Y'all make it very hard to just lurk over here when you spew stuff like that around... but I'll admit, it is funny!
As a player who's now been playing SS frets since 2005, I feel no difference, hear no difference, and string wear is -better- than it was with nickel sliver frets, likely because nickel silver itself tarnishes and that may lead to quicker death for string wrappings. I also see LESS string warp indenting of old strings, and I'm one to leave strings on for 5-6 months of daily playing, and have publicly stated my constant struggle with the death-grip my left hand can't seem to not do.... I ascribe the better wear to a higher degree of polish that these frets can attain, and maintain indefinitely. If you're truly seeing more physical wear, find someone to polish those suckers up. As for tone, well.... I've never told a soul I was going to use SS fretwire when I switched, and not a soul mentioned a tone change. Now that the words' out, many have asked if they have SS frets or not, and when told yes, they do, they're surprised that they couldn't tell the difference. Yes, even on refret jobs.... The only way to kill any placebo effect was to not tell them, and I now have 4 years of this behind me. I am sure that if told, most everybody would have heard/felt/seen something wrong with the frets, but since they knew not what I did, my feedback is as perfectly non-discriminatory and honest as can be possible to achieve. And we have yet to see any wear on any of them.
As a guitar builder, my goal is to maintain an open mind and find the best materials and use them to the best of my abilities and provide it to my clients without excuses, without folklore and without urban legends skewing the view. As my own client, I'm happy I do the above!
