Got tired of SS frets, am I alone?

I've refretted three of my guitars with stainless steel frets and didn't notice much of a difference, at least anything that couldn't easily be fixed with slight EQ adjustment.

 

So this thing with SS that some people hear and some don’t. I wonder if it depends on how low your action is.

I run my action very low. Like just over 1mm over the last fret and a nearly straight neck. The strings inherently are rattling like crazy over the frets.

I swear I hear a rasp with SS frets, but maybe if I raised my action the sound would go away if the strings aren’t rattling so strongly against the frets.

Doesn’t seem like a crazy theory (different pick material sounds different), but I don’t want to jack up the setup on my guitars to test it out.

 

I run my action between 1mm and 2mm, and again, on the exact same guitars, while I feel there is a slightly different tone, it's so subtle that once you start adding the gain it disappears. I haven't felt the need to modify presets or replace pickups and I have a whole box full of spares.

 

Yeah, whatever I think I hear, it’s subtle and doesn’t really bother me. I do think it’s there, but I’m hardly nit picky over it. I don’t even change my amp settings when I plug in drastically different guitars.

I used to be crazy over trying to dial in a tone just ever so right, and maybe then it would have bugged me? But now I just get close enough and go.

 

I heard absolutely no difference when I got my first SS fret guitar and I set up for very low action too.. The super smooth bending and not having to constantly polish or dress frets overrides any slight tone difference. IF you do hear something why not turn treble and presence down a bit to compensate? Do you also play at low volumes to where you hear the plinky, plink of the guitar over the sound coming from the speakers?

 

I don't know how you can attribute those characteristics to any one element of a given guitar, unless it's been refretted. IMO, the modern pups and longer scale are the more likely cause. I've only had one guitar refretted with stainless, and heard no difference at all in tone.

 

Can't say I notice a tonal difference but they do feel different and as has been mentioned, are substantially more work. Since I do all my own fretwork, I'm kinda 50/50 on using them on my own stuff because I don't wear down nickel frets much at all anyway.

 

maybe a different set of strings? different material. I think its more in your head, like because you are aware of it. If you did a blindfold test, you wouldnt be able to pick which guitar has SS frets by sound alone

 

I don't hear any difference between them, and I'm not sure I can even feel a difference. And since my nickel fretted guitar from high school took 10 years of heavy playing before it needed a refret, I'm not sure I would even get SS frets, if there's an upcharge. There may well be a tone difference, but there are so many things that people say affect guitar tone, I don't even bother. I just get good pickups and adjust the EQ at the amp and play.

 

I've refretted 2 guitars I know inside out with stainless steel frets, there was zero tonal change except for the reduction of fret buzz from them being more level.

What's the specs of your guitar? Did you have it refretted? I can guarantee it's the woods, scale length and pickups. All those can contribute massively to the high end, especially modern pickups with mid spikes and trebly attack. Moving to Alnico V pickups solved that for me.

 

Yes, I'm with you. That's the reason I sold my Carvin mainly... I DON'T like SS frets. There is that weird "trebblish" thing going on... just resonates different the attack BUT consider that most of the people likes that instant fast and super bright attack so for most of the people that is something desirable... for me it is not, specially with modern pickups that are very focused in having tighter bass and faster attack... is just a plus-plus situation where it goes over the top for my taste.

 

It's psychoacoustics, if you ask me.

Not that anybody did...but this is the internet, so there it is.

 

this is the best nickel vs SS frets comparo ever.



Same guitar body, both necks build from the same wood blank and same specs to reduce variables

 

Yep, YouTube's compression kills it a lot but there it is, a difference big enough to make you believe LOL

 

Man my finger sweat is so caustic I'll take stainless over nickel every day. Same reason I have to use coated strings.

I absolutely hate working with it though. So hard to cut.

 

Interesting.

Neck 2 sounded brighter and more "zingy" for clip 1, but noticeably duller for clip 3

Though, just to point out, he played the segments differently a couple times, presumably by accident. For the second clip, he picked every note, but for neck number 2 he used his fingers for some notes.

 

Devil's advocate - isn't that a common criticism of ALL Carvins, that they tend to be on the bright side, regardless of fret material?

I own a couple guitars with stainless frets, and a couple with nickel steel, and I can't say I've noticed any consistent tonal trend between the two groups. They DO feel different, though, and while it takes me a long time to wear down a nickel steel fret (I just got my Strat refretted, which I've owned since November 1998, and even then I probably could have just had them crowned but I wanted larger fretwire), I do like the smoother feel of stainless and the fact it doesn't oxidize and get sticky if you let a guitar sit for a while. I'd have done stainless on my Strat, but my shop doesn't do stainless...

 

Not to nitpick... I mean, you're right but I don't think the way people hear things in general is with regard to how accurate one playthrough is vs another when listening for tonal variations. So yeah, I noticed him playing some things differently but I'm able to hear the difference in the attack and the degree the EQ falls off after the initial hit consistently enough, despite variations in HOW he plays a line not just from neck to neck but even from strum to strum in the same clip.

We can go down the path to where we have a robot playing the guitar for the sake of consistency but the hallmarks you're looking for to find relevant differences seem to be apparent enough and in a way that's seemingly unaffected by how it's played.