Did Gibson use cryogenically treated frets recently?

[Ewizard]

I am in the camp of using a harder fret that pasts longer. 95% of guitars perhaps never get refretted and if they do, it is only done once, and generally only for repair. There is only a small percentage of guitarists neurotic enough to want to reduce the thickness of a perfectly good fret, but they do exist. I own three guitars that could probably use a refret, but apparently, the low and invisible fret is a thing I was not aware of? I don't particularly care for low frets, but I will live with whatever I am handed. I prefer medium jumbo frets with a very small flat spot on the top, not ever totally rounded. Why do you ask? Well, I am a string bender and found with perfectly crowned frets, that I quickly develop a flat spot anyway on the strings I bend most often. This obviously creates an uneven fret landing where it transitions between round and flattened. I found with a slightly flattened top ( all the way across ) the increased surface area resists wear a little longer before it gets too flat.

I have had some weird requests over the years repairing guitars, but I guess I have not come across the guy that wants to spend lots of money to make their perfectly fine frets be flatter and lower.

I feel that using a harder fret such as Cryo treated frets of simply Stainless just makes a guitar that once you get it where you want it ( based on the frets original profile ), it just lasts longer and you may never truly need a refret. You only get a couple or few refrets, before the neck is at risk of needing much more involved work or other tricky solutions to retain the frets securely. So I try and build guitars to need that job ONCE, when it was built.

[ICTGoober]

Most repair guys would think the cryo frets are uncool.... because fret levels and refrets are money in the bank....

[VinceT]

Someone suggested depleted uranium which would be heavy as hell, but resists heavy artillery.

60-cycle hum ALL the time - and who needs LED fret markers anyway?


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[Mincer]

Now that I think about it, other than materials, there hasn't been a huge advancement in fret design for years. However, I think in the 70s there were experiments with triangular frets and sawtooth frets as well.

[Hsb]

Now that I think about it, other than materials, there hasn't been a huge advancement in fret design for years. However, I think in the 70s there were experiments with triangular frets and sawtooth frets as well.

Wasnt there a guitar company that made a fretboard that the frets were a molded part of the board? Each fret was kinda like a little triangle where the peak of the triangle was the fret.

[ICTGoober]

Wasnt there a guitar company that made a fretboard that the frets were a molded part of the board? Each fret was kinda like a little triangle where the peak of the triangle was the fret.

Yes - the Bond. Back in the 80's.

[Hsb]

Yes thats it, thanks Goober

[Mincer]

Never had a chance to play one, but it was a cool idea. I don't know how they handled 'wear' since the fret was part of the fretboard. You can sort of see it in this pic.

[Hsb]

That is exactly the one I was thinking of. Thats about the closest thing I can think of to innovations in frets

Ok sorry for thread highjacking back to regularly scheduled program

[ICTGoober]

As I remember, the fingerboard was carbon fiber....... Which, as it turns out - does wear out.