The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #114100   Message #2432808
Posted By: DADGBE
06-Sep-08 - 04:24 PM
Thread Name: Stainless steel frets on acoustic guitar
Subject: RE: Stainless steel frets on acoustic guitar
Be careful about installing taller fret material. I recent installed tall frets for a player who insisted on having them against my recommendation. Now he can't play in tune because he has to carefully control the amount of left hand finger pressure. Any extra squeeze and his instrument goes way sharp.

As for stainless steel frets – they're fine once they're installed right but require that the luthier learn a whole new installation technique. Hammering frets into the fingerboard and leveling them later doesn't work well with stainless. They have to be hammered or pressed in close to the exact height needed since it's almost impossible to level them later.