Fret Materials

Nickel-Silver. Nickel Silver is “standard” guitar (and bass, banjo, mandolin, etc.) fret wire that has been used for decades. Despite the name, the metal contains no silver at all. It is in fact an alloy of copper and nickel. In this case, 18% nickel is used.All frets wear down with use. The rubbing of the metal strings against the metal fret, combined with corrosive sweat and grime from your fingers flattens the top of the fret and may create slots in the frets. Some players wear down frets faster than others because they press the strings harder or they simply play more. When frets are worn “enough” they can be leveled and re crowned. But this is a costly service and it can only happen so many times before frets must be replaced (an even more costly operation).

Stainless Steel. Stainless Steel frets are made from harder material than Nickel-Silver. Because of this, the frets wear more slowly. The hardness of the material is great… but there is a cost! The material is more expensive than nickel-silver and it is more work to install and work with these harder frets.

EVO Gold. This fret wire is from Jescar. These frets use Jescar’s proprietary nickel-free hypoallergenic alloy. It contains no gold. This metal was originally created for folks with nickel allergies. The gold color is beautiful.

Fret Options

We offer the following fret options on our custom guitar necks: