'Fret Mass' & Sustain?

[SurferJoe46]

First a C/P from another website::

This guitar had NO string to neck coupling to speak of, no ring, no vibe, no nothing. I cut the nut slots in by measure and final adjustments after shaping by feel. This guitar came alive.

The unamplified sustain was incredible, the mass of the frets made it sing in all octaves and the rollaway of the nut slots as the strings led to the tuners was perfect and allowed exellent, (sic) chiming harmonics.

Whatcha think about the mass of heavier fret wires creating better or worse sustain?

Are we also in the same arena with dead notes on the neck?

Credits to:: Photo Gallery

[walterw]

possible, but likely swamped by other factors.

[darkstorm]

No effect whatsoever. Fret size has an affect on playabiltiy and feel but its not going to affect anything else imo. I prefer jumbo frets myself, better playing fretbaord to me. Brass frets can lend a bit of metallic nastyness as can stainless steel according to some luthiers.

[SurferJoe46]

Yeah - I thought it was all voodoo logic too - but that's a guitar guy, and we bassists know that things like that don't affect the tone nor the sustain.

[Turnaround]

The fit of the frets in their slots is probably going to have a greater affect on sustain than their mass. Loose fit may cause some lack of rigidity, where compression-fit frets will help to contribute to rigidity. Rigidity aids sustain.