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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on September 26, 2014 at 6:27am

You don't really need anything fancy or specialised to deal with this. Most importantly,  assume nothing until you have physically checked out what the problem is, and don't do anything until you have ascertained the cause of the problem, and then only ever do one operation at a time. I'm assuming that the truss rod is correctly adjusted and you have an acceptable amount of relief in the neck generally - leave the trussrod alone if things look reasonably OK, and certainly leave it alone if you don't know what you are doing with it! Whatever you do, don't fiddle with the truss rod or alter the saddles and tamper with the frets without re-checking after each step. For example if you do adjust the truss rod, check for buzzes before you do anything else.

In this case it could be a problem with the 15th fret being too high..or the 14th fret being too low. Check with a steel rule over the offending frets to see if it's rocking over a high fret...you might need a short rule or the blade of a try-square to isolate the exact high spot.

For a high fret, if it has become unseated slightly you can sometimes judiciously tap it down with soft faced hammer (or hammer & block of wood). If that isn't an option, it needs to be reduced in height with a fine file or a whetstone..they key is to go slow and constantly check with your straightedge  to make sure you don't go too far. Also, make sure you protect the fretboard itself from being marked by any tools such as files, abrasives etc that you might be using. A couple of layers of masking tape at the very least, or a special flexible steel fretboard protector ..which is just a piece of thin steel with a fret-wide slot in it. Once the fret is at the right height you'll need to reprofile it as it will now have a flat top in it. You can get special concave fret files for the job, but you can get by using a small smooth cut file or a needle file to round over and "recrown" the fret. Polish out the file marks with 600 and then 1200 grade wet & dry paper, and work to a mirror shine with 0000 grade wirewool. You might also need to polish out marks on the adjoining frets if your stone or file has kissed the top of the frets. 

There are lots of specialist tools available for dressing and re-profiling frets, and they can be very handy, but  you may find you've already got what you need in your toolbox. Go slow, steady and methodical, check at every stage. Best of luck with it.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 26, 2014 at 6:29am

There's a bunch of resources here: http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Fretting/

Stew-Mac sells every professional fret tool imaginable.

On the ones that exhibit fret buzz, is the fret too high, or too low?

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 26, 2014 at 4:24pm

Way,

My day job is finding oil and gas, which can be damned elusive stuff. In essence, it's a treasure hunt. I've always, even since I was a little kid, been good at finding stuff, both lost and unknown. And when search engines started becoming popular, I learned you had to filter 'em. My brain is pretty good at that, too, because my day job requires knowing what relevant information is needed. Plus, I've also learned that many, many people have trouble navigating the Internet, even if they're tech savvy. Also also wik, I actually like digging for info; the hunt gratifies me, even better if it can help someone else out.

And yes, I can Google quickly. I've been rightly accused of building my CBG knowledge base that way, versus experientially building hundreds of guitars, like, for example, Chickenbone John, whom I greatly respect for his experience and acumen. But, since this is a Web forum, I don't feel too badly about exercising my Internet treasure hunting skills for the benefit of CBGers, many of whom are aged, infirm, have weak eyesight, fat fingers, get frustrated with technology, are curmudgeonly, opinionated, reactionary, conservative, liberal, crazy old farts.

Like me. >:-E

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