Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

[big_black]

I put .11s on my SG, adjusted the truss and lowered the action to my liking. I also buffed out the frets and the board for good measure. When I restrung it I found a buzz on the low E, A, and D strings. Checking the frets I noticed the 13th fret is pretty far off on those strings. I can see it and it looks like only one fret is bad. I'm kind of weary about doing anything beyond a buffing on my frets, is this something I should attempt on my own? I was thinking of getting a sanding block and just going over the whole board to even the fret out. Is this what I need to do? I'd like to take care of this myself and not have to pay for a fret leveling.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

I would strongly advise against doing that. If it's off by just a very tiny amount, you can sometimes get away with sanding one fret just a little bit. But for someone who's inexperienced with fret work, it's not a good idea to start trying to level them yourself without the proper tools. Once frets are levelled, they'll need recrowned, and that's a job for a pro if you don't have much experience in that area. Is the fret seated properly in the slot, and are all the other frets okay? If it's raised up and not seated properly, it wouldn't cost much to have that one fret replaced or reseated.

Ryan

 

[big_black]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

No, it's seated properly. It's just the one fret and it raises up on an angle going from D-E. It's visually noticable when you look down form the bridge side.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

Before doing anything else, I would suggest getting a good straightedge to check all the frets, just to make sure that's the only one that's off. If so, I would just take it to a good trech and have that one fret fixed. You shouldn't need a complete fret level. The tech will likely just file down that fret a small amount, then go over it with a crowning file until it's the proper height. Not something you want to try yourself unless you don't mind buying a crowning file. I think getting one fret fixed by a good tech would actually be less expensive than buying a good crowning file.

Ryan

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

If you want to do that kind of work you need a flat, perfectly straight 3" to 6" mill file and a fret crowning file...in addition to your fret polishing supplies.

I made mine by grinding a 12" mill file into a 3" and 6" length and made two files out of one.

The 3" file is probably all you'd need.

I'd pick up Dan Erlewine's great book on guitar repair and study up on fret repair work before tearing into your guitar.

Lew

 

[proxy]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

If you want to do that kind of work you need a flat, perfectly straight 3" to 6" mill file and a fret crowning file...in addition to your fret polishing supplies.

I made mine by grinding a 12" mill file into a 3" and 6" length and made two files out of one.

The 3" file is probably all you'd need.

I'd pick up Dan Erlewine's great book on guitar repair and study up on fret repair work before tearing into your guitar.

Lew

Great Book!

 

[big_black]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

This is the guitar I play everyday so I don't think I want to practice fret leveling on it. I'd rather spend $80 on a full fret level than deal with more bad frets from my incompetence and inexperience. Thanks for the info guys.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Found a bad fret. Question for the luthiers in the house.

If it's just that one fret, there's no need for a fret level. If the others are fine, the tech will just bring the bad fret down to match the height of the others. Shouldn't be too expensive.

Ryan