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Stainless steel frets

#61
FunkMetalBass said:
Tone comes from the body woods, strings, electronics, cable length, pickups, bridge, tuners, fretboard wood, neck wood, number of bolts used (if a bolt-on neck), effects, amp, cabinets, humidity, wind chill, air pressure, temperature, fingers, amp power cable, fairy dust, angle at which you hold your bass, fingers, picks, thumbs, bows, and nut material. Frets are moot.

This is common knowledge.
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I have to agree. I did a full 4 hour gig recently with a fretless Jazz (I normally play a fretted Jazz) and none of the other band members noticed.

At the end of the gig, they were amazed that the sound to their ears was the same.
 
#64
I have one Warmoth neck with SS frets. I bought them because I wanted the frets to last longer, not because I believed it would have an impact on the sound. The elctronics is a music man setup, the body is ash and the neck is wenge/ziricote. It's by no means overly harsh or bright.
 
#65
chunger said:
A little off topic, but I was wondering if standard tools work for leveling and crowning SS frets. . . I like using diamond files and sandpaper to level. Obviously sandpaper will work, but will I eat through expensive files?
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Regular tools will work just fine. They just don't cut quite as fast. I've got some of the StewMac files and haven't seen the SS frets chewing them up.
 
#68
Hehe amplifiers changing your tone? Nope - it just amplifies what's put into it. Put a crappy bass into lets say a Mesa - it still sounds like crap!! Nuts don't make tones unless you always play loose strings(!) The bridge, neck and body material, frets and pups are the predominant tone creators.
 
#69
The Wenge neck on my six string has stainless steel frets. To me the SSFs have a slicker, fast playing feel, brighter tone, and more attack than standard frets. In one regard it helps brighten the warm, compressed low mids of the Wenge neck. Downside is they do seem to kill strings a lot faster, especially if you slap/pop a lot...and I do. But that aside, I have no complaints in terms of playability. I wouldn't recommend putting them on a Maple/Maple or Graphite Neck, unless of course you're after a really bright glassy tone.
 
#73
chunger said:
A little off topic, but I was wondering if standard tools work for leveling and crowning SS frets. . . I like using diamond files and sandpaper to level. Obviously sandpaper will work, but will I eat through expensive files?
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Maybe. SS can be hardened to varying degrees using a Rockwell Hardness Scale. If SS fretwire is flexible enough to conform to a radius, then it is LIKELY not hardened to the point that would damage files. HOWEVER... Diamond files lose some of their coating during use. I would try to contact the MFG. and ask about the tempering of the steel. If he goes: "Huh?", then try it on a small section first.
 
#74
Baird6869 said:
I have to agree. I did a full 4 hour gig recently with a fretless Jazz (I normally play a fretted Jazz) and none of the other band members noticed.

At the end of the gig, they were amazed that the sound to their ears was the same.
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I just spoke to friend of mine in Italy, who is a Builder of High-End Boutique basses. I asked him what he thought about the concept of frets having no effect on tone.

His answer was: "Per favore... non mi rompere i coglioni! Tu sei pazzo!

I don't know what this means... maybe on of our European TB-ers can translate? Thanks.
 
#75
Metania said:
Hehe amplifiers changing your tone? Nope - it just amplifies what's put into it. Put a crappy bass into lets say a Mesa - it still sounds like crap!! Nuts don't make tones unless you always play loose strings(!) The bridge, neck and body material, frets and pups are the predominant tone creators.
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Obviously you have never played an Ampeg. For more information see JimmyM...

And while I too have always believed that nut material affecting tone was just sales hype, I installed some graphtech nuts (for the purpose of reducing string sticking during tuning) and I SWEAR they changed the tone for the better!
 
#76
Sadowsky said:
I personally think stainless frets don't sound as good and won't use them.
Especially on guitars. I get my fretwire made with the hardest nickel-silver available.

Roger
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I have to agree with Roger on this. My experience with stainless steel frets is that because they are so hard they tend to be sort of "buzzy".

Nickle-silver is much better in fact the softer the better, because the strings (unless flats or something and even then...) seem to have just a tiny bit of "bite" into the softer fret that "anchors" them somehow giving a cleaner more defined tone.

Obviously the problem with softer frets is while playing and sounding great at first, they soon wear out which is not so cool.

Hence Roger's solution of the hardest nickel-silver which can still "anchor" the strings, but yet give a decent playing life. Stainless frets do wear well if the slight difference in feel and tone doesn't bother you.
 
#77
Metania said:
Hehe amplifiers changing your tone? Nope - it just amplifies what's put into it. Put a crappy bass into lets say a Mesa - it still sounds like crap!! Nuts don't make tones unless you always play loose strings(!) The bridge, neck and body material, frets and pups are the predominant tone creators.
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You're silly.

My amp is as central to my tone as my bass, and I consider it to be part of the instrument.
 
#79
Benjamin Strange said:
Wrong, and wrong again. The fret is the witness point for the string on the neck, therefore is translating string vibrations into the the bass. Harder materials such as stainless steel don't soak up so much of the treble frequencies, and so instruments with stainless frets have a tendency to be brighter.

I've done a few re-frets with stainless wire, and it makes a big difference to my ears and hands. They sound brighter, somewhat clankier on certain instruments, and feel slippery smooth to the touch. Bending is generally smoother, and they last a lot longer than your typical nickel-silver fretwire.
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I concur that SSFs offer a noticable change the tone and feel of a bass guitar. They have a brighter/faster speaking attack, string bending is easier, and they have a slicker/smoother feel. I suppose it could be argued you can get similar characteristics from a well-dressed set of nickel frets on a maple or ebony fretboard. But bear in mind nickel frets won't stand up to aggressive playing longterm like SSFs will. If you slap, tap, pluck really hard, or thrash with a pick you might find SSFs suit your needs quite well. However you should be prepared to do more string-changing; those hard SSFs will grind them down much faster.
 

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