Spot leveling frets

[levitator]

I'm a little confused on where to post this so I apologize if it's in the wrong spot.

I've got a guitar that has a few high spots on some of the higher frets from 11-18 and it's really effecting how low my action can be so I've decided to try and level them out for the first time.

I've got my fret rocker and notched straight edge. I've never done this before so I want to make sure I do it right and don't make any avoidable mistakes. It's a cheap LTD MH103qm so i'm not THAT worried about messing up but at the same time I don't have the money nor the skill for a refret if I do.

I'm doing the whole, mark the high spots with a sharpie and slowly file the ink off with a small fine tooth file and then check the progress.
Is there anything I should be aware of other than taking off too much material? and do you have to level the fret board for spot leveling?
 

[Bizman62]

If you have a notched straight edge to level the actual fretboard, it'd be good. If you don't have one, let's believe the fret job has been done to a decent level so you can level the fretboard along the fret tops. In the case of the latter check the level at various locations to eliminate a high spot.

For fine tuning you can glue a piece of fine wet'n'dry sandpaper on a popsicle stick and use it as an ultra fine file.

Other than those there really isn't a better tool than a fret rocker and a fine file and numerous checkings during the process.

[curtisa]

In recent years I've noticed an upswing in the mentions of a notched straightedge being a necessary tool for fret levelling. I think it's important to note that a notched straightedge is primarily intended to reveal physical abnormalities in the fretboard itself, not the frets. Even the example given on the Stewmac youtube channel about their notched straightedge is showing off its abiity to reveal a neck with a hump around the 3rd fret, the proposed fix being to remove some of the frets altogether and spot-level the fretboard itself before reinstalling new fret wire, rather than re-fret and re-level the whole neck

If you're confident the problem on the neck around the 11-18 fret position is due to there being something funny going on with the fretboard being unusually shaped (a bulge, a sag) then yes, the notched straightedge will show this for you. But the fix for that problem is much more involved than just doing a spot level, as Stewmac allude to in their product video.

Personally I think a regular, unnotched straightedge should tell you enough about the neck's condition to make an assessment on the fret crowns themselves, which is where the playing actually goes on. The LTD ships from the factory with XJ (extra jumbo?) frets, so unless the frets are seriously worn, have been replaced in the past with lower fretwire or there is something really horrid going on with the neck/fretboard (in which case you're looking at a much more significant repair anyway) there should be more than enough meat left in them to withstand a fret level based on the crowning height of the existing frets determined with a plain straightedge.

Don't discount loose frets either. Maybe the frets in question have sprung up slightly out of their slots, in which case a fret level might not help, and in some cases can make things worse. Attempting to level a 'springy' fret with respect to surrounding 'solid' frets can be a bit like chasing your own tail - you level the loose fret by applying pressure and take the top off, but when you stop filing it springs back up again. You check it with a straightedge or rocker and find it's still high, so you take more off and so on and so on. You finally get it 'level' and string up the guitar, but whenever you fret a string on to it it sinks back down again and now you get fret buzz due to it being too low when fretting pressure is applied.