Fretting Out on High Frets

[Paul in Colorado]

I'm working on a Japanese 50's RI Strat for a bandmate's neighbor. I find that it's fretting out when you bend strings past the 12th fret. The saddles are as high as I can get them. Any suggestions short of a fret leveling? Should I tighten the truss rod or losen it? Shim the neck?

The other thing I did was to install a five way switch. The middle pick up is about half or less as loud as the other pickups. Any thoughts on what might be causing that? I have to go back in to swap the tone control wires as I reversed them. Might that be a factor?

When I got this guitar, the electronics were in a bag and the pickguard was sitting in the bottom of the case. It's a big improvement, but I'd really like it to be right.

 

[cc9cii]

You may have to use a shim (at the headstock side, not the usual place towards the bridge). One of my guitars needed that. But first check the truss rod & neck relief.

WRT the middle pickup, need more info. Like, are the pickups all stock?

 

[Tim Armstrong]

Maybe there's already a shim in there that could be removed? That happened to me once!

Tim

 

[Casual_Reader]

Any suggestions short of a fret leveling? Should I tighten the truss rod or losen it? Shim the neck?

Eye down the neck first before trying shims. Another way to check is to fret the thickest string at the first and last frets simultaneously and see how close it is to touching the 12th fret. It should be close, but not touching. You'll want a slight back bow to avoid buzzing.

If there's a bow toward the strings or it's just plain too flat (touching the 12th), then loosening the rod should relieve it. It probably won't take much - like a quarter turn. maybe two. If it takes more than that, it might take more time (overnight) to settle into the new tension. Searching truss rod adjustment in google will bring up more detail if needed.

Once you've got the neck right independent of the mount, then you can start lowering the saddles to an acceptable level and see if shimming, or as Tim pointed out, removing a shim, is needed.

 

[Paul in Colorado]

I had the neck off to adjust the truss rod (losen) and there are no shims. I'm thinking of shimming the headstock side of the cavity to see if that'll help if the adjustment didn't take. When fretting the low E string at the first and last fret there is a gap at the 12th fret. All looks good, it just doesn't play right.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Casual_Reader]

sounds like you're on the right track. is it a 7.25" radius neck? they aren't really designed for excessive bends up high when the saddles are closely matching the radius and the action is set low.

other than messing with the frets - re-crowning or refretting, shimming is about all I can think of that you can do. When refretting, sometimes they sand the fretboard at a slight downward angle (fall away) starting at the 12th before putting the new frets on.

 

[Paul in Colorado]

I shimmed the neck and set it up and it plays a lot better. I used two shims and I think I'll take one out. The saddles went from all the way up to almost all the way down.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

in the long run, probably 'fretboard end hump' - happens to all guitars sooner or later and one reason why adding fretboard falloff before refretting is a good thing. you can get around the hump with neck shims, truss adjustments, bridge and saddle adjustments, but the action will suffer towards the higher end. for the lowest action and fastest playability, an L&C is the way to go.

 

[Paul in Colorado]

After getting it set up with two shims, I redid it with one shim and it looks and feels better. I can't see it looking down the neck, but I think it needs at the least a good fret leveling. I'm not seeing a hump, but it's playing like it has one. I've strung it with .010 strings which I believe will put a little more tension on the neck which will help. If it were my guitar, I'd probably go find a new neck. I think the guy who owns it will be happy that it's playable, so my work is done.