Stainless steel
A corrosion-resistant steel alloy, used for frets, hardware and structural parts such as truss rods.
Stainless steel is iron alloyed with chromium, which forms a passive oxide layer and prevents the rust that plain steel would suffer in a sweaty hand. In guitars it appears as fret wire, as bridge and tremolo components, as screws and as truss rods, chosen wherever wear or corrosion would be a problem. Frets in stainless steel are commonly described as sounding slightly brighter than nickel silver, with more high-frequency content and a smooth, almost slippery feel under the fingers, and they wear dramatically more slowly. The drawback is the work: the wire is far harder, so levelling, crowning and refretting take longer and cost more.
Example: A guitar refretted in stainless steel keeps its fret profile far longer than nickel silver, at the price of a harder job for the repairer.
typical use: Fret wire, hardware, screws and truss rods.
See also
Related
- PageFret
- PageTruss rod
- PageTuning stability
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- PageAfrican mahogany
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley