Agile and stainless steel frets

[NutBehindTheGuitar]

Hey does anyone here, have an Agile AL type guitar (LP style body) with stainless steel frets ? I've noticed that some of Agile's non LP type guitars have stainless steel frets. The Agile interceptor ( I think that's the right name) has them. Is this something you can get with a custom order? I'm a big fan of stainless steel frets in case you haven't guessed.
Thanks

[BatUtilityBelt]

I think they're long out of production, but my AL-3001 has SS frets. If I recall correctly, SS frets is indicated by the 1 in the 3001 model name. I was lucky to find mine used.

[tobijohn]

I think they're long out of production, but my AL-3001 has SS frets. If I recall correctly, SS frets is indicated by the 1 in the 3001 model name. I was lucky to find mine used.Front.jpg

I've got that same one, I bought it from Rondo in May 2014 and IIRC, it was the last left-handed one ever listed...

[nomadh]

I have a 3001. Fine guitar but actually the ss frets off put me a bit. I get a sort of after ping when playing. Funny enough last time I was playing it I had it setup for slide and wasn't even using the frets. I still want to get back to it and give it a another try

[toomanycats]

I own an Agile AL-3101M from 2014. As @nomadh mentioned, when played unplugged the stainless frets make a somewhat annoying ping, though I don't notice it when the guitar is amplified.

[slowhand84]

Hey does anyone here, have an Agile AL type guitar (LP style body) with stainless steel frets ? I've noticed that some of Agile's non LP type guitars have stainless steel frets. The Agile interceptor ( I think that's the right name) has them. Is this something you can get with a custom order? I'm a big fan of stainless steel frets in case you haven't guessed.
Thanks

I've had several Agile LPs with stainless frets (and still have two Agile Epics with the stainless frets as well). I honestly don't buy guitars anymore unless they have stainless frets, there are so many positives to them. Agile doesn't do custom orders anymore so the only option to get an AL model with stainless frets is to buy one used (the AL3001, AL3101M, etc).

[andrewsrea]

Some people really like stainless steel frets. My favorite is cryogenically treated nickel, which is more durable than standard nickel. The I prefer standard nickel frets.

Like @nomadh and @toomanycats suggested, SS has its drawbacks which to me are not worth the trouble:
1.) Any fret work required will cost triple. It is true SS is hard to wear down from use, but they still experience fret sprout and lifting from the finger board. With nickel, you can do a little dress filing or a dead-blow hammer to fix, followed up with a little super glue. SS resists reshaping from hammering and will take out a diamond dress file ($25 after shipping) after one fret sprout repair. Unless someone is a friend, like @golem, I turn down those repairs and I do not make recommendations, as I don't personally know anyone who is competent in SS.

2.) You will wear out guitar strings 2 to 4 times faster. Stainless Steel strings sound unmusical and have a terrible fell to them (end of discussion) and are the only strings which can stand up to SS frets. Nickel strings are most common great sounding strings and SS frets eat them up. My playing style is filled with vibrato shakes and string bends. On a normal guitar, I get about 15 to 20 hours of play before the fret divots cause the wound strings to go dead. On a SS fret guitar I repaired (made pickups for), I wore out a new set of strings in 3 hours of play. If you are a shredder (more notes and less bends), you'll get more time with a set of strings, but still less than if you had nickel frets.

3.) Cowboy chords (combination of open strings and fretted notes) sound and feel unbalance, unless you have a SS or metal nut. This may be a nit or a micro perception, but SS resonates longer than a standard nut material.

4.) Tick and ping. For electric and at 80dB amplified playing volumes it is not very noticeable, except for the aforementioned imbalance. On an acoustic guitar, it is very noticable and not musical.

5.) The idea that SS frets save a player from a major expense is a placebo. Many players never get or need a fret job - ever. I have two friends who play like mental patients, probably for at least 4 hours, every day, mainly on one or two guitars. My friend Bill in one of them, who has had two fret restorations and two fret replacements over an estimated 45,000 hours of playing on his 1994 Fender American Standard Telecaster (nickel frets). For him, that is a $250 (average) expense every 8 years, For those who play an average of 8 hours a week, that is a fret job every 27 years. For those who buy and tweak guitars more than you play them (I know you are among us), you will never need a fret job in your lifetime unless you bought a pre-worn guitar.

[golem]

I knew a surf rock guitar player than has a Pre-CBS Jazzmaster he's played since the 60s. He gigged at least 2-3X a week and it's got divots, but not to the point that it's unplayable. He claims he's never had the frets done. My only point there is that, to some extent, needing a fret level is a matter of how hard you push down on the strings. I was taught to use really light fretting when I was starting out.

All this said, I'm not anti stainless at all. I think it's a nice to have. I can't really tell in some cases if a guitar has stainless frets just by looking at them.

[toomanycats]

Don't mean to drift this thread, though the question I'm posing is directly related to stainless steel frets.

I'm aware that EVH used stainless frets on many of his later, signature model guitars. But at what point did Eddie switch from using regular nickel frets to stainless frets?

