Will steel strings mess up my FB?
 

I was on a quest to find the perfect strings for my Mustang, and found D'addario ProSteels: the answer to my prayers.

Today I was talking to a guitarist and he told me that steel strings will wear down my frets faster and mar up my fretboard. Any truth to this?

Yes this is true, however it's not something that's gonna happen overnight. It'll be years until there will be any significant wear. Play what feels right to you!

+1 on what Chico16 says, Oh and never listen to a guitar player. :)

True but some brands more than others. Anyway it will take several years so do not worry too much about it.

Another +1 on Chico16. It will take years to see it making a difference and even more to make playing a problem. Once you hit that point you can go to a luthier and have your frets repaired to all be even again. I believe some of the luthiers on this site have said most frets can handle 2 or 3 levelings before they need to be replaced.

Steel strings will mess up your desire to play Nickel strings :D

If your not being real heavy handed with your fretting and dont use basses with cheap soft metal frets, is not a problem. It'll take a very long time to get any significant wear with stainless steel roundwound strings.

How would one know he has cheap soft frets on his bass, especially since most of them use the save 18% nickel silver alloy?
Frets will get worn with time. It's a part of life for things to age and it's ok. If you like the tone of steel strings use them.

it also has to do with technique, so if you do a lot of vibrato by pulling the strings horizontally against the frets it'll wear them down faster.

It's less of a problem with frets than with a fretless.

Look at it this way. Your car tires are going wear out but you still drive it. Frets fit into the same kind of this category.

On a fretted bass, the strings never touch the fingerboard unless you're using seriously bad technique. You've got nothing to worry about.

I always used dean markley 2674 blue steel cryogenic, and my basses frets are fine, I dont think you should take string advice from a guitar player either.

+1