Hello World! My first guitar project

[McCreed]

Wait, shit, I thought the PB frets were stainless? Not that it matters but that's embarassing..

Yeah, I wish!

Just to buy SS fretwire here is $49 + postage for 1.8m. A 21 fret neck takes a minimum of 1.3m, which would work out to over half the price of a $65 PBG neck.

I haven't worked with SS, and doubt I'll ever use it on my own guitars. Having many guitars to play and thus spreading out the "wear & tear", plus having the ability to do refrets myself, I'm happy to just keep going with nickel silver until I'm too old to play anymore or dead (which ever comes first!)

[Simon Barden]

Stainless frets mean a lot of hard work when levelling and polishing. I've got some more appropriate tools for working on stainless frets now, but the first time it took me about three days to do the levelling and polishing, instead of maybe a couple of hours for normal frets. Even with the better files (I used diamond fret profiling files to start with which I thought would be OK but I've since read aren't supposed to be used on stainless), it's still around a days work.

Once on, they do last a lot longer, though I have a friend who still seem to wear pits in them almost as quickly as standard frets. But most luthiers don't like working on them just because of the time and effort it takes, so if you don't do the frets yourself, you'll be looking at 3 to 4 times the cost of having them levelled and polished compared to standard frets. Some luthiers just refuse to work on them!

So for some lower priced guitars that come with stainless frets (such as the higher quality guitars from Thomann's Harley Benton range), if the frets need work, it could cost you as much as the guitar did. One big incentive to learn how to work on frets yourself!

[McCreed]

That's a great synopsis of pros and cons for SS Simon.

Even with the better files (I used diamond fret profiling files to start with which I thought would be OK but I've since read aren't supposed to be used on stainless)...

Interesting. I bought a diamond crowning file just to have in case I ever need to work with stainless (thinking it would the right way to go). What type of files are recommended?

I know stainless can hard on fret nippers too.

[Simon Barden]

I've got some metal ones (no composition given) that are simply listed as being suitable for stainless steel frets. Obviously a composition that's harder that stainless. I think stainless tends to pull the diamond 'dust' off the file surface, so it becomes less and less effective. I know that even the standard cheap Chinese orange-handled crowning file that always comes up on Amazon and eBay when you look for crowning files, was a much much better file on stainless than my diamond files were.

I know that the description for diamond files says 'suitable for stainless steel and normal frets', but my own experience, and quite a few luthier's experiences, is that they aren't as good and you'll spend a lot longer reshaping the frets.

[McCreed]

I know that even the standard cheap Chinese orange-handled crowning file that always comes up on Amazon and eBay when you look for crowning files, was a much much better file on stainless than my diamond files were.

Interesting. I have one of those that I received as a "free gift" when I bought some parts from an Aliexpress seller. Maybe it's worth keeping!

[Simon Barden]

The curve is rather flat and the overall height of the crowning hollow is quite tall, so you need frets of a decent height, but I found it was good for doing the initial heavy lifting (until I got my latest files). Does tend to leave small teeth marks along the top of the frets which need sanding off or smoothing with another fret file, so far from perfect, but it's useable.

[McCreed]

What are your "latest files"?