Steel Vs Brass Vs Nickel / Silver Frets

[Xaromir]

I come to you once again with a pretty general question,

and i wish there would be a forum for electric AND acoustic guitars,

since i think that's interesting for both, but how ever, here we go:

What frets shall i use?

I've heard that brass damages the strings more.

Is that true? What strings nylon/gut or only steel strings?

But i think someone said they last quite a bit longer than steel frets,

which would have me sold on them to be honest.

I know nothing about those nickel-silver frets, i came across those just recently,

can someone tell me something about those?

[WezV]

for your acoustic project - go with nickel silver. Brass maybe slightly more traditionaly but nickel silver works great on acoustics of all types.... stainless wouldnt work for me, especially on a small bodies acoustic

general thoughts -

18% nickel silver is pretty much industry standard for all things. brass is not used much at all anymore. its fine for softer nylon strings but doesnt work great on modern steel-strung acoustics or electrics. Stainless steel is the way forward for electrics... maybe. It would eat through nylon strings in seconds but does work great on electrics. the tone is different and for me would not suit a small bodied acoustic which can be a bit top heavy anyway

[Xaromir]

Awesome piece of advice!

Thanks a lot for that.

I'm badly informed.

Originally it had square brass frets.

But since i'm changing it anyway silver nickle it will be.

Can't say much about the sound of the guitar so far,

i can't tune higher than to a low e or the bridge is learning to walk.

But if you are interested, here is the first tone out of this guitar after a very long time:

http://www.divshare.com/download/11243918-008

The bridge was held in place by one lonely pin, no saddle,

nut was only loosely popped in, so it's not great,

but i think there is potential.

Can't wait till i'm done with it!

[WezV]

do we only get one note?

its a large parlour guitar. they generally are built for a kind of classically lead kind of sound. parlor guitars lack bass but do have a nice amount of clarity.... best examples of parlour guitar in modern music is crowded house, and your guitar has that tone - which can never be described as large (i.e. bassy). but its a nice parlour sound which could work well

[Xaromir]

Sadly yes.

I don't have a fretboard on it so far, and i can't put to much tension on there, or everything just goes flying,

because the bridge isn't fixed to the guitar at the moment.

But the more i try those old parlors, the more i'm surprised.

They got a very "unusual" sound indeed, many sound quite nice, loads of nice shimmering mids on most i've tried,

sometimes even a bit like lutes.

Most sounded quite nice, and i really wonder where that is coming from.

Nobody would build guitars that crude anymore, the bracing on some of those is quite edgy, barely scalloped.

You can get a good one for 300 - 500€, but some of them beat most mass-produced stuff twice as expansive in stores these days.

I guess the wood is just very well aged.

Maybe it's just the 90% more love. <3

[chops1983]

Wes, whats the benefit of stainless steel over nickel silver for electrics? Sorry to hijack, but atleast the question is still about frets

[Woodenspoke]

Wes, whats the benefit of stainless steel over nickel silver for electrics? Sorry to hijack, but atleast the question is still about frets

The difference with any fret material is hardness. Gold evo or stainless is a harder material and will wear slower than nickle silver. Not sure about brass but I will assume its softer than nickel silver. But brass comes in many flavors as does stainless steel. You will not find frets made out of the hardest stainless because it has to be shaped by machine. Honestly I have never seen any machines making fret wire. My assumption is it is drawn into a die using pressure.