Road worn series Fretting out problems

Hi Guys,

I know this topic has been posted a million times but no ones has adressed doing fret fall off from my findings

I have just been trying to set my roadworn series 52 tele up. Its been fretting out on the higher frets (about 12 and up). I have the neck set pretty damn straight with a low action. I have also done a fret level and crown. Its still fretting out after the fret level process. I know this is easily fixed by raising the action, but i want to have a low action. So my question is, will doing fret fall off from around 12 to end of neck fix my problem?? Shimming the neck in my opinion wont do anything as the neck will still remain straight just on a different plane/angle. Im not sure what the radius is on my road worn series.

Any help would be awesome!!

Hi Guys,

I know this topic has been posted a million times but no ones has adressed doing fret fall off from my findings

I have just been trying to set my roadworn series 52 tele up. Its been fretting out on the higher frets (about 12 and up). I have the neck set pretty damn straight with a low action. I have also done a fret level and crown. Its still fretting out after the fret level process. I know this is easily fixed by raising the action, but i want to have a low action. So my question is, will doing fret fall off from around 12 to end of neck fix my problem?? Shimming the neck in my opinion wont do anything as the neck will still remain straight just on a different plane/angle. Im not sure what the radius is on my road worn series.

Any help would be awesome!!


if you take a take a fret rocker & all the frets are perfect from 12th on its your neck angle....not sure what radius that neck is....if its 9.5 or 7.25 i usually shim the top (toward the peghead) of the pocket with a piece of buisness card...also, there is only so low your action will go with this radius...its basic science....Good Luck...

I got it playing perfect!! I did not need to shim the neck as i knew from the start. I cant get my head around shimming necks????? The neck still remains straight, your just adjusting its angle or plane. which means you just have to adjust the saddles to accommodate the new neck angle....so your back to where you started just on a different angle. i will try and draw my explanation. So to fix my neck i just added some more fall off from 12th fret onwards. There were plenty of fret left so this wasn't a problem. this meant when bending higher up the neck the strings cleared all of the frets to the end of the neck. its not really rocket science, just common sense. I do understand shimming the neck, BUT if you want your action to remain low, fret fall off is the only way to adress the fretting out problem. If your happy with higher action - shim your neck. But then again you can just raise the saddles lol

I'm going to have this done soon my 52 RI as well for the same reason.

....so your back to where you started just on a different angle.

Good job on fixing your problem!

I just wanted to comment on your shimming remarks. You're absolutely right as long as the neck is dead flat. The radius of the fretboard (and frets) and the front bow of a neck under tension are also part of the equation. That's why shimming helps in some instances.

My Tele has one small low fret on the high E second fret (F#) it makes that sitar sound.Do I need to take All the frets down level or can I just go down the high E? There 6100 frets on a 7.5 radius boatneck

My Tele has one small low fret on the high E second fret (F#) it makes that sitar sound.Do I need to take All the frets down level or can I just go down the high E? There 6100 frets on a 7.5 radius boatneck

Id do what i did with my neck, Start with a fret level and crown. that will definately make all the frets level with each other and should fix your problem.