yeatzee
Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2016
- Messages
- 66
Lots of back and forth internally about this, but I eventually decided to have my M2M R7 Les Paul refretted with Jescar SS frets, and then film before and after to see if there's any difference in tone since that's such a common question people have (and a big reason why people opt out of going stainless, nobody wants to ruin the sound of their guitar).
Steps I took to do it correctly, first I installed brand new strings before shooting the before and then installed brand new strings with the refret done so that that variable was minimized as much as possible (even came from the same batch of strings from the manufacturer). I used my Suhr PT15IR direct with an IR so that there was no chance of a mic getting bumped or something invalidating the test, and everything was kept exactly the same for both recording sessions. I even changed into the same clothes to not influence anything subconsciously for people (I've found when we see changes we sometimes "hear" changes that aren't there because our brain likes patterns).
The one thing I couldn't account for was playing exactly the same each time, days apart. I tried my best, but like I talk about in the video the human element has to be present for it to be a comparison that matters in the real world. If the change in tone is noteworthy or realistically audible it would imo need to shine through subtle changes in tone from natural pick attack / angle variations that are unavoidable as humans. Or at least for it to matter it should.
Video has timestamps, playing starts at 2:57.
Curious what you guys think, what you hear, if it matches your personal experiences, and whether you're surprised or not.
Outside of the tone, I will say I found the feel not nearly as foreign as some say it is. Basically feels like fresh polished NS frets, which imo is a good thing but I know some like that bit of friction. I've heard about them being super slippery so it's easy to overbend, didn't run into that myself but of course YMMV. Overall, ignoring the tone element, I really like the frets. The size is about perfect for an LP as well (.104 wide .047 tall).
Steps I took to do it correctly, first I installed brand new strings before shooting the before and then installed brand new strings with the refret done so that that variable was minimized as much as possible (even came from the same batch of strings from the manufacturer). I used my Suhr PT15IR direct with an IR so that there was no chance of a mic getting bumped or something invalidating the test, and everything was kept exactly the same for both recording sessions. I even changed into the same clothes to not influence anything subconsciously for people (I've found when we see changes we sometimes "hear" changes that aren't there because our brain likes patterns).
The one thing I couldn't account for was playing exactly the same each time, days apart. I tried my best, but like I talk about in the video the human element has to be present for it to be a comparison that matters in the real world. If the change in tone is noteworthy or realistically audible it would imo need to shine through subtle changes in tone from natural pick attack / angle variations that are unavoidable as humans. Or at least for it to matter it should.
Video has timestamps, playing starts at 2:57.
Curious what you guys think, what you hear, if it matches your personal experiences, and whether you're surprised or not.
Outside of the tone, I will say I found the feel not nearly as foreign as some say it is. Basically feels like fresh polished NS frets, which imo is a good thing but I know some like that bit of friction. I've heard about them being super slippery so it's easy to overbend, didn't run into that myself but of course YMMV. Overall, ignoring the tone element, I really like the frets. The size is about perfect for an LP as well (.104 wide .047 tall).