Stainless steel frets

[stratpurist]

I am pretty hard on frets and am considering trying stainless on my favorite strat. I reached out to a guy I trust to do a fret job and he quoted $330.
A vendor on ebay sells unfinished strat necks with SS frets for $119 - allegedly fully leveled, crowned and polished. Definitely considering rolling the dice on ebay.
Thoughts?

[antares]

I have St-St frets on two self assembled Leo-types, one S-type and one T-type. I like them (the frets) but opinions vary. In another life, I was a sheet metal worker and I disliked working with St-St. I had to send off a pair of "Gilbow" tin snips to have them reground after one episode, and HSS twist drills soon lost their cutting edge on St-St. Of course there are many grades of Stainless Steel. Both of my necks came ex-works from Warmoth. The S-type had to be reprofiled and crowned at my cost and I didn't tell the guy they were stainless- naughty me. Given the high cost of skilled labour these days, I'm not surprised at the quote you received, maybe loaded to reflect stainless-steel? Despite my experience with the S-type Warmoth neck, I trust Warmoth and the fault was mine for specifying an inappropriate fret profile. If an eBay seller reckons that those necks are fully set up and ready to rock without ever having even had so much as a sniff around your proposed body, I would seriously question the quality of the neck or the seller's definition of ready to go, or both. Maybe it's worth a punt to find out, but such an approach usually winds up as money that could have been put to better use towards a better purchase right from the get go. Thinking of that quote you received, what would a Warmoth or American Guitar Parts neck cost these days? Or a commissioned neck from an esteemed luthier perhaps ... no names, no pack drill!

[dnic]

Putting my cards on the table, I'm not a fan of SS frets. Couple reasons, I don't like working with them. I've had the same fretting tools for over 20 years and and never a nick or chip. But one SS fret job and they took a beating. I'm thinking mainly of my end cutters here. But tang nippers and files would show wear quickly. As the guy who's fairly adamant about wood and finish not making a lot of dif tonally. I hear a steely brightness from SS. I'm also the guy that says, you hear what you expect to hear. Maybe since I don't like working SS frets I hear bad things things out of them. I do hold myself to the same standard I old others. I do like the EVO gold a lot. And they are a lot harder and wear a lot longer than nickel silver frets. Unfortunately Jescar has stopped making them. I still have half a roll, thankfully. I have used the Cryowire from StewMac and it's very tough as well. I have no idea how it holds up in the real world.

I charge 250 for a refret and that includes a set up. It doesn't make sense because I have built necks for 350. But Warmoth has stock necks at 300 to 350. But the necks I've built were for a good long time friend and long time client. They did also happen to be conversion necks.

I don't have a lot of experience with online necks. I've purchased one neck. It was very cheap and the carve had to be redone the one the frets leveled. But that doesn't mean the Bay seller has a bad product. The only way to know for sure is to pull the trigger. Then it's either a lesson learned or a valuable resource.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Mar 4, 2024 11:44:31 GMT -6 stratpurist said:

I am pretty hard on frets and am considering trying stainless on my favorite strat. I reached out to a guy I trust to do a fret job and he quoted $330.
A vendor on ebay sells unfinished strat necks with SS frets for $119 - allegedly fully leveled, crowned and polished. Definitely considering rolling the dice on ebay.
Thoughts?

In my part of the world a S-S refret would cost you at least that much. I think around here we always factor in the damage to our tools when we do those frets! I shy away from those refrets just because they are really labor intensive and always take more time than a traditional refret.

That being said, I like the feel of the Music Man necks with the stainless steel frets. I think Music Man has about the best fret work of any big guitar company.

The $119 neck is intriguing. Might be work the money just to see what it is like. I bought an S-style neck on ebay last summer for $120, and, after a little work, turned out to be a pretty good neck.

There are some good finds on there. Make sure they have a return policy lol.

Good Luck,
John