Was it during the era of his "classic" tone, by which I mean Marshall Plexi amp, Frankie or one of it's iterations, with guitar panned right as per Templeman's usual mixing procedure?

Or was it after he started using the Soldano (and later the Peavey amps), mixed the guitars in wider and in stereo, and stopped using Frankie type guitars?

To condense my question: How significantly did the switch to stainless frets affect Eddie Van Halen's tone, and when exactly did it happen?

[slowhand84]

Don't mean to drift this thread, though the question I'm posing is directly related to stainless steel frets.

I'm aware that EVH used stainless frets on many of his later, signature model guitars. But at what point did Eddie switch from using regular nickel frets to stainless frets?

Was it during the era of his "classic" tone, by which I mean Marshall Plexi amp, Frankie or one of it's iterations, with guitar panned right as per Templeman's usual mixing procedure?

Or was it after he started using the Soldano (and later the Peavey amps), mixed the guitars in wider and in stereo, and stopped using Frankie type guitars?

To condense my question: How significantly did the switch to stainless frets affect Eddie Van Halen's tone, and when exactly did it happen?

Eddie switched to stainless frets around 2008 or so, the redesigned Wolfgang model that was displayed at NAMM in 2009 was the first of his signature guitars to have them. There really isn't any discernible effect on an electric guitar's tone due to SS frets once the guitar is plugged in. You can hear a bit of a difference unplugged, but through the amp there are so many factors affecting what you're hearing that any difference the fretwire might be making is totally negligible.

[NutBehindTheGuitar]

Hey Everbody

Thanks for all the responses. First of all I have totally drunk the Stainless Fret Kool-Aid. They feel so much nicer to my fingers. I have stainless frets on my two Warmoth neck strats and eventually I'd like to have stainless on all my guitars.

To Golem
"I was taught to use really light fretting when I was starting out." Good for you Golem I wish I had a light touch. I'm trying not to be so heavy handed, in both my fretting and picking, but it's an ongoing struggle.
Also
"I knew a surf rock guitar player than has a Pre-CBS Jazzmaster he's played since the 60s. He gigged at least 2-3X a week and it's got divots, but not to the point that it's unplayable. He claims he's never had the frets done. My only point there is that, to some extent, needing a fret level is a matter of how hard you push down on the strings. I was taught to use really light fretting when I was starting out."

I think that's true. I read somewhere in a profile of Brian May the Queen Guitarist, that his guitar tech felt his guitar was about ten years overdue for a fret job. Apparently Brian has such a good ear that he automatically compensates for worn out fret by pressing down fractionally harder or softer to get the right pitch.

I've found that I can get those open "G" cowboy chord to sound a little better by varying the finger pressure a bit from string to string.
Bye

[uwmcscott]

This harkens me back to the "glory days" of the AL XXXX and all the discussions about the different model numbers/etc. I have forgotten a lot

3000 - OG 3xxx - ebony board/abalone inlays/nickel hardware/nickel frets/1 5/8nut
3001 - came later, 4th digit represents ss frets
3010(original) - pretty much same as the original 3000 but with 1 11/16 nut. 3rd digit signifies chrome hardware instead of nickel
3010SE - came out as a budget/special edition version - slightly thinner body than a 3010 and less binding
3100 - 3000 specs with MOP inlays
3101- ebony/MOP/nickel/SS
3110 - ebony/MOP/chrome/nickel
3125 - 3100 with chambered body
3200 - neck through/contoured

I don't think there was ever a 3111 or a 3011. And then you had the MCC designation for the neck profiles, etc - and that funky flat bodied one - and the neck through 3xxx ( non contoured )..and so on.

[dabbler]

This harkens me back to the "glory days" of the AL XXXX and all the discussions about the different model numbers/etc. I have forgotten a lot

- and that funky flat bodied one - and the neck through 3xxx ( non contoured )..

Yess, non-contoured 3000...

[uwmcscott]

This harkens me back to the "glory days" of the AL XXXX and all the discussions about the different model numbers/etc. I have forgotten a lot

- and that funky flat bodied one - and the neck through 3xxx ( non contoured )..

Yess, non-contoured 3000...

IMGP0821.jpg

IMGP0816.jpg

IMGP0815.jpg

IMGP0814.jpg

Yes, that was one of my all time faves. I don’t have a single Agile anymore, but that model or a 3125 would be my choice

[dabbler]

This harkens me back to the "glory days" of the AL XXXX and all the discussions about the different model numbers/etc. I have forgotten a lot

- and that funky flat bodied one - and the neck through 3xxx ( non contoured )..

Yess, non-contoured 3000...

IMGP0821.jpg

IMGP0816.jpg

IMGP0815.jpg

IMGP0814.jpg

Yes, that was one of my all time faves. I don’t have a single Agile anymore, but that model or a 3125 would be my choice

Yeah, that 3125 is special, too!

[NutBehindTheGuitar]

Well Faith and Begorah, an agile AL with stainless steel frets just showed up on Reverb .

https://reverb.com/item/80357491-agile- ... h-upgrades



Guitar is a real beauty too.