JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Guitars and Guitarist Forum Fret Issues, help?

Sorry I haven't been on at all in a while...between work, school, and the two and a half hour bus ride to see my fiancee, things have been crazy. But I need help! :< My guitar neck has slowly been getting warped (I think) over time and it's caused a very inconvenient problem. If there's anyone who knows how to fix this, I'd love advice. If not, I'll have to take it in to get repaired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUyCi_3X3j4 <--I explain it here.

Have you tried this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvuahP-ZO-c

Andrew,

A little hard to tell with out looking but my first guess is that you have one fret which is too high because it has come a little loose and raised itself out of the slot. The fret in question would be the one that plays the note that does not change when you are fingering up around the 12th fret. One of the frets up higher than where you are fingering is sticking up too high.

So find the fret that the string is resting on by playing notes up higher until they start to play correctly. Or lay a straightedge along the frets and rock it back and forth until you find one that is higher than the rest. When you find the high fret, place a piece of wood on the fret and tap it down with a hammer gently and see if you can reseat it.

The other thing that could be wrong is that your truss rod needs to be loosened a little because there is back bow in the neck. Take the truss rod cover off and use the allen wrench that came with the guitar and loosen the nut about 1/4 of a turn. See if that helps. To check the correct setting of the truss rod, hold a string down on the first fret and the 14th fret (using a capo helps) and then look at the string at the 7th fret.....there should be a paper thin gap between the string and the 7th fret. If the string is resting on the 7th fret, the truss rod needs to be loosened.

If these quick fixes do not work, you probably need to take the guitar to a guitar shop for repair.

What is the make and model of guitar? Generalisation won't work.
Every guitar is made differently. Go to the manufactures web site to find the answer.

For example, Martin doesn't use a truss rod. If a Martin has a warped neck, it would need a fret job to straighten the neck, and should be covered by their life time warranty if you bought it new.

If it's an expensive guitar, take it to a pro and eat the cost. It's not worth screwing it up by trying to fix it yourself.

I do not know a lot about guitars but I know enough to suggest that you should not tamper or tinker with an expensive piece of kit unless you know exactly what you are doing......this could potentially aggravate the problem or cause irreparable damage......so take it to a pro.
The very fact that you are asking for advice would suggest that you are not technically knowledgeable or experienced enough to fix it yourself.