Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 5, 2017 at 2:57pm

There ya go! And it's way cheaper and easier than a fret job, no?

But.,.if you're still getting the same note at the 13th and 14th fret on the high E, then shimming the bridge up on the treble side will make that worse, not better. What you wanna do is either shim the bass side up a smidge, or sand off 1/32" on the treble side, to lower it slightly.

Right now, it sounds like you have a very slight twist in the neck. Cranking the relief out another 1/8 turn should take that twist out. If you sight down the neck from the headstock, you should be able to see this.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Quinney on April 6, 2017 at 9:55am

I sighted down the neck in both directions and I can't see any twist. I am curious about more adjustment taking out twist, I thought it just affected up/down movement of the neck. I also didn't understand why raising the treble side would make the problem worse so I did a quick and dirty experiment - I put a shim between the bridge and E string. It actually cured the problem, I now have E, F, and F# for the 12th, 13th, and 14th frets.

Anyway, I hope you don't take this as a negative, I very much appreciate you taking the time to help me out!  And yes, what I've done is MUCH easier than messing with the frets...     :)

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 8, 2017 at 12:36am

If you can't see any twist, then there probably isn't any. I've had twisted necks before with the exact situation you describe, so figured I'd mention it. Wasn't meant to be the only possibility. Taking out neck twist, I should have mentioned (my bad) also involves placing the neck in blocks at both ends to secure it, letting out the relief in the neck completely, then bring it back slowly with 1/4 turn truss rod adjustments.

Excellent, your shim worked. And you did what any good luthier or scientist would do: Trust, but verify.

I'm glad we were able to help you cheaply solve your problem.

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Permalink Reply by JL on April 12, 2017 at 3:49am

from the picture it looks like you identified the problem, high E string saddle is too low. 

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Permalink Reply by Milt Haselmire on April 6, 2017 at 12:14pm

Glad you finally got a playable guitar. A twisted neck is fairly uncommon in my experience.  Raising bridge height like you did, as long as the action isn't too high, is the simplest solution. On acoustics this problem is almost always in the same fretboard area as was yours.  

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Jordan on April 7, 2017 at 8:35am

Lots of good advice here in this thread. For this kind of problem I like to keep the fix simple. A great fret leveling tool is a "sharpie" magic marker. This is how I saw the old timers do it. Either loosen the strings and remove or loosen them and pull them to the side and secure with what you have. If the 14th fret is high, draw a line with the sharpie on the crown of the fret, and one on the crown of the 12th and 13th fret as well. Then lay  a fine mill file on the frets with the file running parallel to the neck length. You want to lightly file across those 3 frets till the sharpie marks either disappear or just start to disappear on the 12th and 13th fret. Then you can polish the frets if you like, with 1000 grit sandpaper or steel wool. Restring and check it out.  

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