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I'm considering refretting my old Epiphone Triumph, and I'm trying to choose a fret material and size. So far, the material that has most interested me has been the Jescar EVO Gold. It apparently sits between nickel and stainless steel on the hardness scale and has proven to wear quite well. The downside is that its color may be off-putting to some and may affect resale value should I decide to move it in the future.
My second favorite choice would be to use stainless steel. The upside here is that one fret job should last pretty much forever, and many reports I have read suggest that there is no sacrifice in tone. The downside is that the luthier that I have contacted to do the job doesn't seem to have that much experience doing stainless steel fretjobs, and I don't want him to screw mine up due to lack of experience. However, this may be the way to go if I feel the need to preserve the silver fret look.
As to the size of the frets, the guitars which I've found most comfortable have been my Heritage Eagles and my Hofners. I contacted the good people at Heritage about their fret sizes, and they said that they have consistently used 104x47. This seems like a good option, although I might want to choose one that's a bit narrower. The Jascar website lists EVO in the 104x47 and 90x55, but nothing in between; whereas they offer additional sizes in stainless steel and nickel. My ideal size may be the 95x47, which is only available in stainless steel and nickel.
Any info on EVO or stainless frets would be appreciated. Mind you, I'm looking for all kinds of feedback including tone, installation, wear, and aesthetics.
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07-10-2014 04:21 PM
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The luthier who worked on my guitar told me he wouldn't touch SS frets because they were too hard on his tools. He may have just been being an old cuss, though.
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I have never tried EVO frets but I love stainless frets.
I cannot detect any tonal difference between stainless frets and normal frets. I've never had them on the exact same guitar but I've had them on very similar guitars and I cannot tell the difference.
But they are tricky to work with apparently and so I'd recommend finding a luthier with experience working with them.
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Would you guys be turned off by gold fretwire if you were interested in an old archtop? The reason I ask is because EVO wire appears to offer the benefit of stainless steel wear along with the nickel pliability and ease of work. This option would make be the most comfortable, but I wouldn't want to shoot myself in the foot in any possible future deal.
In my case, when I look into purchasing a guitar from the swing era, I don't expect it to come with its original frets. As a matter of fact, I prefer the instrument to have been properly maintained over the years having had a good refret.
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I should add that I can not feel any difference between nickel and stainless either.
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Interesting. Some people say the SS is smoother, especially for bending.
Originally Posted by coolvinny
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Indeed they feel smoother on bends - I rarely bend, and even then only a semi-tone.
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Given the choice between 104x47 and 90x55 sizes, which would you choose for an old Epiphone Triumph acoustic archtop?
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That's an interesting point, but how would playing a guitar hard and damaging the fretboard in between the frets affect the frets themselves? The guitar I'm looking to refret is very old and has been played hard its entire life. Its fretboard is every bit as beat up at Edward James Olmos' face, and it doesn't bother me at all so long as the action is comfortable and the frets are level. Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
Would this wear of the fretboard have any effect on playability?
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I've installed and played on both the Jescar Evo wire and stainless so I'll give you all my take. The 0.090" x .055" Evo is my favorite wire overall right now and I'm well into my second roll of this stuff. I have a few personal guitars fretted with it so I can spread the wear around but after several years I have yet to see any significant wear on the Evo wire. In the past I might have seen significant wear after only a couple months if you really play a lot on the 17% nickel wire. As for playing on Evo it seems to play like nickel but you won't find your stings dragging and digging into it - you can tell it's a touch harder.
It's not gummy like nickel wire (it's nickel free) but tends to "chip" when it's cut or filed and it's obviously more brittle than nickel wire. You can bend the wire fairly easily but it takes more effort. It polishes up very well, maybe more easily than nickel. Overall I would say that it's really not any more difficult to work with than nickel. It's well worth looking into if you play a lot. I like taller wire so the .047" tall wire is not my favorite but it works as long as you don't take much material off. That shorter wire corresponds to Gibson Jumbo width but try the .090", it works just as well.
Stainless is a different story. I find that it's very hard to bend a radius into this wire so I only fret necks with it if the fingerboard has a straight 12" radius as that's how it comes off the roll. I would say that it's best for use with frets jobs where you can get the fingerboard surface very close to perfect, that way you don't have to take off much material when you level the fret tops. With a job where you can't get the fingerboard level (i.e. tele neck with maple where you don't level the wood) I would avoid it because it seems to take forever to file. Sanding the fret tops doesn't seem as bad however as long as you don't get too deep into the fret. As far as tool wear goes it's hard to cut with fret nippers, I'll say that although Evo is harder too. Diamond rounding files seem to cut it without too much effort but again, don't go too deep into the fret or you'll be grinding away for what seems like forever. It also seems harder to polish the remaining "land' on top of the fret top.
