Those ball-end stainless steel frets are finished frets that are pre-rolled by machine.
First of all, not every guitar with ball-end stainless steel frets will have the following problems, but they do have a high probability of occurring.
- When using pre-rolled frets, it is difficult to ensure that the length of each one matches the width of the fingerboard perfectly. Most of them are shorter than the fingerboard and do not reach the edge, and tend to offset horizontally, reducing the available fret width slightly.
- Those frets, pre-rolled by machine and shorter than the fingerboard, tend to be unevenly stressed when pressed into the fingerboard, and fret leveling problems will lead to fret buzz.
- Stainless steel is very hard, and due to uneven force during installation, it is difficult to press the end of this kind of fret firmly. The ends tend to bounce up over time and the strings can get caught when playing, especially the high E. Some manufacturers will delay the situation by applying glue.
Our hand polished stainless steel frets are different in the following ways：
- We choose stainless steel semi-finished frets whose length is much longer than the width of the fingerboard.
- When pressing them into the fingerboard with precise external forces, ensuring that the force is evenly applied to all parts of each frets.
- Experienced luthiers carefully check, dress and polish them smoothly.
Stainless steel frets are very hard and almost never wear out or deform, which also makes hand polishing difficult and requires frequent changes of fret working tools, although time-consuming and expensive, but the benefits to the player are worth it.
Our experience tells us that playability, durability, and reasonableness of manufacture are the most important, not good looks,and believe that this is the reason why most of those famous guitar brands choose to polish their frets by hand.