Like fuck nickel frets, nomsaying?
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Yes. I am a fret destroyer, and just recently got a Charvel with stainless steel frets - ain’t going back.
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Dude Charvels with stainles steel frets are great.
I have a MIJ Charvel DK24 with stainless steel frets that are mirror polished and just so smooth bend on.
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One day they might have ceramic frets, that should last forever.
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Ceramic is harder but I feel like it would be a nightmare to work with in comparison.
I feel like stainless steel frets already have a good level of longevity.
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Agreed! Just picked up a Cort G300 Pro (stainless steel frets) and good lord! What a good time! They sound brighter and snappier to me as well.
Yeah it’s hard to go back to peasant-nickel frets after experiencing alpha-stainless steel frets.
Hahaha, SS just mogging everyone!
I’ve got a couple guitars with both. And, honestly… I can’t tell the difference. 
My preference is for stainless because they wear better, of course, but the nice thing with nickel steel is they’re fine for years even with heavy play, and once they’re not, you just replace them with stainless.
Chad-Stainless Steel just taking all the Beta-Nickel’s bitches. lol.
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Do you not feel the difference with bending and vibrato? Well polished steel frets, to me, feel way better for expression.
And re-fretting with stainless steel is expensive af around my parts. I think the going rate around here is like $700-$800.
Not really, no.
My main players are a '97 American Standard Strat refret with jumbos (nickel steel, the luthier I brought it to really hated stainless and it took me 20 years to get the old frets to the point where they even needed a recrown), and a Suhr Modern I probably bought in 2018 or so, with jumbo stainless. I play the Strat enough that the tops of the frets never really have time to oxidize, and every year or so give it a quick fret polish.
I only really notice a change in “feel” when I don’t really play a guitar for months at a time, at which time you do get a little oxidation buildup and a little “drag” on bends at first.
Refrets are expensive anyway - I’d expect 3-400 for nickel steel by a good luthier around here, so $700 for stainless wouldn’t shock me. But that also gives you some indication of what sort of an upcharge you’ll need to pay for stainless in a new guitar, $2-300, and this is for something that even if its a main player you won’t have to worry about for at LEAST five or ten years. So, it’s either a couple hundred bucks more now, or a couple hundred bucks more a decade down the road, and if I otherwise really like a guitar I won’t let it get in the way for me.
Now, medium or smaller frets… those would be a day one fix. 
Y’know I don’t think I’ve ever been aware of what size frets I’ve been playing on guitars. I assume mostly “medium jumbo” but I actually don’t consciously know how smaller or taller frets feel.
What are the difference that you feel/are aware of?
For me, more “vintage” fret heights (especially when combined with a more “vintage” radius - if I’m being perfectly honest, radius is a bigger deal than fret height, I think) are just awfully hard to bend on. I feel like I struggle to get a “grip” on the string and it’s at risk of slipping out from under my fingertips.
I have some other pretty strong preferences - I don’t like TOMs or non-recessed Floyds, the picking angle feels wrong to me, for one - but a “vintage spec” neck with a round radius and small fretwire, that’s the strongest guitar dealbreaker I can thing of.
I’m curious why anyone would want vintage fret size and a vintage radius if it is non conducive to better playing.
Strange, seems like all guitars should have medium-jumbo frets, no?
Lots of people prefer vintage style specs. They’re certainly more comfortable for playing chords on an electric, and if you’ve been playing since the 60s, that’s probably the feel you’re used to, anyway. We all definitely have our preferences in what makes a good guitar for us, but those preferences aren’t universal rules and I’m sure there are people out there who are as turned off by a 16" radius as I am by 7.5".
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I shall remain shallow and overly opinionated on the matter and will feel smugly superior to those who like round fretboards and tiny little frets.
lmao.
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I don’t have the numbers but I’d say that could very easily be about half the market.
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SS frets are king! It’s hard to go back after you go SS.
Although I have had a few guitars where the nickel frets feel almost the same, so not all nickel is created equal. But the benefit of not worrying about wear is such a nice thing to have. I had a strat that I wore down a lot of frets on in just 6 months or so of playing (granted, many hours a day). It had the type where you can feel the string rubbing away the material when you do vibrato… it’s not a nice feeling, but it can add a little bit of “grit” if you’re going for that aggressive dirty sound.
I see it is becoming more and more common now to have SS frets, even on some cheaper guitars. I say it’s a good development for guitar production as a whole.
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