Frets on Archtop guitars:

Charlie4

Question on the frets of an archtop:

My lecturer owns a Gibson ES175 (Made in USA) and I own an Epiphone Emperor II (Made in Korea if I'm correct).
Reason I put in the location for manufacturing is both guitars have the same kind of fret wear after different years of usage, different level of manufacturing etc.
I compared this as well with my Ibanez Jem 555 which I've been playing extensively for the past few years and it shows no signs of fret wear.

What I'm getting at is: Are softer frets the norm on Archtops or is it merely a budget cut? (Would not make sense at all considering the 40K+ Gibby mentioned)
Is there a specific reason soft frets are used on Archtops?

Your thoughts please. ?

AlanRatcliffe

Strings, everything else the same? Some string compounds will wear the frets faster.

Everyone uses the basically the same German silver compound for frets (except the bronze sold by LMII and the stainless wire). Heck, most manufacturers use the same make of frets.

Some luthiers like to bend frets a couple of times with a fret bender before using them, and that tempers them so that they are slightly harder, but you don't usually find this in production guitars.

Charlie4

He always uses Flatwounds and I use roundwounds (which would probably explain fret wear on my guitar).
As mentioned, it seems the frets on the Ibanez can take more punishment (playing quite aggressively on the elecltric) in comparison to the Epiphone which
wears quite easily it seems (lot milder playing style).
???

FruitarGeek

Charlie4 wrote: He always uses Flatwounds and I use roundwounds (which would probably explain fret wear on my guitar).
As mentioned, it seems the frets on the Ibanez can take more punishment (playing quite aggressively on the elecltric) in comparison to the Epiphone which
wears quite easily it seems (lot milder playing style).
???

Interesting. How big is his string gauge. If he has like 14 - 58 I can imagine how those chunky strings will gnaw at the frets

Charlie4

Tbh I can't say 100% what gauge he uses but I know it's definitely not thicker than 12-54's flatwound, as I've also been playing on his guitar.
I used 11-54 on my Ibby, lots of vicious bends - no fret wear after years so I'm still lost in the dark here.