Softest fret material ever - My 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio and 50's Tribute. I have no idea what they are using, but I wore the frets out in 3 months and had to level and crown.
Second softest fret material - My 2019 Schecter Hellraiser C1FR. harder than the Gibson, but wore them out in about 7 months
Best fret material - Jescar Gold Evo Fretwire. I am using the .104" x .047" on my yellow Stratocaster. These are wide, like Gibson jumbo wire, but a little taller. Similar to Dunlop's #6150 and SM #0149.
Absolutely bulletproof. Cannot even wear a groove in them. No sparkly dust building up next to my frets...
Zoom in and look at the brass "fairy dust" piled up alongside the frets on my Schecter Hellraiser C1FR:
Less than 6 months of playing in the studio on my Schecter:
Gibson frets after about 3 months:
About 4 months of daily playing on the YelloStrat:
Playing hard enough to break strings at the midpoint. I was breaking at least one string during rehearsal.
The only way I could get through a 6 hour performance (two (3) hour sets, 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off, 1 hour break between 3 hour sets) was to put new strings on it the morning of a show and just railroad them without stretching them.
I found that forcefully stretching the strings (by holding them down and pulling up on them) stresses the string and under intense magnification, you can see an "hourglass" profile where the string was fretted and stretched.
I've marked the strings and they always, always, always break in this area.
What I started doing was just playing the guitar for 30-45 minutes and then returning and going on stage with zero forcefull stretching.
This allowed me to get through a set without a break, even though I wore the nail and hide off my index finger in the process...
You can zoom in and see the blood and meat on my Les Paul from our May 29th (and final) performance.
So, one big vote for the Jescar frets and one big vote against forcefull string stretching...
Second softest fret material - My 2019 Schecter Hellraiser C1FR. harder than the Gibson, but wore them out in about 7 months
Best fret material - Jescar Gold Evo Fretwire. I am using the .104" x .047" on my yellow Stratocaster. These are wide, like Gibson jumbo wire, but a little taller. Similar to Dunlop's #6150 and SM #0149.
Absolutely bulletproof. Cannot even wear a groove in them. No sparkly dust building up next to my frets...
Zoom in and look at the brass "fairy dust" piled up alongside the frets on my Schecter Hellraiser C1FR:
Less than 6 months of playing in the studio on my Schecter:
Gibson frets after about 3 months:
About 4 months of daily playing on the YelloStrat:
Playing hard enough to break strings at the midpoint. I was breaking at least one string during rehearsal.
The only way I could get through a 6 hour performance (two (3) hour sets, 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off, 1 hour break between 3 hour sets) was to put new strings on it the morning of a show and just railroad them without stretching them.
I found that forcefully stretching the strings (by holding them down and pulling up on them) stresses the string and under intense magnification, you can see an "hourglass" profile where the string was fretted and stretched.
I've marked the strings and they always, always, always break in this area.
What I started doing was just playing the guitar for 30-45 minutes and then returning and going on stage with zero forcefull stretching.
This allowed me to get through a set without a break, even though I wore the nail and hide off my index finger in the process...
You can zoom in and see the blood and meat on my Les Paul from our May 29th (and final) performance.
So, one big vote for the Jescar frets and one big vote against forcefull string stretching...
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