Best Replacement Fretwire for a Strat

funny_polymath

funny_polymath

Fractal Fanatic
So, I am having my Strat refretted. I was happy with the stock frets - not sure what they are, probably not super jumbo, but certainly not tiny, like the old Gibson frets from the 50's.

Anyway: advice on fretwire? I hear steel is good. i hear it's bad. I have no idea. I'd like something that maintains the chime and the general somewhat beefy fret feel, but not so big that I feel like I'm playing a scalloped neck, going sharp when I dig in.

Any advice, including wire dimension #'s or part #'s would be most appreciated. I haven't had a guitar refretted in a decade, and I've only owned a strat for a little over a year (it's being refretted because they took off too much material on a Plek job).
 
6105 (Dunlop guage sizing) is the standard 'medium jumbo' fret on modern strats - 6100 is the biggest fattest tallest jumbo - think Ibanez

Consider going Stainless steel - they don't wear and are really slippy smooth to bend on. Some might tell you they change the tone .... I've refretted 2 guitars with SS .... there's no perceptible tone change at all.
 
maxdown said:
6105 (Dunlop guage sizing) is the standard 'medium jumbo' fret on modern strats - 6100 is the biggest fattest tallest jumbo - think Ibanez

Consider going Stainless steel - they don't wear and are really slippy smooth to bend on. Some might tell you they change the tone .... I've refretted 2 guitars with SS .... there's no perceptible tone change at all.
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According to the Warmoth website, it's 6150, not 6105, which is used on Modern Fender American necks. 6130 is "medium jumbo." Most popular, however, is 6105, "narrow and tall."
Warmoth Custom Guitar Parts - Fret Size
 
oops - sorry got my 5 and zero wrong way round .... apologies

However, if you're an intonation fanatic the narrow and tall option of the 6105 might be good as they'll have narrower crowns
 
What-ever Suhr Medium[SS] are, play great... Slicky fast and bends are easier imho..My steinberger has SS also ..love em!
 
If you don't do SS, Dunlop is the best wire to go with, (IMO, based on many, many refrets). Too bad they don't do SS. They ought to.
 
Fret height is a very personal thing. I can't make any recommendations that wouldn't be trumped by your own fingers. If you're happy with the height of your current frets, or if you think they should be just a hair higher or lower, have them measured. Then you'll know exactly what height to get.

I've never heard any negative comments about the feel or tone of stainless steel frets. The only real downside is that it's a more expensive and time-consuming job.

Stainless steel frets will take decades to wear out. However, contrary to popular opinion, they do not guaranty that you'll never need a fret job. if your neck shifts over time—and most of them do during the first 10-20 years of a guitar's life—you'll need fretwork even if your frets are good as new.
 
Here's what USA Custom Guitars says re stainless steel:

A note from Tommy about stainless steel frets (in case you were wondering)...

"Quite honestly they look great and they wear great, but I am a little old fashioned and think they will affect the overall tone of the instrument in a bright way - kind of like a big truss rod. Some things are just magical and shouldn't be messed with. We really feel they would change the tone of the parts we so carefully make for you - we have formulas that we know work well for parts. Sometimes it's scary to mess with a good formula."
 
SarasotaSwing said:
Here's what USA Custom Guitars says re stainless steel:

A note from Tommy about stainless steel frets (in case you were wondering)...

"Quite honestly they look great and they wear great, but I am a little old fashioned and think they will affect the overall tone of the instrument in a bright way - kind of like a big truss rod. Some things are just magical and shouldn't be messed with. We really feel they would change the tone of the parts we so carefully make for you - we have formulas that we know work well for parts. Sometimes it's scary to mess with a good formula."
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They must use a spectrum analyzer to measure the difference, I could never hear it and have owned a few SS fret guitars.
 
SarasotaSwing said:
Here's what USA Custom Guitars says re stainless steel:

A note from Tommy about stainless steel frets (in case you were wondering)...

"Quite honestly they look great and they wear great, but I am a little old fashioned and think they will affect the overall tone of the instrument in a bright way - kind of like a big truss rod. Some things are just magical and shouldn't be messed with. We really feel they would change the tone of the parts we so carefully make for you - we have formulas that we know work well for parts. Sometimes it's scary to mess with a good formula."
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If that's his mentality, he would probably also consider the Axe-Fx rather scary and un-magical.

Everyone has their personal taste and preference, and that's cool, but it's hardly a constructive or compelling argument.
 
Sixstring said:
They must use a spectrum analyzer to measure the difference, I could never hear it and have owned a few SS fret guitars.
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I have to agree. I've had two of my guitars converted to stainless steel. Once or twice, I thought maybe I was hearing a little more definition after the conversion. More often, I didn't think I heard a difference at all. I finally realized that if I wasn't sure I was hearing a difference, then it truly didn't matter.

Notice that the USA Custom guy said he thinks SS frets will affect the tone, because he's old-fashioned. That strongly suggests that he hasn't tried them to find out.

USACustom said:
Some things are just magical and shouldn't be messed with.
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If all luthiers thought that way, we'd all be playing lutes. :)
 
On the subject of SS frets I have just been looking at a few workshop tours and interviews of top makers and luthiers recently.

When asked about tone being affected by SS frets the consensus was its BS and a myth spread by some because it blunts tools and machinery quicker. So if you want SS get it.
 
I have three guitars with SS frets: one was built with 'em, the other two I had refretted (and Pleked). Curiously enough, the one that sounds "plinky" is the one that was built with SS and even that's not noticeable with plugged in. The two refretted guitars sound indistinguishable from the way they were with the original frets.

As for fret size, if you like the OEM fret size, get new frets that are close and you'll be fine. I suspect that part of the perception of tone change with SS frets might be a result of a radical change in fret size.
 
As and when any of my guitars with nickel frets wear out or necks warp or whatever ... the refrets will be SS for sure.

First guitar I refretted with SS was a MM Family Reserve Luke 2 ..... I didn't really like the stock low profile vintage fender type frets but liked the guitar too much to just sell it again so took a deep breath and got larger SS ones on it. Plays and sounds brilliantly (not literally I hasten to add)

Interestingly, I had been asking a few questions on the Ernie Ball forum if anyone else had SS'd their Luke - got all sorts of well ... frankly crap about how SS frets will flat spot your nickle based strings ..... change your tone .... cause small countries to disappear. Their own CEO was against them and was gloating on the forum about how many more sets of strings he'd be selling because of them - yet when someone mentioned that they could always use the ss versions of his strings to negate the wear there was a strange silence from him :) Even more mysteriously I noticed the next gen of MM JP (JP9 I think it was then?) guitars happened to come with SS frets.

There's nothing wrong having nickel frets - but there's also nothing wrong with SS frets - they don't eat strings and they don't change tone - and as for the comments about how strings 'bloom' better on nickel ...... bah.

SS frets will however amaze you when you bend strings over them ..... makes nickel based frets feel almost like cheese graters.
 
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