Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Have any of you noticed increased fret wear when using certain brands of roundwound strings?

Rotosound rounds are reported to be hard on frets.

When the string is harder that the fret material it wears quickly. There are nice half round and flat wounds.

Yup Rotos RS66 kill the frets, they're stainless steel I think. Nickle is softer. I almost always use flatwounds.

The hardness of the string is only part of it. The roughness of the surface is the other part. After all, stainless flats don't wear out frets (well, maybe in 50 years or so...). Stainless is harder and Rotos have a roughter surface than the average roundwound.

The gentlest roundwounds I've found are the D'addario XLs, which are nickel plated. But I haven't tried them all.

I always use nickel wound round wounds ... you can even get those from rotosound ...

I think nickles sound better also, they're not as harsh as SS RW's.

Well, after so many years of not being settled on strings.. that is.. using many different brands, I can't deny that I love the sound of Rotosound swingbass (RS66) for that aggressive growl. But I am concerned about fretwear. I've had the 4001 frets ground and crowned a couple times already. (Southworth in DC did a great job BTW) And the 4003 is starting to show some wear.

Jay, I've been playing DR Hi beams, they are a stainless roundwound. They are everybit as bright as the RS Swing bass strings. That's what I used to play. I've been using roundwounds for many, many years on my 4001. Honestly, I have no wear on the fret board and the frets are also in Great shape.

I use GHS Boomers, nickle rounds. I like the tone of nickle better than stainless, and it eases my mind about the fret wear a bit.
I tried flats, half rounds, and GHS pressure wounds, but like the round tone best.

Folks,

There is some discussion talking to this very problem over at the Fender Forum, should you want to look it over:
http://fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&topic_number=467577&lastpost=2005-01-3118:07:19

NSBL, it isn't really too much of a problem to run SS rounds unless you use a lot of vibrato, alot, alot.

I'm just a hack bass player, so take this with a grain of salt. Upon receipt of any guitar (bass or other), I usually do a general clean-up of it which includes cleaning the frets with metal polish to remove any corrosion. My thinking (as a chemist) is that built-up metal oxides can act as abrasive particles to increase the rate of wear on the frets. Some fret material seems to be more susceptible to corrosion than others; my Höfner 500/1 Blueburst had frets that were black from corrosion (and no, they weren't suposed to be black!).

I've gone to using DR nickel Lo-Riders on my 4003 and V63. They are lighter in tension and are compression wound to be easy on the frets. I'm going to see how they work. I still use Chromes flats on my Jazz Bass because the frets are so worn down from the previous owner, and I don't want to have a re-fret job done if I can help it. That is why I'm so picky about the strings I put on my Ricks. So this is an experiment for me. So far, they sound and feel great. I'm keeping my flats handy though just in case.

Has anyone here tried Elixirs? How do these strings sound and how would the frets fare with these strings?

I do use Elixirs. I have found them to have a relatively bright sound. They are coated so they feel exceptionally smooth for a roundwound string. I have read that the frets do eventually wear the coating off of the strings though. Can't speak to that, haven't had them on long enough to know. But I really enjoy these strings.