mj_gant Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 I am getting ready to level an old Fender 7.25 radius maple neck. Could someone please explain the technique used to reduce the "fretting out" when you bend on high strings at the 15th fret and above? Here is a bit from the guitar player repair guide, however it is not clear to me "The quickest fix for vintage Fenders which buzz when you bend, is to relevel the existing frets until the straight edge sits flat on the top three string lies(E and B strings)" String lies? Is this like turning it into a compound radius? I am confused but not dumb. Please help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 I am getting ready to level an old Fender 7.25 radius maple neck. Could someone please explain the technique used to reduce the "fretting out" when you bend on high strings at the 15th fret and above? Here is a bit from the guitar player repair guide, however it is not clear to me "The quickest fix for vintage Fenders which buzz when you bend, is to relevel the existing frets until the straight edge sits flat on the top three string lies(E and B strings)" String lies? Is this like turning it into a compound radius? I am confused but not dumb. Please help. ← When they say "string lies" they just mean the lines on the fretboard where each string is, as opposed to the spaces between them. It's not telling you to do a compound radius or anything, just to relevel the frets so that they're all at the same height - laying a ruler down on the fretboard where each string goes just lets you make sure that all your frets are the same height. If you can't see any light between the ruler and the frets for any fret, you've got it perfect and you shouldn't have any more issues with buzzing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 It is also common practice to mill a very (...very...) slight "fall away" in the fret heights above #12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Rosenberger Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 Yes in esscence you are making a compount radius on the higher frets. If you were to look down the neck from the bridge end to the nut you'll notice that if you extented the imaginary lines "String Lies" you'll be forming a Cone whereas a non compound radius will form a cylinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitarfrenzy Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 I have a Fender guitar that has the 7.25" radius and no matter how perfect it is leveled it will fret out when bending in the higher regions. Just wanted to clear that up first off. Secondly, your going to have to take the frets off so you can redo the fingerboards radius if that's what your after. Basically what erik and Scott said on the compound radius will work, but it must be done correctly or you'll even make the problem worse. Another thing to consider is how much wood can you level out before you get it so thin that the truss rod doesn't have enough support. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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