Raising a single fret?

[Top-L]

When I leveled one of my S540s during the pandemic, I didn't go that deep into the frets to save fret height. One of the frets was only being "kissed" by the leveling beam. I stand by my decision not to go any deeper to preserve the rest, but this particular fret, when digging into the string will get some buzz.

Obviously if I could find the super-wide Ibanez fret wire from the mid 90s, I would just buy some and replace that one fret. But I can't find it and this fret only needs a tiny bit of height.

So my idea is to pull the fret and figure out a way to raise it a tiny bit. I was thinking aluminum foil on the underside, or even just a thicker coating of glue.

Can anyone recommend the best approach for this? Plan is to pull the fret, raise it up (somehow), then spot level it.

 

[ICTGoober]

I've done it, but it's tricky. And truthfully - since a spot level would be needed anyway - might as do that instead.

 

[Top-L]

I've done it, but it's tricky. And truthfully - since a spot level would be needed anyway - might as do that instead.

If I spot level in that vicinity, it will just pass the problem off the the adjacent area. I think.

These are really wide jumbos. I think I could cut two thin strips of aluminum foil for each side of the tang, then CA them to the underside and install the fret as normal.

How did you do it?

 

[ICTGoober]

If I spot level in that vicinity, it will just pass the problem off the the adjacent area. I think.

These are really wide jumbos. I think I could cut two thin strips of aluminum foil for each side of the tang, then CA them to the underside and install the fret as normal.

How did you do it?

Spot leveling usually includes several frets either side of the raised fret. The whole point is to level an average area,
I used fret nippers to raise the fret, used a 2 inch wide block to push it (hopefully) level with the surrounding frets and then applied CA glue to set the new height. Then I spot leveled and polished out the frets. As I said, it's tricky.

In 45 plus years at the bench I might have done it 10 times, and it's NEVER perfect. Leveling is the way to make sure. Frets are supposed to wear out, ya know.

 

[Top-L]

Spot leveling usually includes several frets either side of the raised fret. The whole point is to level an average area,
I used fret nippers to raise the fret, used a 2 inch wide block to push it (hopefully) level with the surrounding frets and then applied CA glue to set the new height. Then I spot leveled and polished out the frets. As I said, it's tricky.

In 45 plus years at the bench I might have done it 10 times, and it's NEVER perfect. Leveling is the way to make sure. Frets are supposed to wear out, ya know.

Its in the middle of the neck, 12th fret.

If I level just in that vicinity, it will just pass the buck and require a higher action farther up the neck, so I would have to marginally raise the action, and the action on those "spot leveled" frets would be worse.

I have spot leveled individual frets very carefully with a fret rocker and flat files, without touching the adjacent. It took measuring varying degrees of height mismatch between the offending fret and it's neighbors. This worked surprisingly great on a new guitar.

I am playing with action in the "low to very low" range and can't get away with just doing just a subset in a local area, unless maybe it was at one end.

I will try to find some matching fretwire. I'm sure some exists. But if I'm buying wire, might as well redo the whole neck...

 

[GuitarDoc]

What is the height and width of the crown? StewMac carries quite a few different sizes.

 

[larryguitar]

I suspect anything but leveling the entire board will result in disappointment. That's been my result when I try 'spot' repairs. I'd also be concerned with creating a 'dead' fret if I tried the lifting and filling you discussed.

Larry

 

[GuitarDoc]

Lifting the fret is a really bad idea...unless you enjoy feeling fret end sprout.

Either replace the fret, do a complete level job, or replace all of the frets.