refret question

[Doug Guillaume]

Hi,
I'm new here. Great forum.
I have a 2004 G&L Legacy with a bolt on neck. I'd like to do a refret so I can level the fingerboard. It has a rising tongue, and I get fret buzz in the upper registers. The tention rod only affects the first five frets.
Should get the neck as straight as possible, and then sand the fingerboard, or should I address the tongue first?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

[Bob Gaddis]

You need to take careful measurements of the action and neck relief, top bellyig and saddle and bridge height relating to neck angle. It may be appropriate to do a neck re-set and with a bolt-on neck, you need to determine the amount of deflection and the reason for it before making a decision to sand or plane the fingerboard.

[Doug Guillaume]

Can't I make a type of reset by removing material from either end of the fretboard?
ie. removing material from the nut end of the fretboard will lower action @ the bridge, and removing material from the body end of the fretboard will raise action @ the bridge?

[Doug Guillaume]

Would you be so kind as to explain what is meant by top bellyig?

[Ned Knepp]

There may be a bit of a mix up here. Top Bellying is a condition in acoustic guitars ( and, I suppose, hollow body electrics? ) that results when string tension begins to pull the bridge forward and up, pulling the top along with it until there is a pronounced "belly" in the shape of the top behind the bridge.

I think maybe Bob assumed that you were talking about an acoustic guitar. ( I had to look up your guitar to find out that you weren't too, )

Ned

[Doug Guillaume]

You're right. I can see I was definitely, too vague. My apologies, please.

[Ned Knepp]

Don't worry about it, Doug. I can't speak for Bob, of course but I have to admit that I had to laugh at myself when I realized that my bias towards acoustics caused me to assume you were talking about one in your post. I never considered that it was an electric until you asked what top belly is. Now I realize that this isn't much of an issue with electrics so there's not any reason for you to know about it.

Ned

[Doug Guillaume]

I'm really new to lutherie. I've mostly only done work on my own instruments which are electric.
Acoustics are a whole other animal, and have intimidated me mostly. I've just recently realised the possibilities in woodworking involved in acoustics.

[Todd Mylet]

Doug,
First I'd make sure you really need a refret. It could be a set-up issue or an issue that could be addressed with some extra fret leveling in the upper register. If it does need a refret, I usually pull the frets, loosen the truss rod completely, and then add just a little tension to the truss rod before leveling the fretboard. Then level the fretboard dead flat, maybe adding a bit of fall away over the last couple inches of the fretboard. The idea is to end up with a neck that is dead flat (possibly with a little fall away at the end of the fretboard) with a little bit of tension on the truss rod. This way if you string you guitar with very light strings and the string tension fails to pull relief into the neck, you can loosen the truss rod in order to establish the proper relief. And there is still plenty of play in the truss rod to straighten the neck if string tension pulls too much relief into it.

If you adjust the truss rod first and then level, you may end up with a neck that has very little play left in the truss rod.

[Doug Guillaume]

Thanks for the help guys.

[thefishinmusician]

I thought top belly is the part a guy can see.......

[Mark Wallace]

It kind of sounds like a neck angle issue. Try inserting a thin shim (like a business card) in the neck pocket, in front of the upper neck screws and then re-tighten the neck scews, tune to pitch, and see if the buzzes clear up. If there are no serious grooves or buzzing issues in the lower frets, then I would, at most, perform a light leveling on frets 12 -15 and file in a slight amount of fall-away on the remaing frets.