Crystal frets, what ? Where ?

[Alberto7]

It looks awful. I agree with whoever said, it looks as if they're too big for the fretboard - as if they fretjob not quite done. The tone might be good - but how many players will actually notice a difference in sound and playability? Often enough you have people claiming they feel and hear differences, when it is far more likely to be mindtricks (if someone knows a bottle of wine is expensive, that person is likely to acknowledge its qualities and praise it more than might be realistic, than if someone doesn't know or is told otherwise).

I like that there are options available, when you're in the market for a custom - and experiences with materials is great...I'm just not buying this one Not tonewise (too little impact on sound imo) nor visually.

Remember that you can't 100% accurately hear the tone through any medium if you're not the player. That's why the saying that "you won't know until you try" is often used. Some of the differences in tone might be response-based, and will only be noticeable once you've played it yourself. I hold tone-based judgement on these until I try them (which will likely not happen any time in the near future). However, looks-wise, they don't look bad to me when left natural... I didn't like the colored ones at all though.

Sure, it's expensive as hell, perhaps over the top, but some might genuinely like it. Only time will tell, though, how successful these are. I think it's too new of a development to be jumping to conclusions and calling it worthless.

 

[Rap Hat]

Alternating crystal, brass, and stainless steel... ! The concept seems neat, that's for sure.

I'd love to see colored frets, I mean we've got neon pink strings and stained fretboards. Then I could enact my dream of an all Matteo Blue guitar.

 

[vansinn]

Hehe, isn't it annoying being nearly three decades ahead of time - and not persuing the concept and maybe even taking out a patent (which I'm not too fond of anyways).

I loosely developed the concept of using glass and quartz around '85/86'ish.
Morale: Never delay putting your good ideas to use. Sooner or later, someone else will get the very same idea.
Oh well, I can at least say I thought of it way before they did

 

[IkarusOnFire]

Remember that you can't 100% accurately hear the tone through any medium if you're not the player. That's why the saying that "you won't know until you try" is often used. Some of the differences in tone might be response-based, and will only be noticeable once you've played it yourself. I hold tone-based judgement on these until I try them (which will likely not happen any time in the near future). However, looks-wise, they don't look bad to me when left natural... I didn't like the colored ones at all though.

Sure, it's expensive as hell, perhaps over the top, but some might genuinely like it. Only time will tell, though, how successful these are. I think it's too new of a development to be jumping to conclusions and calling it worthless.

Tone is in the ear of the beholder. However, I base my negative stance on them based on the general idea of how much frets will alter your sound - compared to body woods, neck, etc....so based losely on the overall percentage frets have on sound, which I figure and found to be rather low - I'd deem this more of a gimmick

Having said that, I hope people will test it - if more people do, some development may ensue and result in a product that makes sense economically, luthierwise (workability) and visually (which is obviously a matter of taste).

 

[Danukenator]

I'd like to understand how SS frets have been an issue? I'm all for innovation, I hate the stagnation there is in guitar building but for something so expensive I don't see an actual reasonable trade off. Someone earlier mention replacing the first five frets with these as they wear out faster. How about taking a regular Nickle fretted guitar and replacing the first five frets with SS frets.

My question, who here has actually worn out the SS frets.

 

[Just A Box]

My question, who here has actually worn out the SS frets.

The frets on my Parker Nitefly are as perfect as when I first got it.

Also, if platinum was heralded as the best material for your frets, would you pay even more than $1500 for that new idea?

I know that some guys think that the electric guitar has been too set in its design ways for too long, but sometimes I think people are hyptonized by the "evolution" of this or that aspect of the guitar and are praising something merely because it's non-traditional, not necessarily better.

There's aluminum guitars, Lucite guitars, and guitars with stone tops & bodies. Why haven't those progressive methods of guitar construction taken off into the mainstream lines? Simple: The sonic payoff isn't there enough to justify the price, in all cases, except for the fortunate few who can have a custom guitar commissioned. If some of the best tones in history came from a Lucite guitar, they'd make tons of them and tons of people would buy them.

$400 for a fret job with these things, and another $100 for custom colors and maybe it will take off, for a small niche group of players. But at $1500, I'd bet that most of us will never see a guitar with these frets on them in person in our lives.

 

[Necris]

This does bring up that there are some VERY hard materials out there outside of metals that might have potential as fret materials. I'd love to see some ceramics used.

