Stainless Steel Frets and Fret Wear

James Freeman

James Freeman

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Is it something you consider when buying a new guitar?
How important is it to you?

My trusty Edwards LP (10+ years old) started to develop some fret wear, I don't feel it when I play and there is no fret buzz or anything.

fret wear.jpg


I've seen an interview with Brian May that his original red guitar the his father built him still has the original frets.
Probably flat as a pancake after 50 years of playing?

Maybe fret wear is not so bad?
I've heard Joe Bonamassa likes the fret a little worn too.
 
I have also noticed that many companies include stainless steel frets only in their top of the line guitars, why is it not more common in mid range guitars?

Also, Gibson and Fender, I know they are old fashioned and intentionally use the same materials etc. but can't they offer something in the Standard range that has stainless steel frets?
 
James Freeman said:
I have also noticed that many companies include stainless steel frets only in their top of the line guitars, why is it not more common in mid range guitars?

Also, Gibson and Fender, I know they are old fashioned and intentionally use the same materials etc. but can't they offer something in the Standard range that has stainless steel frets?
Click to expand...

I think It's the extra time it takes to work with stainless steel vs standard frets and the extra wear on the tools which probably makes that somewhat cost prohibitive.

Plus unless it was used in 50s or 60s most reenactment guitarists just aren't interested.
 
Fret wear only bothers me if it begins to buzz or start affecting intonation. Luckily I have a guy who will do a re-crown for 35 bucks.

That said, I’ve never owned a guitar with stainless frets, but I’d be interested in one. I fret extremely hard, so I’d be curious if they’d hold up.

@James Freeman what fret are we looking at here?
 
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I'm definitely a fan of stainless. They feel nice and glassy and I like the peace of mind knowing that they will last much longer than nickel frets.
Obviously each manufacturer is different, but I was pretty disappointed when I got some noticeable fret wear on my Les Paul after only a few years of casual playing.

I actually noticed a ridiculously tiny almost flat spot on the second fret of my guitar with SS recently. When I'm feeling it I have a tendency to play quite hard, so it was a gentle reminder to Lighten Up, Francis! :grin
 
So far I have only refretted my oldest guitar. It's a Yamaha SA-1200S semihollowbody from around 1980. I bought it in Japan in 2004.

I have a couple of guitars with stainless steel frets and they are nice, but also not a big deal. I have one guitar with Jescar nickel fretwire (unless Kiesel accidentally installed stainless on it..) and that stuff is way more durable than Dunlop fretwire.

I'm not too worried about fret wear, but I definitely should take my 1996 G&L Legacy for a fret leveling at this point.

Fret replacement and leveling is the one repair I do not want to do though. It's so damn tedious work I'd rather pay someone to do it.
 
I think given the guitar is 10 years old and there's a little bit of wear, it may be worth bringing it in for a fret level/crown/polish. Might help the guitar play like butter and ensure the intonation is bang on.

I've got two years on my #1 Ibanez with stainless frets and only the slightest hint of wear. On all my other guitars with nickel frets, they tend to have a good amount of wear after 2-3 years. My previous #1 which I got in 2018 needs a fret level for sure. I'm going to get stainless put on that when its time.
 
If it's on a guitar I'm going to play a lot, I definitely want SS. My Enchanted Forest Majesty is 4.5 years old, and its been played just about every single day for at least a couple hours, some weekend days as much as 8. It's starting to show just the slightest wear in various places, so I can't imagine what that wear would be if not for SS.

One time recently I thought a fret had just worn enough to begin some fret buzz, even though I could barely see any wear, but it turned out the string was about to break. I'm hoping I'll get another 4 years without any issues, and even then, I hope a re-crown will do the job. Although Idk how that would feel.
 
It’s entirely dependent upon who is playing as to how long nickel frets last. If you at a light touch with both hands you should get a long time between fret dressing. Stainless for many mean no more fretwork required but the right hand heavy can still cause pitting and gritty feeling for bending. It’s really down to the player. Don’t worry about changing tone because the tone of the exact same size fret on the same guitar in steel is less than you would expecting. Warmoth did a good video on this.
 
Quick lesson in steel metallurgy here

Fellers… Materials matter, but even the same material can have different levels of hardness, depending on how it was amalgamated, how it was made and how it was heat treated.


The same piece of steel to be soft as butter or be wicked hard, I can start with a piece of annealed 1095 plain high carbon steel and it can be <40 Rockwell C hardness; or I can heat it to 1500° Fahrenheit, quench it and heat treat it and get 64 RC.

There are many many varieties of stainless as well… I don’t know if these guys use 304 or 316 or who knows? I guess someone could go look it up.
(Maybe not even in the 300 series…)

Usually the things that create stainless, besides iron and carbon, include things like nickel, chromium, and other alloying agents. These things add corrosion resistance, as well as other attributes.

While my every day kitchen knives are stainless (dishwasher safe), there’s nothing like using plain carbon steel in the kitchen. Much nicer edge (finer carbide grains on the edge)

I have a PRS P24 with whatever they put on their artist series… And I also have a custom S type with stainless. The PRS wears out quickly.


But what matters is hardness.
 
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James Freeman said:
Is it something you consider when buying a new guitar?
How important is it to you?

My trusty Edwards LP (10+ years old) started to develop some fret wear, I don't feel it when I play and there is no fret buzz or anything.

View attachment 9918

I've seen an interview with Brian May that his original red guitar the his father built him still has the original frets.
Probably flat as a pancake after 50 years of playing?

Maybe fret wear is not so bad?
I've heard Joe Bonamassa likes the fret a little worn too.
Click to expand...

I’m jealous, the amount of wear you put in that in 10 years is what I do to a guitar in 8-12 months… my wear pattern will be wider than that, but I’m not kind to frets. I really need to try stainless on a refret, just nervous about it.

D
 
I’m hard on frets and it drives me crazy. I have to play a lot of quiet clean single note lines and the change in timbre or any buzz annoys me so much.

My only problem with SS frets is that it just moves the problem. The frets last longer, but they chew through strings faster. A refret is more expensive than strings, but breaking more strings is a bigger problem to me than frets getting a little worn.

Here is my LP that just turned 3. I’m already starting to think about a refret

IMG_2809.jpeg
 
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