Why won't PRS offer Stainless frets?

RC Mike said:
No kidding, that’s quite the marketing job. “How can we use cheap, non-quarter-sawn maple, not spend the money and time to dry it properly, and get people to buy into the idea? Maybe the word roasted sounds positive…”

What’s next? Baked birch sounds good, right?
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There is a lot wrong with this. Roasted maple is far from some kind of marketing thing. Functionally, it provides an extremely stable neck. I've never adjusted the trust rod on any roasted maple neck guitar I've owned aside from the initial set-up. Also, you don't have to finish a roasted maple neck so if you like more of a raw wood feel similar to rosewood, there you go. The roasting of the necks is done with already dried neck blanks. They aren't sticking green maple into a kiln. It's an extra process. Finally, finding a way to use cheap maple? Really? Regular flat sawn maple necks have been used aplenty in guitar manufacturing. Actually, a lot of the roasted maple necks being used on guitars these days are using premium figured woods.
 
Ovibos said:
Funny how they left out of the pro/con that steel frets chew thru strings faster.
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Not a con for me. I'm changing strings every 3-4 weeks depending how often I play. I don't think frets would eat the strings that fast.

My Standard goes to Charlie Chandlers Guitar Experience for a tuner upgrade and I was thinking to get it Plek'd with stainless frets... until I seen the price lol
 
If I'm buying a guitar from a guy who is as obsessed and experienced as Paul Reed Smith I'm going to take his word on what he feels is best for his instruments. I also take his word that it isn't a cost issue, and before you say I've drunk the koolaid, well, we all have or we wouldn't be fans of his product unless you are buying them strictly as investments or art pieces.

I'm in the camp that can hear the unpleasant zinginess from SS frets, and the fact that refrets cost money isn't a good enough argument for me to compromise on the goal of the instrument, the sound it makes.
 
While driving today I thought of some more to add to my above post. In arguing that SS frets are better and so should come standard on a guitar as expensive as a Core couldn't the same argument be applied towards other things like ceramic magnets, active pickups and preamps, coated strings, heck even titanium necks, etc? These are, on paper, objective improvements over traditional designs from decades ago. Subjectively? Well, that's subjective, but by and large the market only wants them in certain niche situations.
 
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