I am beginning to suspect that it can change the tone on some guitars, but not all. It must depend on certain factors. In my case the tone is different; I like it better, not worse. Thing is though, I only had this guitar with crappy frets to judge the before sound so I'm not sure it sounds better due to new and proper frets or due to the SS material (maybe a little of both). It is clearer. Maybe that's what people mean by brighter. The pitch isn't any different of course. Generally speaking, it sounds pretty much like the same guitar, but just with a slightly more articulate voice. It could be confirmation bias of course, but in my case I really didn't know what to expect so I'm not sure what my bias would be confirming.