By the way in the states there is an on going debate as to if harder wire, stainless and even EVO results in a tinny sounding instrument. It may be like A432 and utter BS but some of us (me included.....) have experienced the impression with particularly acoustic instruments that stainless can sound a bit..... cheap.... and tinny. Dave thinks I'm nuts but I'm not alone.

It might make an interesting experiment to fret a single neck with several (in an alternating fashion or something like that) different alloys of fretwire and see if you can hear the difference. That would eliminate different necks or guitars influencing the sound.

It might make an interesting experiment to fret a single neck with several (in an alternating fashion or something like that) different alloys of fretwire and see if you can hear the difference. That would eliminate different necks or guitars influencing the sound.

BTW, I love EVO fretwire and have used it exclusively on the last 6 of my builds. I tend to finish my instruments with a vintage/subtle honey color anyway, so I think it's a pleasing combo.

That is a GREAT idea, I love it.

According to LMI, the EVO wire composition is CuSn15Fe1Ti0.1 so titanium is in the mix. Assuming that the photo above is color then the copper that's in the EVO must be missing from the Madinter wire.

I haven't used EVO because I was put off by the idea of gold frets, thinking it would look too flashy. I was just looking at photos of guitars with EVO frets and maybe it wouldn't be over the top after all.

I felt the same way about the color but when polished the gold tone is very subtle and muted. I used the wire, EVO on 11 instruments that I built and my performer/customers really like it. Only one shows any sign of wear but he also drools beer in his sound hole so he's not exactly a bastion of care for the instrument.....

It cuts, files and polishes very, very well, better than NS in my opinion.

I've got EVO on my daily player. It's on stage every week and a lot of players have come over to check it out. They sure do like the action but not one has ever said anything aobut the fretwire - I don't think they notice it.

Hesh-
The parlor that I brought to your set-up clinic got EVO fret-wire. I like it. The strings glide effortlessly when I’m playing Van Halen. Looks great to me. I finally ordered a roll of it. Eager to put it to use. This thread reminds me of the argument about nitro versus the plastic and vinyl based finishes. I’m re- finishing one of my builds currently and was toying with the idea of re-fretting it with EVO. After reading this I will, and pay attention to the change (if any) in its voice.

Hey Steve you can get here in 5.5 hours because we have a guitar fretted with stainless and NS and no one knows but Dave which is which. It's an electric and I failed the blind playing test...... But I still think that the difference is more profound with acoustics where the energy is not a volume knob....

Hope you are doing great too!

I'll throw this out for discussion too since it's related.

For our stainless clients who have death grips and wear out their stainless in 6 - 8 months..... we've gone to doing partial refrets over fret dresses for the obvious reasons. The wire is so very hard that leveling and crowning it takes way more time and effort than replacing it and doing the minor amount of leveling and crowning that once the fret board has been trued up with a full refret requires. Other wise we are not fans of partial refrets because we want the opportunity to.... finish the original manufacturing of the thing and shape the fret board properly.....

The vast majority of necks that we see simply suck. The relief is wrong and often reversed with more on the treble side, fall away is non-existent and instead we often see a ski ramp... or the dreaded body hump for too shallow a grave....(sorry, so I can be overly dramatic at times... ).

Anyway for very hard wire partial refrets are something that we've moved to recently and it's working well for us. Fret wire costs mouse nuts anyway in comparison to the "opportunity costs" for a busy shop with other jobs to do and bill.