Question for guitarist and bassist...

What is your favorite fret wire size and why.
Please give crown width and height if known.

I can understand you not knowing the measurements but
there are many different frets used on guitars so one knows
if they like "jumbo", tall, wide, pyramid...or brand of guitar..or
at least I think they do.
At least I sure don't believe a guitarist has to know a luthier or be one
to know what he likes to play...but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm kinda like Herb...but I can say this; Of all the electric guitars I currently own, and probably all the ones I ever did, I like the feel of both the neck, fingerboard and frets on my Parker Nitefly Mojo.  It was quite literally love at first play.  Don't know if that helps Spacey, ol pal...but there it is:-)

With Herb on this one..been playing for 35 years, never given a single thought to fret size.

I adapt to all my instruments as well.

When I first started an old timer told me it might take a decade to truly learn what I like and don't.

I like to adapt, I think it's really important to be good at it... but now I know what I like too. :-)

carvin needs a fret job

 

What is your favorite fret wire size...

Whatever's on my beloved Ruby
 
Seriously though, like others, I also had/have no idea about actual dimesions/gauges, but all I had to do was send Michael a couple of images of my old guitar's fretboard next to a ruler and he got it spot on for me.
 
He he, remember these Mike?
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

Here ya go!  Let me know when you'll be shipping the guitar to me. 
 
From the last custom (I usually prefer ebony fingerboards so this one was an exception):
 
Neck Info:
 
24-fret
Deep-set tenon
25” scale
REALLY high-end birdseye w/ bloodwood srtipes running full-length
Stainless jumbo frets
12” radius
REALLY high-end birdseye maple fretboard

I like my frets a bit taller than "vintage" but not much wider. I think my last custom guitar had Dunlop 6105. I like a little extra height and a nice polished crown for bending. If they are too short there's a bit too much drag on the finger board. If they are too tall I find precise intonation becomes difficult because a little extra pressure on one string can make chords sound bad.

The wire I hate the most is what Gibson used on some models. Very wide and flat with very little height. To me it's the worst.

Vintage Fender size frets are ok but a little extra meat isn't bad.

All the things one can know about a guitar, eh?
 
I have a Tobias Killer-B from 1996. I compare every bass I touch to that one. I don't know the details but it is like touching the most beautiful woman in the world whenever I play it
 
For guitars I like flat-ish frets, not to high, with a slight curve.
 
I wish I could tell you this in more fancy words but if this info can assist you in any way, then I'm happy

Personally, I've found fretboard radius to inhibit/enable bending more so than fret size.

For example; I can't do much bending on the 7-1/2" vintage Fender curve on my Jazzmaster, but I can bend cleanly across the same tiny little frets on my old circa '65 Martin GT75 hollow body Jazz box with the 16" radius.

best regards,
mike

spacey


Mike, are you implying that if you had large frets on a 7.5" radius you could bend without
fretting out? (or did you just want to expand into fretboard radius?)
And I don't agree that radius of fretboard inhibits bending more. Either can blow it to the
same failure.

Feel is the main factor I believe musicians gauge with. I could have bullet holes in the body
but a nick in the back of the neck...just can't handle that.

Personally after years of playing I wanted to know more details about the instrument.
I simply got to the point I didn't like not being able to answer myself or others about
exactly what I like or didn't.
Now if I look at a guitar that I can't get my hands on, if details are given, I know
whether or not it's a contender for my tastes.

I wasn't implying that bigger frets on the 7-1/2" would make it easier to bend on... but I'm willing to consider the possibility if someone else wants too further the idea. :-)

I'm simply saying that as I switch between my guitars I find that fret board radius seems to be the characteristic that I find most effects how far I can bend a string before it slips away from my fingers.

The curvier, tight radius boards seem, to me, to be more difficult to work.

I guess I should point out that I have many necks with jumbos, both tall and flattened, as well as guitars with the smaller frets I have said I enjoy most. So, for me and my style, I think it's the radius that seems to define how I bend the strings.

I imagine this is a situation where many people have different things that work for them... so I am simply relating what I think works good for me.


An other thing that occurs to me is that it does seem, to me, to be a bit easier to start a bend on a curvy board because you get a bit more angle or bite as you push/pull the string... but I feel like it seems much harder to stretch the move as far before the string gets slippery. If that makes any sense?

I haven't really thought that a taller fret would help keep it from slipping... and I guess I am predisposed to lower frets for other reasons so I doubt I'd get to a point where I thought to raise the frets to help with bending.


What I have found is that each guitar, neck etc puts me in a different frame of mind and I play them with different attitudes.

I think the variety is something I'll never want to give up. It's my favorite part.


all the best,
mike