SS fret wire poll

[Dave K]

Since it's been about four years since TAG has been using the SS wire, I'm curious how it's holding up for everyone.
My Cobra 10-27-02p gets the bulk of my play time, using 10s tuned standard,and I can't see any visible wear yet. If it had nickel wire, by now I would've been thru at least a few fret jobs. Love the SS wire! :)

So how are your SS fretted TAGs?

[Duotones]

I have two Andy's with SS frets. One is 11-12-03A Classic and the other is 2-4-04A Hollow Drop Top.

All of them show no evidence of fret wear. I think SS wire is really cool!

[olectric]

I have two Andys with SS and one from '97 without. I may have to send it in to fit it with some SS. In my experience, the SS is a no brainer. I can't see why anyone would be opposed to it.

[killerburst]

My Cobra 10-27-02p gets the bulk of my play time, using 10s tuned standard,and I can't see any visible wear yet. If it had nickel wire, by now I would've been thru at least a few fret jobs.

:eek: You must mean a fret dress (level, crown and polish), not re-fret, correct? In my neighborhood "fret job" means replacing the frets.

Anyway, I'm now addicted to SS frets (Thanks a lot, Tom). I don't own any non-SS fretted guitars anymore, except for the one I have on consigment somewhere. It seems everytime I buy something without SS frets, it only lasts a few weeks before I flip it. There are some nice guitars out there that I would like to own, but they'd have to come very cheap so I could justify an additional $300 investment in a SS re-fret. Otherwise I'd never play them. And I've never seen any wear on any SS frets so far.

[Dave K]

:eek: You must mean a fret dress (level, crown and polish), not re-fret, correct? In my neighborhood "fret job" means replacing the frets.


Correct. I guess it depends on the luthier? The last two guitars I re-fretted I used Dunlop 6100 and 6000,and within two months of use they both showed obvious signs of wear. I guess SS has me so spoiled I want it in all my planks.
Buying new tools and learning to work with SS has me scared off.......for now. ;)

[Jack Gretz]

I have done about 20 RE-frets and built 10 guitars with Stainless fret wire--in the past month I have received 11 more SS fret jobs to do.
It is very tough to work with but once it is done right- it is simply awesome-

My Rosewood neck Hollow cobra shows no signs of fret wear and I play it alot

[tom]

before starting on the atom trail, i played the same cobra for 2 years straight(i know, that's crazy talking). it was the firt guitar we put the stainless in, and i played it for a year before we offered it to the world. those frets still look new. we did a refret on one of nick sterling's guitars, and did see some wear a year or two down the road. that boy must have some grip!

[dannopelli]

When it is time to refret my "other" brand guitars, does TAG sell the SS fret wire they use?

[tom]

no we don't. some of the sizes we use are available from the manufacturer, but our heavies are made for us. what size are you looking for?

[Woodash]

Warmouth offers SS frets with a size and cross-section pretty similar to the TAG heavy. They're .107 x .052 with the same type of flat-top pyramid profile. Don't know if they sell the fretwire alone, though.

I'm getting ready to have someone refret a Custom Shop Fender (yes, some of us actually like CS Fenders...geez), and the guy who will do the job for me told me that the one SS fret job that he did ruined his tools. Said they were nearly done in before the job was done.

How do you all deal with that, Tom?

Steve

[tom]

warmoth shared the expense of the heavy fret tooling with us so they have it to use on necks but don't sell it separately. as to how we deal with it, you all have answered why we use it, it's just better. we have had to figure out ways to deal with the wear on tools. some we just have to replace more often, and some we have replaced with tougher tools that last longer. i noticed that suhr charges +$100 for stainless. that seems plenty to deal with it. it did take us a while to learn how to deal with it, and that is one of the reasons we don't sell the wire. if we did i'd be spending too many hours on the phone explaining how we dod what we do. i'd rather be making guitars. we have been very open with others about the technologies we have used, but this one would gobble up time i don't have to give.

[Woodash]

Interesting. Yep - I guess the SS eats tools up. But I can see that you have to build that into the cost of doing business. And I can also see why you (and presumably Warmoth) don't sell the wire.

I, myself don't really have any burning desire to get my refret done with SS, but I will say that I do like the shape of those frets alot. Tall and wide, but nice and skinny at the contact on top.

Anyway, 6105s will work for me on the CS refret and I'll enjoy the TAG heavies on my HTC.

Cheers.

