flat wire frets

[rocket]

Recently someone enquired if i made,,(flat wire frets like on the early es175's) is this a literal term? Seems to go against any knowledge i have regarding frets, tuning and intonation of the guitar if someone was flattening of the top of their frets!!
Can anyone shed some light on this term please?

Cheers

Rod.

[jeffhigh]

It was the Gibson Les Paul Custom in the 50's that had these.
As far as I know they were still crowned, but at a flatter radius and were lower in height than the regular Les Paul Standard frets.
Some loved the feel and christened it the fretless wonder, others found bending difficult.

[rocket]

Thanks for that Jeff, why was there difficulty in bending and do you know of these are still available and why did Gibson discontinue their use?
Rod.

[kiwigeo]

Thanks for that Jeff, why was there difficulty in bending and do you know of these are still available and why did Gibson discontinue their use?
Rod.

I dare say it's to do with fret height...same reason alot of players find bending easier on a scalloped fretboard.

[Kamusur]

Have an old fretless ES like Rod mentioned above or should say had, that is until Trevs' partner in crime "GG" refretted it in about 84 in a cellar at Seaforth. Definitely not recommended at all so stay far, far away from them as possible cos intonation sucks and they always feel worn out IMHO.

Steve

[rocket]

In reference to bending! Are we talking about the note or the fret.?
Rod.

[jeffhigh]

Bending strings is harder because your fingertip has more contact area and more force against the fretboard with the low height.
It's pretty much the same as regular frets that have been levelled too many times
See http://www.guitarhq.com/gibson.html about a third of the way down
Says 70 thou wide frets
If I had to reproduce that I'd be using the lowest 70 thou wide frets I could get, levelling them aggressively and crowning with my jumbo fret file to give a low radius.

[rocket]

Thanks to all for the sound info..

Rod.

[jeffhigh]

I have never hear of the ES models having the Fretless wonder treatment from new. probably just ended up that way after numerous dressings.

[Kamusur]

Reckon you're on the money Jeff. We had/have a local repairman whose installation of frets involved the heaviest of dressings i've ever seen and the poor misguided soul felt it improved intonation so go figure.

Steve