Where stainless shines is on rock guitars. The strings seem to bend much more easily and vibrato comes more easily. No more "grinding" the string into the fret and flaking material out.
I don't know what to tell you about "vintage correct" on your guitar, but if you want to check out Evo I recommend it without reservation.Last edited by vejesse; 07-10-2014 at 11:49 PM.
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I went through the same choice with vintage sized frets, and chose stainless steel. Having experienced it, I doubt I'd ever want to use anything else. Stainless is much smoother, sounds perfectly fine, and, most importantly when you start with a small fret size, they don't wear.
On the down side, I've yet to meet a luthier who likes stainless.
On the up side, they're a great match with D'Ad Chromes.
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For several years I used a couple of Parker Flys as my main workhorses for pop music, pit orchestra jobs, etc. The SS frets seemed to have a sort of very round profile, without a flatter top. By looking at them I thought I would not like them, but it turned out I loved them. The notes seemed to just FLY right off the fingerboard <pun intended>. As is mentioned here, fabulous for bending. But the Fly's neck too had a wonderful, fast profile, and I don't know how they would feel/function on an archtop.
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The gold color of the EVO fretwire, once installed, is not as noticeable as you would think. I have a love hate relationship with SS wire. I love it once I am finished and I hate it when I'm installing it. However, that's what I'm using on all of my personal guitars from now on. If you can get someone to install SS (The folks that refuse to install it have good reasons) then that's the way I would go.
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What size do you use? Originally Posted by jasonc
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Sorry I didn't see your question. I use whatever the customer wants but on mine I have pretty wide frets. They are somewhere in between .095"- .110" I think. I'll measure them when I get a second if you want a definitive answer.
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That would be great, thanks. The two sized that I'm torn between are 90x55 and 104x47. Originally Posted by jasonc
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I had EVO Gold FW55090 a slightly larger style at 0.055" x 0.090" put on a flattop.
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I have to agree with stainless. The neck and response just seems nicer, easier to play. I would definitely have them put on if and when I come to a re-fret. 1 lees thing to worry about in the future and the guitar IMO plays better for it.
In regards to colour, I bought a strat once with gold frets, not sure if they where Evo or not but actually it looked really nice. I suppose you have to consider the fret width. If you use very wide frets, then the gold will become more prominent.
Personally gold against ebony with gold hardware on the body is a nice touch and sometimes people can be more excited about your guitar because of it. Also the gold dulls down over a short time, to more like a copper colour which is a little more subtle and blends in nicely.
But if you are worried and rightly so, I would put stainless on (providing as one mentioned, the neck is right for it). You can always take them off ;-)
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Hey Klatu, they are .104". Hope that helps. Originally Posted by Klatu
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It does, thank you. I feel like the wider than normal frets on the Heritage tames the height a bit so that they don't feel like speed bumps when moving vertically up the and down the neck. Originally Posted by jasonc
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I have EVO, Nickel, and Stainless on three similar guitars an I feel and hear no difference. I just finished leveling the frets on the SS guitar and there was no difference in the process. The only noticeable difference is cutting the SS when installing them. A cheap nipper will blow out. The EVO is so close to the SS that they are practically identical to work with.
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Hello, jimidee1957.
It is a very old thread, but I've got tall EVO Golds on an old box & love them.
I play with the lightest possible strings, old hands you know.
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My early production 2002 Gibson LP Supreme came with EVO Gold frets and they still look and feel great. I love the gold look on that classy axe. Also, they seem to wear a bit less than standard frets. Stainless steel wears even less due to its hardened properties.
Here's more info on this topic:
Fretwire chart
The "gold" wire referred to below as EVO wire is Jescar's proprietary nickel-free hypoallergenic alloy originally devised to make eyeglass frames for folks with nickel allergies. It contains no gold either, of course, and makes wonderful fretwire. I wish it was available in more sizes. As acceptance of this wire grows among players, I'm sure other sizes will be added.
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I use EVO Gold frets on all of my guitars out of necessity - I have major allergies to nickel and chromium (which is a component of stainless steel), which give me serious dermatitis. The luthier who has refretted my guitars has told me that EVO Gold frets are almost as hard to work on as stainless steel frets, but hey, its have them installed, or play wearing gloves (which I don't want to do). They don't feel that much different to me playing wise, than nickel frets feel.
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I would be surprised if anyone were to sense much of a difference between EVO and regular nickel frets.
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