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Nickel Allergy and Frets

#21
The hardware on my bass is painted black so that shouldn't be a problem. And it's not like I'm holding onto the tuners or bridge while I'm playing and sweating so I wouldn't really worry about the hardware that much even if it wasn't painted.

I've thought of coating the frets with something like nail polish but in my experience that never really helped with belt buckles or watches. It would always seem to chip off and then it's back to square one. I would only really trust it to not be a problem if is was nickel free to begin with. I could try it on my bass just to see if it helps as a temporary solution. But I feel the strings will probably just wear the polish off the frets and I don't know if I want to gunk up the frets and neck with layers of nail polish.

It's starting to look like all signs are pointing to a steel refret.
 
#24
I'll post this in the hope that it will help someone, my experience may have been a weird coincidence.

I had a similar reaction to nickel. On a bus once I touched a pole that the chrome was worn off and immediately had a rash on my hand. I went to Vegas, when they still had coins for slots, and that was hell.

For years, I used various cortizone creams to keep it at bay. A little tube every year or so maybe. Anyway once I went on vacation and forgot my cream, it was a nightmare, all I could find was a zinc oxide based diaper rash cream. I used that to keep my hands from cracking and peeling.

To make a long story shorter, my hands healed, it took a few months for 'normal skin' to reform, using the zinc oxide cream stopped at some point in there. I haven't needed anything for 10 years now.
 
#25
Rotosound has confirmed that there is no nickel in their stainless steel strings and there shouldn't be any in any other brand of string.

They said, "There is no nickel present in the stainless steel we use or any other string company for that matter. The industry grade is a Ferritic stainless comprising 80% iron, 17% chrome with the remaining elements being nothing known to cause skin reactions. Thus both our stainless steel Swingbass and British Steels sets have no nickel in them."

This is excellent news.
 
#26
Before refretting, maybe consider how much contact your fingers actually amek with the frets. i don't have my bass to hand to check, but surely the contact is with your string, which you press down onto the fret. I can't imagin much, if any, direct contact betwen fret and finger.
 
#28
bdkthunder said:
@SoVeyTired, the rash usually appears on the sides of my fingers between all my knuckles. My hand is making contact with the frets along the edge of the neck (near the G string) when holding the neck to play.
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes sense! A cheaper solution could be to look at how you hold the neck. With the thumb at the back of the neck it could be possible to play without having to touch the side of the neck. Of course, that depends on the width of the neck, the size of your hands and whether you're having to hold the neck up because of dive.
 
#29
The op pretty much covered everything I thought of. One thing I'd like to mention is German built warwicks can be found much cheaper used and some of the bigger stores will work with you on the price if they aren't selling them well. I got my warwick neck through thumb 5 new at guitar center for $2800 and I want to say they are like $4600 most places online. I've bought German warwick corvettes for as little as $600 used. You just have to shop around. I've had 4 warwicks and I would never pay full price for them because the economy is so bad the resale values are sickening.

Another option is to go with a more affordable custom bass or a parts bass. I would try to get black hardware as its painted black and provides a barrier. Its already been mentions but yeah it's very rare to get pure metals but brass fretts and tuners and bridges that have a layer of paint on them would probably help.
 
#30
@SoVeryTired, I think it would be kinda difficult to change my technique to avoid touching the frets. Another idea I thought that would be easy to try but may not work too well would be to put a line of masking tape along the side of the neck to cover the edge of the frets.

@nephilymbass, a used Warwick rather than new would definitely be the way to go for me. If I could get a decent one for $600-800, that would probably be close to the price of the refret plus the value of my current bass if I sold it. I think having a warwick would probably be considered a better trade up that having an Epi tbird with steel frets. Decisions, decisions.
 
#34
After thinking about it for a while, I decided that I don't feel like spending $400 to refret my current bass or any other regular bass I buy in the future. I want my basses to be nickel free from the start. I don't feel like buying a new or used Warwick (or any custom order bass) right now so that leaves me with going fretless!

I know I wrote it off early on but after watching a bunch more YouTube videos it has grown on me and I find the idea of getting a fretless sounds like a lot of fun. Got a new one for a decent price on eBay and now I'm just waiting for it to arrive!

Thanks everyone for all the advice given to help me reach my decision. Cheers.
 

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