The quest for perfect frets

[will_shred]

I've been doing deep into fretwork these past few months, and done many fret levels and starting to get into doing full refrets. I'm finding that my fret jobs are OK but not where I want them to be. I have 2 guitars that I consider my reference guitars, my Gibson LP Classic which the frets were done by a local luthier, and my Les Paul custom with stock frets. Those guitars are pretty damn near perfect. I find that when I get my frets done, they can be perfectly level and still I get notes choking out when I bend on the upper strings (usually 12 and up), even after crowning and polishing. I've watched a million tutorials and I feel like i'm doing all the steps but i'm still missing something, that my fret jobs are still not at the "pro" level. Any advice is welcome.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

What you're describing is not exclusive to fretwork issues, but also setup and configuration.

So it's kinda hard to recommend much without going down both of those rabbit holes.

What does the radii of the board, strings, and hardware look like? Action across the board? Relief? Any drop off up the board, where, how much? String gauge and tuning? How are you checking all this?

 

[lost_horizon]

Do you need a fall away?

Fret levelling - creating a fall-away on the upper registers

I was chatting with a buddy of mine about guitar set ups recently. I'd certainly consider this guy more advanced than me when it comes to the art of guitar setups and he mentioned a trick that he does when levelling frets. My standard course of action is to level across the whole neck. However...

www.sevenstring.org

As you get higher up the fretboard if you have a super flat action you have less room for the string to vibrate. i like the idea of doing a few more passes up at the high frets to slightly lower them.

Most guitars have upper fret issues because this is usually the flattest part of the neck (due to the Truss rod having little effect here) played the least or only on the treble side so those frets will be higher naturally as you play plus super low action means buzz.

 

[odibrom]

... on fixed bridge guitars, fall-away frets are kind of so-so, meaning that they might get you a little extra, but that can be easily compensated with the bridge height and neck relief... or in other words, a good setup may render the Fall-away unnecessary.

... where I feel that the Fall-away fret leveling is spot on is on floating bridge guitars, specially for the pitch up trem moves, squeals and all that jazz. When one pushes the trem back, the action lowers quite a bit and that's when the fall-away comes into play, allowing for the notes (pinched harmonics as well) to ring freely without buzzing higher frets.

 

[swimrunner]

I've been doing deep into fretwork these past few months, and done many fret levels and starting to get into doing full refrets. I'm finding that my fret jobs are OK but not where I want them to be. I have 2 guitars that I consider my reference guitars, my Gibson LP Classic which the frets were done by a local luthier, and my Les Paul custom with stock frets. Those guitars are pretty damn near perfect. I find that when I get my frets done, they can be perfectly level and still I get notes choking out when I bend on the upper strings (usually 12 and up), even after crowning and polishing. I've watched a million tutorials and I feel like i'm doing all the steps but i'm still missing something, that my fret jobs are still not at the "pro" level. Any advice is welcome.

Check the nut height! It`s easy to forget the nut after spending most of a day on a fret job, but filing down the slots is hugely important for both action and intonation.