Black Frets Anyone?

[thirdstone]

Does anyone know if black frets are available??

[soapbarstrat]

If anyone was making them, I doubt they'd be keeping so quiet about it.

It's a lost cause. If you're crazy enough, make friends with someone into that alchemy stuff. Supposedly they can make some brass-ish alloy that's purple colored, but you'd still have a hell of a road ahead to turn any workable metal into fret-wire.

Forget it. Lock yourself in a black painted room with no light, for maybe a week, so you hate anything black.

[thirdstone]

I found this Bassplayer which hints at it being available.

[soapbarstrat]

Hehe. I see what you mean, but I think they mistakenly put the color options from some other piece of hardware on that page. I'm always happy to be proven wrong though, so if there's black fret-wire and you find it, I'd certainly want to know about it. Good luck.

[SwedishLuthier]

I would also like to know if there was actually black frets availible. To my knowledge there is no alloy that come close to black without any coating. The closest thing might be the greyish black that you find in plutonium

[Setch]

Seen the question at least half a dozen times, and it's never resulted in a supplier being identified. Me thinks that speaks volumes...

[Mike Sulzer]

The question has come up on other forums and no one has even had any ideas that would stand up to discussion, not to say actually work.

Seen the question at least half a dozen times, and it's never resulted in a supplier being identified. Me thinks that speaks volumes...

[Ben]

The question has come up on other forums and no one has even had any ideas that would stand up to discussion, not to say actually work.

Seen the question at least half a dozen times, and it's never resulted in a supplier being identified. Me thinks that speaks volumes...

Not that I'm suggesting it would be easy or cheap, or even definitely possible, but one thing that comes to mind is this jet stone they have near whitby near(ish) where I live... Its black (hence the phrase 'jet black') and hard, and if people can shape it into intricate ornate jewelry, why not something fret-shaped?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_%28lignite%29

Just an idea

[Mr. Preston Swift]

sorry for being late to the thread but i do remember back in a thread a couple months ago there was a link to a classical/acoustic guitar builder that used "black composite" frets. He claimed that they were quieter than steel frets and were better for recording, i think he said they were stronger than regular wire.

I'll have to find it, but it's defiantly there.

[soapbarstrat]

for nylon strings, maybe

[SwedishLuthier]

Richard Schneider used black Delrin frets on some of his classical (nylon stringed) guitars, and that is probably what his guy uses too. The Delrin frets are supposed to have a lot less fret noise when sliding your fingers along the strings. Never tried a guitar with Delring frets myself. Pretty sure that they are way to soft to use for steel strings.

[cole]

Use gun blueing solution. It comes in either a pen or a brush on form. You'll find it in you local Hunting store. Its what they use to make gun barrels black. It works great, but I'm not sure of the effects of constant abuse of direct contact. I assume that it will wear away on the fret where the fret wares down but its easy to reapply so I figure thats your best option.

[soapbarstrat]

Nothing looks worse than something black with silver wearing through. Reminds me of the VW I had in my late teens. It was all the rage to de-chrome them and replace all the chrome with back. So stupid me, I buy some black satin spray paint and paint the chrome latch handle on the back of the car. You can imagine how lousy that looked after a short while.

[cole]

well the black can be replaced faster than it can be worn off. It takes a matter of seconds. I say try it out on some scrap fretwire and see how it holds up to some steelwool and other stuff. worth a try

[soapbarstrat]

"Blacken-It blackens brass, steel, nickel-silver, copper and most metals except aluminum and stainless steel. Will not chip or peel, conducts electricity and is fuel proof. 4 fl. oz."

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?M...ct&ID=60864

Time will only tell if the little Death Metal elves will dance with joy.

[thirdstone]

Okay thanks for the input but it looks like there is nothing out there. That makes it a marketable idea. What about anodising the fret wire black. Is that possible?

[j. pierce]

Anodizing is generally done on aluminum, although I've heard about doing it on Titanium and zinc as well, but I don't know if you can do it on the metals generally used for frets. On ferric metals, the oxide layer would just flake off, I'd imagine. And while the anodized layer may hold up to the strings, I'd imagine you'd take most of it off (as well as the dye that colours it) the first time you did a fret level.