even make titanium for some reason ( might be good on a classical.)
Fender custom shop use Sintoms quite a lot and I have used it in nickel but not the “ringing stainless steel” they call it. Any of the other tech guys on here have any experience with it? I have a neck’s worth of 6100 size and was thinking about trying it out on my RG550 because I don’t like the standard stuff much.
One additional complication is the 430mm radius on Ibanez. That is 16.9” so a fret caul that actually fits is not really an option and if this is super hard it may be a huge pita to install and that’s before you have to dress it.
Any experience with this as a player of tech would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Eagle]

Nobody got this on anything even?

 

[norminal]

Nobody got this on anything even?

I doubt you’ll find many people here that are that diverse in metal hardness ratings, let alone with stainless fret wire. Probably better off posting your question on a luthier forum.

I only have experience with the Jescar fret wire, but never paid attention to their technical specs. The only thing I have to go on is the feel.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've not tried them yet, but I'd be up for trying the ss at some point. I see that Philadelphia Luthier sells their wire.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I doubt you’ll find many people here that are that diverse in metal hardness ratings, let alone with stainless fret wire. Probably better off posting your question on a luthier forum.

I only have experience with the Jescar fret wire, but never paid attention to their technical specs. The only thing I have to go on is the feel.

Yep, I've been happy with Jescar gold and ss wire. I like the Dunlop 6000 too.

 

[Frankencat]

Jescar SS is my goto and I am happy enough not to want to stray. Also I don’t think I would want to work with something much harder as it would be even harder on cutting tools, files etc. Point of diminishing returns perhaps?

 

[Eagle]

Thanks for the answers guys.
An update;
I was starting to prepare the wire to use and as you mentioned expected it to be very difficult to work with and harder to cut but it cut easily wtf.
I’m not sure what is going on. I’m not going to use it. There is no way this is harder than Jescar or Hosco. It is also not as nice in the quality of the rolled surface.

 

[Eagle]

Did the RG in Jescar 57110 stainless instead.
Copied the original installation with under cut tangs.
Not fully polished yet but because it’s mine I can leave that until the next string change.

Looks stock which is always my aim . Feels great, better than the original frets which always seem a tad wider and lower than 57110 also they are quite soft. This makes it far more like my other 24 fretters.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Did the RG in Jescar 57110 stainless instead.
Copied the original installation with under cut tangs.
Not fully polished yet but because it’s mine I can leave that until the next string change.
View attachment 40813
View attachment 40814
View attachment 40815
Looks stock which is always my aim . Feels great, better than the original frets which always seem a tad wider and lower than 57110 also they are quite soft. This makes it far more like my other 24 fretters.

Can't go wrong with 57110. Looking sweet!

 

[PBGas]

Sintoms fret wire is made in some interesting varieties. They make a hardened stainless steel HV 400 that is the highest rated hardness I see, Jescar SS is around 280 Hosco 300 and nickel around 160.
They even make titanium for some reason ( might be good on a classical.)
Fender custom shop use Sintoms quite a lot and I have used it in nickel but not the “ringing stainless steel” they call it. Any of the other tech guys on here have any experience with it? I have a neck’s worth of 6100 size and was thinking about trying it out on my RG550 because I don’t like the standard stuff much.
One additional complication is the 430mm radius on Ibanez. That is 16.9” so a fret caul that actually fits is not really an option and if this is super hard it may be a huge pita to install and that’s before you have to dress it.
Any experience with this as a player of tech would be greatly appreciated.

I used this one, Andy for any multi-radius neck or any neck period now. It has saved me huge amounts of time and aggravation.
We bought a small arbor press to put it into and it works so well and is super easy to use. The trick was finding the right press so that you can put this unit into it and hold it with a bolt. Most of them are square so I fabricated a 3/8" tube that this fit into easy and drilled the bolt hole through. A bit of initial investment but totally worth it.
I have not tried the Sintoms fretwork as of yet. I'm in the middle of completing my Luke 4 steamroller with medium jumbo stainless from Hosco. I hate the low profile frets that they use on that guitar so this will be awesome when done!

The store also bought us the amazon knock off of it so when it arrives I'll be able to compare the two.

I'll post it up when done. I have about 80 guitars here to complete so I'm working on it when I can.

 

[Eagle]

I use a hand held press because I like the fact that it locks under tension for gluing frets. I have seen those but never tried them. I like the Hosco wire but only use the nickel 6105 size the stainless steel ones are less useful sizes the medium is slightly lower than 6105 and the jumbo is slightly wider that 6100. I tend to use Jescar. The level of preparation they do on the stainless steel frets is very good though and I have used them in a few instances.

 

[Frankencat]

I used this one, Andy for any multi-radius neck or any neck period now. It has saved me huge amounts of time and aggravation.
We bought a small arbor press to put it into and it works so well and is super easy to use. The trick was finding the right press so that you can put this unit into it and hold it with a bolt. Most of them are square so I fabricated a 3/8" tube that this fit into easy and drilled the bolt hole through. A bit of initial investment but totally worth it.
I have not tried the Sintoms fretwork as of yet. I'm in the middle of completing my Luke 4 steamroller with medium jumbo stainless from Hosco. I hate the low profile frets that they use on that guitar so this will be awesome when done!


View attachment 40906
The store also bought us the amazon knock off of it so when it arrives I'll be able to compare the two.

I'll post it up when done. I have about 80 guitars here to complete so I'm working on it when I can.

I have this in my cart right now. Let us know what you think of the knock-off one as well. Thanks!

 

[PBGas]

I have this in my cart right now. Let us know what you think of the knock-off one as well. Thanks!

For sure!