One Bad Fret

[Mickguard]

My guitar has a problem....the 10th fret, High E just sounds dead. Tinny. Fizz.

All other notes on the guitar sound fine --all the other notes on the high E, all the other notes at the 1Oth fret.

It looks to me like the 11 fret is not fully seated at the treble side --it actually looks like there's a tiny chip of wood caught under the fret that's preventing it from seating. (It does not look like the fretboard is chipped though --it really looks like it's a foreign chip, although it's hard to tell.

It's possible the fret end might have come up, what with all the weather changes we've had. Or that it was never properly seated in the first place. But if it's lifted, it's only the very end --but when I look at the edge, the tang appears properly seated?)

Thing is, the fret 'died' round about the time I finished cutting the nut slots and resetting the truss rod and the bridge height (also changed bridge at the same time). But that might be coincidence --or it might be setting the action nice and low made the problem apparent.

So how can I fix this?

I have the Stewmac press caul thingamajig, with the proper radius --should I try to press the fret back in?

Wish there was a proper luthier in the neighborhood, I'd take it in to have it looked at. But there's not, so I'm going to have to sort this out myself....

[whitey]

put all your action back up to normall,

if i were you i'd be playing with the action and getting a pair of pliers and a towel(to stop marks) and squezzing the fret back in.

[Mickguard]

put all your action back up to normall,

Sorry, I wasn't clear...I meant that I'd set it up as 'normal' --I was following Gibson's specs, since the fretboard is a 12" radius.

[soapbarstrat]

I have the Stewmac press caul thingamajig, with the proper radius --should I try to press the fret back in?

Wish there was a proper luthier in the neighborhood, I'd take it in to have it looked at. But there's not, so I'm going to have to sort this out myself....

Wait, you mean you have this ? :

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...Fret_Press.html

But haven't bothered to invest in something like this ? :

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...ret_Rocker.html

(although I've had 2 of those "rockers" and sent them back because the 4" side was not dead flat. Luckily I was able to cut up an old combo square metal ruler into short straight edges that are quite accurate)

[Mickguard]

Wait, you mean you have this ? :

No, I have this: just the caul and inserts

As for the rocker, well, there's only so many tools a guy can have...I'm just getting started at this. I'm about to order the tools I'll need for leveling/beveling/crowning, so that's going to help.

In the meantime, I used a straight edge --but the 11th is clearly lifted at the end, or never got set in correctly.

Keep in mind that this is an unfinished neck I bought off ebay...it's from a Washburn Idol I think, not their super high-end, but definitely the US series. Looks like they abandoned it because they screwed up the tenon --so it's possible they never bothered to complete the fretwork.

So can I use the caul to press the fret end down? Should I try to sneak some superglue under there?

[SwedishLuthier]

You can use the press cauls. Using one with a smaller radius that the fretboard (like a 9.5” on a 12” board) will put more pressure on the fret ends. If that doesn’t take care of the problem you might need to remove the fret and put n a new one. Even if you get the original fret in with press, you will have to do a new fret levelling and dressing.

[Mickguard]

You can use the press cauls. Using one with a smaller radius that the fretboard (like a 9.5” on a 12” board) will put more pressure on the fret ends. If that doesn’t take care of the problem you might need to remove the fret and put n a new one. Even if you get the original fret in with press, you will have to do a new fret levelling and dressing.

Well, I should have a set of tools for that in a couple of weeks ...don't know if I want to practice on this guitar though (I have a couple of beater necks here though, that should be alright).

I'll give it a try...guitar isn't fully playable as it is...at any rate, this is my first guitar with jumbo frets--after playing it for a couple of months, I've decided I prefer a shorter fret height after all.

In the meantime, I'll try pressing that fret end down, maybe the guitar will be playable in the meantime....can't be worse!

[j. pierce]

I had a similar problem on a bound fretboard, I wicked some water-thin superglue under the fret end, and held the fret end down with a homemade fret setter for maybe 30 seconds. Held fine. Granted, this was just the tang-less end of a fret, over the binding, I don't know if your problem was the same or not. That problem was gone after that. (although I did end up re-levelling the whole board later on.) But I've found in my limited fretting experience, ends are the hardest thing to get to stay down if they aren't down when you put the fret in originally. So I would say a bit of superglue might be a good thing.

The pastewax/superglue thing I was asking about last week, as mentioned in the Stew Mac fretting book, really helps clean up. Use some paste wax, like from the car shop, and spread a light film of it on the fingerboard around the fret you're gluing. I suppose not right up, or the glue might not wick in. But afterwards, yeah, I was suprised at how easily any excess superglue scrapes right up with the wax.

[Mickguard]

Both great ideas...although I have the fret caul and the inserts, that should accomplish the same thing as the fret setter.

I was thinking I'd just tape off the board, but the wax idea might end up to be easier.