Fret buzz after doing fret jobs lately, Frank, you're the expert on fret work, any ideas?

[Kevin Swaim]

Frank/Folks,

I'm about at the end of my rope. After the last several fret jobs i've done, I've been getting buzz on the e a and d strings. These are mostly electrics, though I've got the same buzz on a Collins that I did.

So, here are some specs. I've got the action usually set at 4/64" on the high e string fading over to 5/64" at the low e, measured by pushing the string down on the first fret and measuring at the 17th. I've got about .008 of relief in the fret board.

I finally made a fret buzz detector. It's a super bright LED, a 2.2k resistor, a 9 volt battery, an alligator clip on one end and a probe on the other. By capoing the strings at, say, the 3rd fret, I can pluck the string and touch the probe to each fret to find where the string is buzzing. What I'm seeing is usually that it's buzzing against the fret 2 to 4 frets above. So, the low e would be held at the 3rd fret, and be buzzing at the 5 or 6 or 7th frets or any combination thereof.

With a fret rocker I can't find any high or low frets. This is after I've already flattened the frets and recrowned them and buffed them out, first with sandpaper and micromesh, then buffed on the pedestal buffer.

All the tools and measurements show me as being perfect. Yet, I'm still getting buzz. If I do the fret job with guitar on the bench, or if I put it in the neck jig and do it, I get the same results. I even thought it was that I maybe wasn't crowning the frets enough and that it was buzzing against a too flat fret that it was being fretted against, but I came back in and redid a neck with my 3 way file instead of my diamond crowning file, and created a much sharper peak, and then continued on with polishing out the frets. I still get the same results.

Most of the buzz is inaudible through the amp, but some still comes through. And, it's sensitive to pick attack, if you brush the string straight across it gets better, but if you put any kind of pick attack where the pick digs in to the string at all, it comes back.

Any ideas? Or, is fret buzz just something we have to live with? I'm not setting these up with ultra low action, here. If it was 2/64" or 3/64" I'd understand, but his seems to be withing Fender spec....

[Hesh Breakstone]

Don't know where to start but there is so very much wrong with some of the things said here....

Obviously the fret plane is not all that....  With this said techniques for precision fret dressing and THEN and only THEN set-up approach, specs, results and checks come into play.

If your fret plane sucks or is not perfect for very low action it just ain't going to happen for ya.....

Not everyone wants low action....  Many jazz players prefer bigger strings and higher action....  Blue Grass players like Martins Medium spec, 5 - 7 (64ths at the 12th) and that's not exactly low action either.

Preserving action specs by preserving nut slot depth that is not optimal is not a good idea or approach.  Optimal nut slot height is perhaps one of the very most important things to players.  It helps the instrument play in tune, eliminates any perceived need IME for nut compensation.... and makes the ax play like butter in the cowboy chord region.

Although action height is most definitely a function of nut slot depth action height should never be dependent on nut slot height.  Or, in other words we set the nut slots first and eliminate the variable with optimized nut slots and then and only then address action with relief and saddle height.

[David Kennedy]

 I get the buzz on A and D strings when I capo many times after refretting and leveling.

To me a perfect level job will produce no buzz when it's capo'd.  It's got to be close to perfect for perfect playing with a capo up the neck.

I think the guys who said the level job is not quite right are correct.  I've seen quite a few guitars where the rocker is fine but there's still a little buzz on D string when capo'd from 2 to 5 fret.

I believe the problem is coming from the neck under stress.  It changes things when the strings are on.  Things are level when not under stress.....boom...a little wavy when under tension....not enough to hear it with a rocker.

I usually do a slight angled level on the frets from about the 5th fret up......4 or 5 pieces of masking tape on the 5th fret.....only half sandpaper on the leveling beam.  Not much angle.....this gives just a sliver of an angle from about the ninth to the end of fingerboard.  I believe the 9th to about the 13th fret seems to be the problem areas.  

Another thing that helps is leveling the fingerboard on an angle before installing the frets.....this will solve thing sometimes if the end of the neck is rising under stress at the body when you install strings.  Put 4 or 5 pieces of tape on the neck at the 7th fret slot (no frets are installed)......half sandpaper on beam.......it sands neck on an angle.....you can use a straight edge and measure under the end of the finger board.....about .015 of space at the end of fingerboard will give enough angle.

I understand your pain......this is a common problem.  In the end....the frets are not perfectly level and the string tension is effecting the level.  I've also tried leveling under tension.....split two strings and use a piece of hard wood that's leveled....about 1" by 1"....slide between strings under tension......problem is with this is you get dips when it's level and that's another problem when capoing.  (if you're never going to capo it will work) I've used the thomas Ginex system which to me is a waste of time....not accurate enough.....it's fine for smoothing out the frets with fine sandpaper like 600 grit or more but not a good level under tension.

You can use a truss rod with double sided tape and a slice of sandpaper stuck to it in place of the 1" x 1" piece of hardwood.  

Use 3 round head nuts spaced across the neck to get the correct relief in the truss rod.....lever under each string under tension with the normal relief you use in the neck.  This works well for frets that are extremely close to level.....it will give you a perfect level under stress.  The thing is you only want to kiss the frets....not do a deeper level.  Then you get dips.  

this works like the expensive Japanese system...I forget the name of it.  You can get a truss rod from aliexpress.com for 6 or so dollars.

I always glue my frets in on a refret......you don't want one popping up a little.

[David Kennedy]

You can put 4 or 5 pieces of tape on the first fret and use a sanding beam with no sandpaper where it rides over the 1st fret......this will get the lower frets if you have a high one.....I usually go over it normally with a full sanding beam after a very slight angle....very slight!!!!   This pretty much gets rid of most of the angle.  It becomes microscopic.   You'll see the angle moving up the frets if you use sharpy.  You will spot a high area if there's one in there.