Are DR stainless steel roundwound strings hard on frets?

[Jim Dandy]

I have a question for the DR stainless steel round wound string users (Hi Beams, Lo Riders). How hard are they on your frets? How much fretwear do they cause?

Thanks!

[paul_yan]

Generally speaking, all stainless steel strings, no matter what brand, eat frets much faster than nickel wounds.

[johnallg]

I've been playing ss rounds from webstrings.com on one of my basses for a little over a year and haven't seen a difference from nickle wounds.

[cjj]

One thing people should remember, "nickel" wrapped strings are generally nickel plated steel these days as opposed to the "pure nickel", which was actually a nickel alloy, used "back in the day". I've always wondered just how the hardness of the steel used in nickel plated strings compares to the stainless alloy used in stainless strings. Steel and stainless steel alloys vary all over the place in hardness, so just comparing stainless to "nickel" may have less meaning than one might think...

[cassius987]

I play D'Addario ProSteels on my 4003 MG that I've owned for a year and gigged around 30 times. I play D'Addario Nickel XL's on my 4003 AFG that I've owned for three years and gigged 130-150 times. Which one has more fret wear? Believe it or not, the MG does. I guess steel really does chew frets more or at least in D'Addario's case. I'd hate to see that on a unprotected fretless.

Like CJ said, my strings are nickel-wrapped, not pure nickel. Only pure nickels I know of are DR Jonas Hellborg and Pyramid flats. I also use Alloy 52 strings on my fretless 4003, and they seem nickel-y (and are pure not just wrap).