EVO Gold fretwire.... goodbye

[Chris Pile]

Apparently Jescar is no longer producing Evo Gold fretwire, as one of the materials needed was mined in Belarus.... and since a certain war mucked things up, we'll just have to wait for it.

 

[Mincer]

Never having used it, other than the gold color, why would someone choose it over SS or regular frets?

 

[Masta' C]

The Evo gold wire is harder than nickel-silver, but softer than SS.

Can't think of a reason anyone would want it now that SS is more available, affordable, and comes in most common sizes.

To me at least, the Evo gold stuff just looks like tarnished/old frets from more than a foot away :biglaugh:

 

[Mincer]

So is the appeal is that it is slightly gold?

 

[GuitarDoc]

I think it's mainly esthetics. I have a guitar that has all gold hardware and gold frets and the consistency makes it look just amazing.

 

[Mincer]

You'd think by now you could make frets any color that would last out of any material.

 

[Chris Pile]

You'd think by now you could make frets any color that would last out of any material.

We've talked about this before, Dave. Metallurgy does not equal your dream specifications.

 

[GuitarDoc]

But it COULD.

 

[Mincer]

We've talked about this before, Dave. Metallurgy does not equal your dream specifications.

If there was a market for it, someone would come up with a way to make red frets that last. Why do they even have to be metal?

 

[Chris Pile]

Pretty sure there's a damn good reason. They work.

 

[Mincer]

I looked it up, there are people that have used ceramic and had frets in different colors.

 

[Chris Pile]

Do tell. Reference please?

 

[Mincer]

It was an interview with Rick Turner. He said he used them 3 or 4 times, and that they are very very hard, much harder than SS frets.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I keep building blacked out guitars on Kiesel's builder, and am always bummed that black frets aren't an option.

 

[dave74]

No big loss IMO. If I'm going to pay extra it would be for ss. Finally more brands are making them standard.
My last two guitars were my first two Schecters.
Never had an interest in the brand until they brought ss frets down to their $1000 or just over range. (before the inflation hit recently that is)

 

[Chris Pile]

Okay, so I checked over on the OLF - and behold, a guy found some references to ceramic frets (white in color). They were round material, glued into the fingerboard. They had to be cast the correct radius and size. Plus, they were brittle as hell. No surprise, they were also super expensive.

Rick Turner tried to gin up enough interest to have a batch done by the maker to bring the price per piece down, but not enough luthiers showed interest. Ceramic frets also present the problem of radiusing the fret ends after implantation into the board. Diamond files or grinders? In the end - the market chose to stick with nickel-silver and stainless frets because it was a known quantity. In the guitar building and repairing world - time is money, and ceramics mean more time than money.

 

[Mincer]

I know a lot of luthiers that refused to work with SS frets when first introduced, too. It is a strange idea until it takes off. The Bond guitars in the 80s had weird sawblade shaped fingerboards, but it was a cool idea, and it worked really well. But it never took off. Being too expensive or 'this is the way its always been done' (and the always used 'it was good enough for me') are poor excuses when it comes to innovation.

 

[Chris Pile]

You complain, but the determining factor is NOT the luthiers. It's the buyers of new gear, and clients who want (or don't want) the changes. Majority rules.

Also, since my 2nd job was building tooling for aircraft plants I had worked with weirder stuff than stainless, so I didn't hesitate to refret with it when clients asked for it. Thank goodness frets aren't made of inconel or waspalloy.

 

[Mincer]

You complain, but the determining factor is NOT the luthiers. It's the buyers of new gear, and clients who want (or don't want) the changes. Majority rules.

Also, since my 2nd job was building tooling for aircraft plants I had worked with weirder stuff than stainless, so I didn't hesitate to refret with it when clients asked for it. Thank goodness frets aren't made of inconel or waspalloy.

See, that is interesting. Tell me about these other materials- I've never heard of them.
It may seem like I am complaining, but there are a lot of aspects on an electric guitar that can no doubt be improved, from tuners to electronics to the use of slot head screws for anything. I get that people like tradition, but that isn't a good enough reason to keep doing something.

 

[Chris Pile]

Your wish is my suggestion...

Inconel - Wikipedia

Waspaloy - Wikipedia