PRS Tech Center: No Stainless Refrets

Drew

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Apr 26, 2012
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Well, this is surprising. Apparently, they won't refret a guitar with stainless wire. I inquired with Matt today while my CE is there. No go for lift-off. The PRS tech center will do everything to a guitar you can think of, but won't deal with stainless steel wire? Doesn't make much sense to me. Oh well...
 
They won’t sell you a whole new neck either. That’s disappointed people too. They must have their reasons.

Look on the bright side, almost any guitar shop that does repairs will gladly give you SS frets.
 
Not surprising at all.


Not sure what the fuss is about stainless frets. Paul has said the alloy they use for their frets are plenty hard enough, and IIRC as hard as stainless.
 
Not surprising at all.


Not sure what the fuss is about stainless frets. Paul has said the alloy they use for their frets are plenty hard enough, and IIRC as hard as stainless.

Its going to depend on the person that wants ss frets. Paul has no idea what an individual what's out of there own personal guitar.
 
Its going to depend on the person that wants ss frets. Paul has no idea what an individual what's out of there own personal guitar.

I smell what you're cookin' Eddie. I'm simply stating that I don't get the fuss when there isn't (IIRC) a significant difference in hardness. That's all. No judgement intended. I also don't understand Sergio's issue with blue guitars.
 
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Some people have allergies to nickel silver, another reason why some like stainless. I put some of those EVO slightly golden colored alloy and harder than regular nickel silver. The golden hue doesn't work with all guitars, does PRS do refrets in that material. Or just what PRS always use.
 
It might all have to do with brand protection, which would also explain why they don't sell necks. They don't want someone mounting one out of spec or doing a sloppy job, and the guitar circulating with PRS on the headstock.

If they don't want stainless wire on their axes for whatever reason I can see why they wouldn't offer the service. It is also notoriously hard on tools

Your best bet is an independent luthier/repairman who offers the service and is happy working with stainless wire. I know my trusted tech grumbles about it so it must be a pain to work with and does seem to carry higher labour costs
 
Not surprising at all.


Not sure what the fuss is about stainless frets. Paul has said the alloy they use for their frets are plenty hard enough, and IIRC as hard as stainless.

I think the idea that you can wail away on a guitar for just about your whole lifetime without needing a refret is attractive, although I also think people have bad experiences with n/s when cheap soft wire wears quickly and they think all n/s does the same. Some people just press really damn hard. My cheapest guitar is a chinese Ibanez acoustic, it has pretty soft wire, although with the occasional level and polish it has lasted nearly 10 years of daily noodling and there is still plenty of wire left
 
If PTC were to offer SS refret, the SS crowd would compare the total sunk in price of a PRS SS fretted guitar with brands that are exclusively SS brand new.

That’s surely going to win less of the SS crowd than absolutely not offering SS, be it brand new or PTC.
 
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I smell what you're cookin' Eddie. I'm simply stating that I don't get the fuss when there isn't (IIRC) a significant difference in hardness. That's all. No judgement intended. I also don't understand Sergio's issue with blue guitars.

I'm with you. :)
 
Hmm, that's very interesting to hear. But as others have said the PTC have always been specific about what they do/don't do. I'm not too surprised though, every tech tells me they're a pain to work with. I currently have two guitars with SS frets, one being a PRS and I personally love them.

The first benefit for me is galling. I don't know if that's the real official term for it, but that's what EVH calls it so I stick with it. I do quite a bit of consecutive bends on the same fret with my play style and with most guitars the string ends up catching on the fret after the second bend or so as if there was sandpaper. While the newer PRS frets suffer less of this, SS eliminates this problem completely. Another is the fret life. They never need to be leveled again, and they always feel polished. The tone difference is minimal and fairly negligible imo, so that doesn't bother me.
 
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