dead frets

[JohnnyG]

last night as i was playing my guitar i noticed that on the high A and D strings (Ordinarilly would be the high G and E strings but i detune) if i play either of them at the first to 4th fret then they sound really dead. ive heard about this happening before but never about how to correct it. can anybody give me some advice on how to get rid of it??

many thanks

[daveq]

When you say dead - do you mean no sound at all, buzzing, slight bit of sound, ...?

Have you determined if it is a fret levelling issue or a neck straightness issue (truss rod) yet? If it's just two strings that have this problem - I would check the levelling first - if it checks out OK, see if there's a straightness issue since that's the area of the neck that can be helped by a truss rod adjustment.

Sorry if you've already gone though all of this - those are the first two things that come to my mind.