 Some Rotosound Facts!
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I e-mailed Rotosound asking about their strings and fretwear. Here's what they replied,
Hello Tom,
The grade of stainless steel used for music string covers or wraps is
ferritic. It contains around 80% iron together with other alloying
elements but mainly chrome. True stainless as we know it, ie. that used
in cutlery, medical implements etc,etc.is non-magnetic and of no use for
making music strings. This `Ferritic stainless`is a hard material by
comparison to nickel plated iron or steel hence stainless steel strings
are more abrasive than their nickel plated counterparts anyway.
The tensile of the wire also affects its abrasiveness and at one time we
did use a wire with a slight tensile. This improved the tone but being
somewhat harder could reduce fret life to a point.
This was not to any great extent however which is why many musicians
would balance this out with the superb tonal response of the material
and accept that a refret a little sooner than the norm was worth it. I
would add here that had one`s instrument been fitted with high tensile
nickel silver frets then the effects would be minimal. Unfortunately,
instruments at the cheaper end of the market are often fitted with the
less costly softer frets.
However, not to dispair because after many trials we now use a soft
stainless with equally good tonal response to that used back in time
which will be much more `fret friendly`so you need have no fear of using
Swing Bass in the future.
Best regards,
John | 
