There is much debate on the internet about this subject, sometimes heated, sometimes (mostly) very ill-informed, so I thought I would I share my thoughts and experiences with electric guitars.
So, Nickel frets, nothing wrong with them. Had them on all my guitars for years and years. Reliable, cheap, good quality, sound great, never had an issue. Can’t go wrong with them!
Until I got my first guitar with stainless steel fret guitar, I didn’t know I could get any better.
It almost took me a while to realise that my first stainless steel fret guitar, had stainless frets.
The most immediate thing I could tell was just how smooth they are, bending is just that little but more effortless and when polished up they look so good, I mean really good!
The trouble with Nickel is while you can polish them up, they oxidise so fast and can look so murky so quickly, if you like smooth shiny frets they can be a pain to maintain.
The bit most people care about, Tone…
Well, I can’t notice the difference! People say they are brighter, but I wonder, is that because you just had clean frets with fresh strings installed? They always will sound brighter. I’ve always had a keen ear for changes no matter how subtle and I just can tell.
I’ve re fretted nearly all my guitars with stainless frets and acoustically and through a high gain amp, they just sound the same.
The difference being, for me they play much better, smooth easier and the shiny look I love is just maintained all the time.
So, what are the downsides?
Well as with all thing’s guitar its personal preference, for me any differences are negligible and don’t affect the tones I have become accustomed to hearing.
To be honest the downsides are only really for the luthier who installs them, you can believe they hype there, damn they are hard work on the wrists when cutting them, especially when using tang nippers on a board with binding!
But other than it being tougher on the tools and the hands for the tech, the benefits are all there for the user. Slicker frets, much stronger and hard waring, slightly more installation cost but will need minimal fret levelling in future over nickel, can’t see any downsides here.
