Electric Guitar Trends

For a long time, electric guitar frets didn’t change much. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, Fender stuck to their banjo frets (#6230 fret wire) and Gibson used the medium jumbo frets (#6130 fret wire).

At some point, frets started getting bigger.  Or rather, electric guitar manufacturers started using frets that are higher and wider than they used in the old days.

The marketing hype says that bigger frets make the guitar easier to play, especially if you like bending notes.  I suppose that is true.  It also makes the guitar easier to manufacture by the way.

By using big-assed frets, the guitar manufacturer has more leeway.  The guitar fret board does not have to be quite as accurately made, compared to a guitar with tiny banjo frets.

Those Fender Stratocasters from the 1950’s and 1960’s were often stellar guitars, but nobody played much above the 17th fret.  I am a student of Jimi Hendrix, and he never played above the 17th fret either - check it out.  The reason was because you often could not play that far up the neck with those skinny frets, unless the guitar was setup with great accuracy.

I suppose one piece of good news is that jumbo frets are typically highly polished on electric guitar nowadays, and they weren’t back in the 1960’s.

Did we lose anything in the trend towards biggers frets?  I think so. Call me crazy, but hammer-ons and pull-offs are easier and more pronounced on an electric guitar with small frets.