What's All This Buzz About Frets - Part III

Tag : fret wire
Friday, 11 July 2008 By Paul Schwartz - GJD Contributor/Peekamoose Custom Guitars NYC
Who's Got The Chops? And why do you care? It's important to do afret leveling which delivers a sympathetic alignment across thevariations of four seasons and several years. This points back tothe concept of an 18 to 36 month arc for most necks. Let's say froma practical point of view starting from virtually perfect frets,that most necks under five years old will need some corrective fretdressing every two or three years regardless of the actual wear inthe frets. Board compression alone can completely change how aninstrument sounds and feels. Older necks can often go longer, butthis is also tied to how low someone wants their action, what gaugestrings, how imperative it is their intonation is as close toperfect as possible, etc.

So how much discrepancy is too much? Generically speakingdiscrepancy of .003" to .005" from fret to fret willaffect: tone, sustain, and intonation. But that being said most ofthe fretwork in circulation is nowhere close to that level ofprecision and most players these days tend to favor heavier stringsand higher action in the name of tone. So most shops and buildersget off easy. There are a handful of luthiers that can hit the markof +-.003 when they take the time. That's an error margin of.006". The part of this that is rough on luthiers is theamount of time it takes to deliver that type of accuracy is severalhours. That is assuming the person doing the work has the chops toexecute at that level. Sadly there is no way to accurately bill forthat type of work. So most people bill fretwork at a flat ratebased of parameters of construction materials and hardware.

The Stainless fetish....At the moment many players are hot forstainless. EVO is an alternate similarly hard material for fretwire. It's gold, you'll see it on the Les Paul Supreme. Bothmaterials are dramatically harder than 18% nickel. But regardlessof the hardness of fretwire, fret alignment will change due toboard compression. So with that in mind you have to take intoaccount that every person doing instrument repairs who is not acomplete masochist charges more to work with the harder wires. It'scrazy not to. Stainless and EVO are harder on tools and take longerto manipulate. Let's say for the sake of averages, in cities wherethere is a high concentration of musicians and the cost of runninga shop is not cheap, we generally see prices for Stainless or EVOfret dressing being $100 to $150 higher than working on 18% nickel,and re-frets running $150 to $200 higher. So is there an upside?

Here's my take on it. If you are the type of player who puts hugedents in 18% nickel wire over a period of six to twelve months,paying the extra money for work and materials to have harder wiremight make sense. Because with harder wire you will then be doing afret dress every two to three years like everyone else. Or,possibly go longer if you have higher action, heavier strings,things that would make minor fret alignment errors less obvious.But if you think using stainless or EVO will remove the need forregular fret care because it will take a long time before you putdents in the frets....That assumption is not accurate unless youalready play with heavier strings and reasonably high action. Ifyou are playing with action of 3/64 at the 12th fret and 9-42 or9-46....You are going to know as soon as those frets drift a hairoff line.

Why are there exceptions? Or how about.... Why is it you've beenplaying your guitar for years, the frets are kinda beat up but itdoesn't seem to buzz? Most players have learned to accommodate theshortcomings of their instruments. We all do subtle almostunconscious things to exert control over how an instrument sounds.And there are players who favor high action. As a result they cango longer because the strings will have greater clearance over thefrets, which in turn hides the smaller discrepancies. Somemusicians do not immediately recognize subtle changes inplayability. I've found that is often true with owners who havealways played instruments that required more muscle to control.However, in most cases, once exposed to instruments, which are moresupple and responsive to subtle changes in grip and attack, aperson's awareness becomes more sensitive. Recognizing the physicalmanifestations of subtle changes in how an instrument feels andperforms gradually increases over time.