P22 Trem: Purchase imminent. Any thoughts?

[László]

I dunno about that quartz material's looks...too pimped out looking for my taste. Clashes with the inlays, too.

However, there is another option, EVO gold fret wire that's between the 200 Vickers hardness of nickel and the 300 hardness of SS. The gold color isn't by design, it's just what the alloy looks like. The word is that supposedly it's less bright than stainless wire - assuming that folks can hear that, which is itself fairly controversial.

I still have the original frets on my the '65 SG Special I've had since my brother gave it to me in '67, and while it could use a crown and polish job, there's still life in the frets after 47 years, so take that for how easy I am on frets. It's just not something I think about much. I'll absolutely be dead by the time I wear out the frets on any of my guitars!

 

[gwardealy]

+1

If you don't use an acoustic guitar amp or PA, you will be disappointed.

I agree. But, I have found using them both from the same output can create some good sounds. But not if you're looking for a real 'acoustic' type sound. and usually with more 'magnetic' than 'piezo'

 

[jumpwing]

If murdering frets was a crime, I'd be in prison for life. We've all had days where the music flows with ease from our fingertips; and we've all had those "other" days where your fingers go staggering across the fretboard like a quartet of drunken sailors looking for the last open bar in town, occasionally pausing to vomit in an abandoned alley. Sadly, I tend to respond by strangling the guitar neck in frustration. It's a bad habit that results from being self-taught or from needing some anger management classes... or both.

I'll likely be running the pi through my PA when I gig. The mag coils will be routed through one of two options: Pedals to a mic'd amp --or-- HD500 board which splits out with 1/4" to an amp and XLR to the PA. I expect many hours will be spent exploring these options.

EVO gold ... supposedly it's less bright than stainless wire - assuming that folks can hear that, which is itself fairly controversial.

EVO wire popped up on my radar only recently, but I'm looking at that as well.

I count myself among the skeptics that a person could actually hear the difference between SS and Nickel. In all the stories I've read, the person claiming to hear the difference knew ahead of time that he was playing a guitar with SS frets. Personally, I'd like to see a challenge set up with 10 identical guitars where the challenger must identify by sound which ones have SS frets without knowing how many SS-fretted guitars there are in the test group. Time limit: One hour.

So far, the only credible point I've found is the fact that fretting a note creates a situation of "metal vs metal" (i.e., string vs fret). The softer metal will lose every time, although the loser can still take some of his opponent with him. Either the string wears through the fret or the fret mashes the winding on the string. Since strings are faster, easier, and cheaper to replace (and I can do that myself as opposed to a refret), I'd rather have the frets win the fight. Besides, strings are already supposed to be replaced with some regularity anyway.

If SS isn't an option when I order the guitar, I'll play the Nickel until it wears out and then evaluate.