[dannopelli]

no we don't. some of the sizes we use are available from the manufacturer, but our heavies are made for us. what size are you looking for?

Thanks Tom.

Actually the reason I ask is I remember a post a while back where you or maybe someone mentioned that your supplier makes a higher quality fret wire. I think someone pointed out that some SS fret wire is not much better than standard. Not sure if I am getting this correct.

Really I am probably a bit away, maybe six months or so. But I would imagine I would want medium. Would be for Gigson/PRS thingys. My Strats are still in good shape. In fact I am one of the lunatics that actually like 7.25 radius small fret Strats!

[Dave M.]

I love the SS on my Cobra S. Unfortunately, I don't play it as often as I could, but that's cuz I concentrate more on my four and five stringers. ;)

One of these days I'm sure a bass of mine will need a refret. Didn't Bruce once say he did SS refrets? :confused: :D

[tom]

bruce does refrets. i don't believe he has done any bound necks with stainless, cutting the tangs would be an all day job. the wire would break the tool tht is made to do that. and yes there are different grades of stainless wire. i received some samples from a japanese manufacyuter, and they were bragging about how there's was easier to work with and not as hard. the consistancy was no where near as good, it didn't seat nicely at all, and it was softer. what's the point?

[Jack Gretz]

Tom, I also have a person for Japan trying to sell SS wire to me-- I have used some samples on some throw away necks and have to say there is a big difference in the grade they are offering-- I am going to stick with the supplier here in the US as the wire is simply better.

[AndyT]

Both my Hollow T's have standard frets. I ordered a Warmoth neck with the stainless frets for my project Tele and had to level and dress them (one fret was a smidge high), which is unusual for Warmoth. Wow, what alot of work that was! The SS frets are very hard file and polish. I finally got them like "jewelry", but on close examination with an eye loupe I could see very small pits. I could feel them for while, but they have smoothed out.

[bruce]

Yes, I do refrets but I cannot refret any guitars with binding using the SS wire we use at the shop... it's simply too hard. As Tom stated, as of right now there is no tool availible to cut the tangs off of the hard SS wire we use. I'm not familiar with the softer grades of SS frets so I'm not sure if tangs could be cut using that soft stuff.

AndyT,

Those small pits were probably scratches left in the SS from leveling and crowning. If you don't get rid of those 100% first, it's really easy to polish over fine scratches and not notice it until you do a string bend. Use the eye louper along the way next time.

[AndyT]

Yes, I do refrets but I cannot refret any guitars with binding using the SS wire we use at the shop... it's simply too hard. As Tom stated, as of right now there is no tool availible to cut the tangs off of the hard SS wire we use. I'm not familiar with the softer grades of SS frets so I'm not sure if tangs could be cut using that soft stuff.

AndyT,

Those small pits were probably scratches left in the SS from leveling and crowning. If you don't get rid of those 100% first, it's really easy to polish over fine scratches and not notice it until you do a string bend. Use the eye louper along the way next time.

Thanks for the tips. When string bending the frets felt sticky at first. After a bit of steel wool and another polish (along with a smidge of wear) all is good now. They feel like butta!

I would say the only way to cut the tangs back would be by hand grinding them. That would be a tough job at best.

What shop do you work at? I am from LA,have family there and live near Oceanside now. Maybe I can enlist your help in the future?

[Suriel Zayas]

What shop do you work at?
when you look under bruce's profile it says, anderson elf. hmmmm. :D

[bruce]

AndyT,

I work for Tom but I also do repairs on the side from home.

[AndyT]

AndyT,

I work for Tom but I also do repairs on the side from home.

Aha, some moonlighting is going on. ;) Tom is a very cool guy obviously.

[bruce]

Aha, some moonlighting is going on. ;) Tom is a very cool guy obviously.

Uh, yeah... sometimes (actually most of the time), too cool for his own good.

[Janine Doubly]

So I take it, Bruce if I sent my "other" guitar to you for an SS re-fret you could do that? Its a Strat style 10" radius guitar.

[bruce]

Yes I can do any radii.

[Janine Doubly]

Bruce, I would like to make this happen this summer if possible. Should I just ship it to you? Ballpark cost?

[bruce]

I would highly suggest we speak first as I may be out touring this summer. You can call me at the shop or better yet email me directly at bnelson11@mac.com.

Oh, and cost is $300 for rosewood fretboards, $375 for maple.

[Janine Doubly]

Very cool! I will buzz you soon to work out timing. Looking forward to it!