While they didn't use it for frets specifically back in the early 90's Alvarez made a fretless bass with a black ceramic fingerboard. (I'm currently on the hunt for one ). They remain the only company I know of who has done that.
From some searching it looks like a company called "Polarity" may have come up with ceramic frets back in 2005, but it seems it didn't take off as their site is down and I can't find a thing on them.

Since I'm on the topic of alternative fret materials, for those who were asking about black frets so far it's not possible to do with metals, I've read about black derlin being used on a a bass fingerboard, the talkbass user Angus (perhaps the same Angus we have here?) is the owner of the bass they're on. Apparently they give a similar sound to a fretless.

I've also heard of ebony being used to create frets which made me wonder if it would be possible to create frets out of acrylized (stabilized) woods or manmade woods like dymond wood, they obviously wouldn't give the same tone as metal frets though.

 

[Alberto7]

^ I don't know what material they're made of, but I have seen black frets before (on pictures, only). Hu.f.s.ch.mid has posted a couple of pictures on Facebook of a guitar(s) he made with black frets. For some reason that I still don't understand, he took down the pictures, as he does with about 90% of the things he posts online. The frets looked pretty cool and definitely stood out, but I think I'd get tired of them over time.

I also *think* that he said something about maaayyybe using quartz (at the time it was said I thought "quartz" might've been just a brand of frets; not actual quartz crystal), but don't trust me on that... I can't go back to verify if he said so or not because, well, he deleted the post.

 

[vansinn]

For me, the most interesting aspects of quartz frets would be that strings will have a hard time wearing them down, and at the same time, glass/quartz will likely dig less into the strings, compared to metal frets, so strings should keep their intonation and tone longer.

No doubt they'll produce a slightly different tone, but just like with SS vs standard vs hard alloy German fretwire, it's an open question how much real tone change this will create..

 

[T Nelson]

you all should see the quartz body im working on. 7 minute sustain. need i say more?

 

[iRaiseTheDead]

Oh shit wait. Crystal FRETS. NOT fret markers/inlays

 

[Danukenator]

Holy shit, look how much they effected his tone!




EDIT: Not to spam links, the only actual other demo...is a girl playing slide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9TCPNglfnM

 

[7stringDemon]

If I were in a bigger band that's constantly on REAL tours and stuff, I'd get these. They seem really cool.

 

[iRaiseTheDead]

Holy shit, look how much they effected his tone!




EDIT: Not to spam links, the only actual other demo...is a girl playing slide. Crystal Frets demo Summer NAMM 2011! - YouTube

Someone PLEASE tell me he has a delay on.

 

[Hollowway]

Crystal frets:

 

[Dayn]

Crystal, hey? Combined with the Pyramid Power of an Ibanez Universe, you're just one step away from a tinfoil hat...

 

[Al NiCotin]

Yeah this 2nd video, the gal playin' slide

"You know you're a cute little Quartzbreaker
Foxy
You know you're a sweet little fret tester
Foxy"

ahem well, if one day they have the idea to build bottlenecks in this material I do want

 

[ASoC]

Holy shit, look how much they effected his tone!




EDIT: Not to spam links, the only actual other demo...is a girl playing slide. Crystal Frets demo Summer NAMM 2011! - YouTube

Maybe its just me, but this guy comes off as a massive douche.

Aside from that, I don't think that $1500 for a fret job is justifiable. I could get a new Carvin (I love Carvins ) for that much

 

[Purelojik]

Maybe its just me, but this guy comes off as a massive douche.

Aside from that, I don't think that $1500 for a fret job is justifiable. I could get a new Carvin (I love Carvins ) for that much

yes but if the announcer was playing the guitar his massive douchbaggery would be negated by the fact that he looks like Gandalf

 

[MF_Kitten]

what i think many don't consider when making "the ultimate guitar part blah blah", is that while your new fancy material and construction WILL last for ages, the thing that it substitutes already lasts longer than it needs to in most cases. Hell, a slight upgrade might make it last much longer than that, without even approaching your new ridiculous material.

Crystal frets? meh. Why not just stainless steel frets? they last much longer than anyone will need them to!

Then you have the benefits as far as sound goes. I'd want a double blind study and some stuff like that done before i care. I have a guitar with stainless steel frets among a collection of guitars with nickel frets, and the main difference i notice is that they are really shiney.