HolmerGuitar Fret Wires 2.9mm 22 Frets Stainless Steel Fretwire Compatible with Fender Electric Guitar Bass Guitar Fingerboard Replacement. Chrome

First the good. The radius is perfect, there was no damage to any of the frets, and they are (almost) the right length. Now the bad. I only received 23 frets. I am missing the shortest fret. Now the (possibly) ugly. I've been building guitars for many years and I have always run the tang out to the edge of the fingerboard on unbound fingerboards. I am making a standard Strat style neck and, since the tang on these frets has already been cut at the ends, the tang does not go to the edge of the fingerboard (yes, I have them in the right order). I did a bit of searching around on various sites on the web and found that some people are now nipping the tang on unbound fingerboards and filling the slot with a combination of glue and sawdust (in my case rosewood). This makes for a much better looking neck. I'm going to give that a try on this neck and see how it comes out. So, it may not be so ugly.Update: I've upped the rating to 4 stars from 3. It would be 5 stars but I only received 23 instead of 24. I was incorrect, the missing one was the largest not the smallest. Since I was building a standard 22 fret Strat neck this was a non-issue for me. The frets installed easily and, dare I say it, perfectly. After pressing in the frets I was left with approximately 1mm of overhang. The undercut of the tang was also approximately 1mm in from the edge of the unbound fingerboard. After filing back the overhang and filling the open end of the fret slots with dark glue and rosewood dust the neck looks better than any unbound board I've done (and also any I've bought). Bottom line, possibly some QC issues but a great product at a great price.Update 2: I've now purchased 5 sets of these and only the first one was missing one (I'm giving it 5 stars because that was the only problem I've ever had with them). In addition, I recently had a question about the composition of the stainless steel and asked the company for some clarification. They responded in less than 24 hours with the complete list of metals and their amounts. Really quick response and very informative. I only make 3 or 4 necks a year so, even though it would be cheaper to buy in bulk and do my own bending and cutting, I'll continue to buy these. I always buy the sets of 24 because I don't always do standard necks. I'm doing a copy of a Martin acoustic neck for a Telecaster so I dropped the shorter frets to compensate for the wider (44mm) nut.

These frets were perfect for my Chibson. A picture says a thousand words, so these pics tell you all you need to know.VERY HARD FRETS. Those fret end nippers in the picture are StewMac nippers and are supposed to handle Stainless Steel Frets. They got tore up. The pic was after the very first fret.RADIUS SPOT ON. Don't expect the radius of the frets to stay good if the fingerboard isn't in good order. This guitar was refretted because the original frets couldn't be leveled with a severe warp in the fingerboard. Look at the pic down the neck after the install. You can see the bridge at the end. This is perfectly the same radius down to the bridge.NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE? Me neither. The seller, L & Y is an excellent seller. If you're looking at these frets wanting to install them, and you don't have the tools, L & Y has a little kit with a Hammer, Hook Knife, Nippers, Tape, and a file. I used that kit. However, I wouldn't try the nippers to pull the frets. L & Y didn't call them fret pullers, they called it a String Cutter.Tools I used:1. L & Y tool kit. Fret hammer to hammer in the frets. Hook knife to clean the fret slots. Tape, multiple layers to protect parts of the guitar. The file to take care of sharp edges(has a smooth round end to keep you from filing on your fingerboard by mistake). Nippers to cut strings.2. Philadelphia Luthier's 3 peaks fret puller. It is ridiculously easy to pull frets with that tool. I don't think a better puller exists. Warming the frets rubbing a hot soldering iron on them while using your finger to watch the heat, makes it super easy. I had zero chip out, and no struggles at all.3. Check the straightness and radius of your neck. You need a radius gauge and a straight edge. Then check the slot depth to make sure there's room. If your neck is messed up you need tool number 4.4. Aluminum Radius Sanding beam. Buy the big long one straight from Philadelphia Luthier. Get some 80 grit, 220, and 400 from them as well. You can get it in 5 feet lengths. The 400 will work great to level the frets if you wish to do so.5. Fret rocker to verify you have seated the frets all the way. You may have to hammer the frets down more. A couple of thousandths of an inch is hard to see. The fret rocker will identify which frets need more smacking.6. something to support the neck while you smack it. Look at the pick to see what I used.7. A bevel file. Timiy Hard Maple Guitar Fret Beveling File for Fret End Dressing. It was only $14 and a must have for this. Take your time with it, it will be rough until all the frets are about the same length. Be careful of your headstock and guitar body, you will damage them if not very careful. Also, be VERY careful not to loose control of the file, have it hop up, and drag across your freshly installed frets. Take it really easy. If you don't want to destroy end nippers, you can file them all the way down with this tool, but you're going to need this tool even if you have the nippers. It does an excellent job of getting the frets right flush with the neck/binding.8. If you chose to level your frets, you need a crowning file, and something to polish the frets with. I have no good suggestions on a crowning file, other than you need to have diamond. I'm still working on this one. And then something to polish the frets with like Zona 3M polishing paper, or whatever.Hope this helps somebody.

Overall good quality, even tang cuts, and pretty even gradual length cuts for fretboard tapper. Only issue is the radius was not consistent with all pieces, but that could be due to shipping.

AFTER installing, you find, that these are quite perfect!! They go in super easy with a few taps using a fretting hammer (not sure the proper name). You don't need to cut them at all (you WILL need to file them down). They fit with just a bit of excess, so you really can't get it wrong. One, HEAD'S UP!!....They arrive "loose", they aren't arranged, and they ARE DIFFERENT width's. So, lay them ALL out and arrange the WIDEST one's for the higher notes on the fretboard, and the narrower ones' for the low notes. Level them out before restringing, give them a good crowning (as needed), a good polish, and voila!!! Wow, do good frets make a difference on intonation, tone, and playability!!

I bought some for my project guitar and I thought they were so good I bought 2 more sets

The product looks good, however in my case, they were cut too short. They seem to be a perfect match for regular necks or a Gibson binding method. There were cut exactly to be sandwiched between both binding like Gibson does, but are not long enough to go over the binding like Ibanez.If you want that round fret finish I am afraid that these are not going to work, I had to use the third fret for the first fret slot and so on, so I end up having to buy more frets to finish the neck because by the time I got to the 18th fret I did not have long enough frets to finish.

not at all easy to install but stainless steel better know what you're doing when you put these on.Not as fat as I'd like them to be but a very good product they do the job quite well. The stainless steel jumbos enough said