Fret Preferences

[Mr. Jelly]

What's you opinion about guitar frets? Do you like fat frets or skinny frets? Do fat frets play or sound different than skinny frets? I've had bar frets and there was not sliding over them. At least for me. Stainless frets sound brighter to my ear. Would you commission a fret change to brighten up a good guitar that's a little dull sounding? Just asking …….

[fazool]

teeny tiny, narrow, low "barely there" frets....aka "fast frets" in the electric world.

Standard size acoustic frets like you'd find on a standard Martin BUT absolutely and definitely in Jescar EVO gold. They are amazing!

[jaymarsch]

The two guitars that I have owned the longest have average nickel frets and they have been fine. Recently I took delivery of a custom that has Gold Evo frets that feel a tad larger and rounder and I really like them a lot. The difference isn't huge but definitely noticeable at first. Now that I have been playing the guitars back and forth over the last several months, I no longer feel any difference. I am not an electric player so maybe I would feel differently if I was switching between those fret specs.

Best,
Jayne

[Rudy4]

On anything that I have a choice about, including anything I might build, it's going to be standard size EVO.

[PTL]

Taller than normal frets. Better feel for me.

[JayBee1404]

For the past fifty-odd years I’ve just played guitars with whatever frets are on them. If I had a guitar refretted, it got the same frets. Never even given it a thought.

[Wellington]

Small/low frets, unfortunately my Yamaha seems to have medium or jumbo or something, I like them low. Oh well.

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by PTL

Taller than normal frets. Better feel for me.

You'd like Eastman if you haven't tried any. My E20OM-TC has really tall frets compared to my Martins.

[rmoretti49]

Originally Posted by UncleJesse

You'd like Eastman if you haven't tried any. My E20OM-TC has really tall frets compared to my Martins.

My Eastman E20om also has really tall frets compared to any of my other guitars.

[Wild Bill Jones]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Standard size acoustic frets like you'd find on a standard Martin BUT absolutely and definitely in Jescar EVO gold. They are amazing!

Right you are. I have EVO Gold on three of my guitars. They seem to never wear, sound just like nickel/ silver to me. I prefer frets a little high as opposed to a little low. I find slightly higher frets easier to play.

[YamahaGuy]

I prefer little/low frets on my acoustics and medium frets on my electrics.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

What's you opinion about guitar frets? Do you like fat frets or skinny frets? Do fat frets play or sound different than skinny frets? I've had bar frets and there was not sliding over them. At least for me. Stainless frets sound brighter to my ear. Would you commission a fret change to brighten up a good guitar that's a little dull sounding? Just asking …….

To answer your last question first, no, I wouldn't get the frets swapped out in order to "brighten up a good guitar that's a little dull sounding." That would be a very expensive experiment to undertake, particularly since it's not easily or inexpensively reversed if you find you don't like the effect.

I have heard stainless steel frets that seemed to add some treble response to the guitars they've been put on, but I've heard other guitars where there was no noticeable difference in the sound. That's what I mean about it being a very expensive experiment, because there does seem to be some variation in how different guitars respond to that one change.

Now, if the frets are about worn out and need to be replaced anyway, then that might be an experiment you'd want to try. But don't do it on a whim or out of simple curiosity.

As for my own preferences when it comes to fretwire shapes and sizes, the medium gauge nickel-silver frets that come stock on most guitars seem to work fine for me. For a while up here in Anchorage there was a guitar repairman working at the leading music store in town, and he was a big fan of putting bass guitar fretwire on standard 6 string guitars and even on mandolins, claiming that the increased mass of the larger fretwire increased the treble response and sustain of the instruments it was used on.

Maybe it did, but that same guy was tricking out all of these instruments with fossilized ivory nuts, saddles and bridge pins, as well as carving the braces and removing the "popsicle brace" on guitars. He also replaced the wooden mandolin saddle on the adjustable mandolin bridges with one hand-carved from fossil ivory.

So with all of those other modifications at the same time, it was impossible to pick out exactly what that massive fretwire was doing to the sound.

I knew that I hated playing those instruments he'd modified, though. On guitars the bass guitar fretwire made the fretboard feel like a railroad track, and on mandolin it was worse. Added to that was that as soon as those instruments got some fret wear, the intonation went bad faster than when the standard fretwire is used - with a larger area for the string to lay upon when it's fretted, it only takes a little bit of wear to hurt the intonation.

So I'm a bit hesitant to ever change fretwire in hopes of creating a tonal change. I do have one guitar with gold EVO fretwire, and like it a lot. The next time I need to get a guitar refretted I might have it done with the EVO wire. But it's not a priority for me, and not something I'd do to try to change the sound.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[The Bard Rocks]

For me Evo is best. Looks best (by far) for most guitars, wears imperceptibly, feels good and sounds good. I have never been a fan of railroad tie frets, so medium to lowish seems best for me, though I have this nagging feeling i should play a couple guitars with the larger frets and see if i still have a good reason to reject them.

[Vtckf]

Evo 43080 you will love them. They do not wear and feel more solid than nickel