The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by michmcca
    This guitar has been in my customer's hands for 4 years and 8 months:

    Attachment 63552

    I'm not sure yet what we will do about it. Stainless I suppose.
    Interesting- this appears to be wearing more like Nickel Silver frets right ?

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  3. #27

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    This is 47104-EVO fret wire direct from Jescar.

    The player also has an L5 with nickel silver frets of similar size, and they don't look like this at all. Those frets show normal wear under the strings.

    The EVO frets are corroded wherever his fingers touch them a lot, but there is not much wear under the strings. The remarkable thing is that the guitar plays and sounds great. However, I'm concerned that the current playability will not last for long if the corrosion continues unabated.

  4. #28

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    A luthier said they wear great ( EVO Gold ) even on the GJ Guitars (GJ Players are murder on frets apparently ) ..so surprised when I hear these stories sometimes- I wonder if occasionally there is a slightly odd small batch of wire ?

  5. #29

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    Just an observation and it was brought up earlier. There are only 5 points of wear. Hence the wear is happening in between the strings - not where you would expect to see wear. I am convinced that (unless this guitar sat outside its case for all the time that these frets wore down) it is something in the case fur that is causing corrosion, not wear. I am guessing that there is not a lot of gold in gold EVO frets. Pure gold is pretty durable. It would be interesting to see if these frets polish up consistently because it appears as though a plating has corroded away. If they don't polish up that would be more evidence of corrosion and not actual playing wear.

  6. #30

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    EVO gold is a an allow reportedly made up of copper, tin, iron, and titanium. There is no actual elemental gold in the wire.

  7. #31

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    Probably not a lot of titanium, either. It's pretty resistant to corrosion, as is tin. Iron and copper, OTOH, are certainly not. Tin is used to coat steel strings to prevent corrosion, and titanium is very hard and corrosion-resistant. It resists corrosion by forming an oxide film on the exposed surface, which happens almost instantaneously. Corrosion resistance is increased by the presence of iron and copper, for various reasons. I continue to be amazed at the wear patterns shown in this thread. I have no idea what process could affect such an alloy that way. It should be highly resistant to concentrated sulfuric and nitric acid. Something is going on that I don't understand.

  8. #32

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    I want to correct a statement that I made earlier: "The EVO frets are corroded wherever his fingers touch them a lot, but there is not much wear under the strings."

    I measured today, and I found fret heights from .047" down to as low as .036". The lowest areas are the fret ends on the treble side around frets 5, 6 and 7, and the spaces between strings in the same general area. The highest points (directly under the strings) in those areas are measuring around .040". So there is some significant loss of material even under the strings, just not quite as much as between or outside. To summarize, the player has lost almost 1/4 of the fret height in the areas he touches most.

  9. #33
    I'm a classical player. I have the same sort of wear pattern on my nickel-silver frets. I have a friend who plays a similar guitar made from the same luthier using the same fret material. His frets show virtually no sign of wear. Mine shows significant wear between the strings (not as much under the strings) after about 3-4 years of playing. On average I play 4 hours everyday, I have a light left hand.
    EVO Gold Frets Corroding-dsc00072-jpg

    I am quite convinced that its the composition of my perspiration. I'm fortunate though that I don't kill my strings exceptionally fast. Perhaps faster than someone without corrosive sweat but not exceedingly so.

    I was considering an EVO gold refret (at the same time I would also like to try taller frets) but after seeing this thread. I am having second thoughts. I have not heard of people using stainless steel frets on nylon string guitars and I am concerned about 2 things:
    1. SS frets may chew into the strings quicker.
    2. SS frets may sound significantly brighter. (I have watched comparison videos of SS vs Nickel frets on electric guitars and if there is a difference it does not bother me. Haven't found any reviews on acoustic nylon though)

    I may end up buying my own fretting tools to test on 1 to 2 beater guitars.