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Classical guitars, because of their nylon strings, have
some unique requirements for frets. The same frets
that will work perfectly well for, say, steel string
acoustics will not do well on a classical guitar. The
primary reason for this is the elasticity of nylon.
With frets of a given height, it's much easier to press a
classical guitar string farther toward the fingerboard than
it is a steel string. If fret crowns are too low, the
fingertip fretting the string may reach the fingerboard
surface and be stopped from pressing further before enough
pressure has been applied string-to-fret crown to prevent
buzzing. In short, classical guitar frets need to be
higher than steel string frets.
I offer three different fret options on my guitars.
The option I refer to as "Medium" is described by the
supplier of the fretwire as "medium width, highest."
With a crown height of .050" (width .080") it is indeed
quite a bit higher than one would normally install on a
steel string guitar (.042"-.044") and is the highest
medium-width fretwire I have been able to find on the
market. But many guitarists—and
it seems especially more advanced players—want
even higher frets, so I also offer a "High" option with a
crown height of .055" (width .090"). Dressing my frets
typically removes ca .002"-.003", which is less than is
usually required because my epoxy-casting installation
strategy produces very even crowns to begin with.
A recent development in fretwire is stainless steel,
available on my guitars in High size only. (I would
offer stainless frets in my Medium size, but stainless
fretwire with those dimensions is not available.)
Stainless fretwire is ca 50% harder than nickel-silver and
will probably last as long as the life of a classical
guitar, which wears out frets much more slowly than a steel
string guitar. Stainless frets are quite a bit more
difficult to install than nickel-silver frets because of
their additional hardness and stiffness. For example,
each stainless fret must be individually and very carefully
bent to conform to the fingerboard surface in order to avoid
coming loose from flex stress.
Should you get nickel-silver or stainless frets?
I'd say if your guitar were steel string, go stainless.
With a classical, the argument is somewhat less compelling.
My experience has been that my guitars typically need fret
dressing every 5-7 years for players who use their
instruments daily. One dressing is likely all the
frets will endure; a second dressing will probably make the
crowns so low that the guitar's playability will be
affected. By the time the guitar has gone through one
fret dressing and needs refretting, it is likely the
fingerboard configuration will need some tweaking anyway.
But on the other hand, the extra durability of stainless
frets means your guitar will have perfect fret crowns much
longer.
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