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Post subject: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 6:03 pm
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Hello all. First post here (hope I'm doing it in the right place). I have a 60th anniversary Tele and I love it. It has recently started fretting out when bending on the B string around the 18th fret. It will fret out at about a step and a half bend. My local luthier is convinced it is because of the radius of the neck (9.5" radius). I strongly disagree because it just started doing it recently and worked fine before. I have checked the frets and I don't see any burrs or raised frets. Anyone have any suggestions on what else I can look for?


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Post subject: Re: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:48 pm
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9.5 is fine unless the action is adjusted too low... and on a 9.5, with the string height ~4/64, you should not be fretting out on 1.5 step bends. I've had guitars with 7.5 that don't fret out unless the action was too low.

Since you say "has started", I would suspect one of two things, assuming nothing has been changed in the setup....
If you play it a lot, you may have worn some of the frets between 12 and 18 down
Weather/temperature/humidity caused a geometry change in the neck, worst case, causing a fret to lift.

Quick and dirty checks without special tools:
Use a credit card as a "fret rocker" and see if you have a high fret that causes the card to "rock" when placed on the neck spanning 3 or 4 frets... use both the short and long edges.
A quarter and a nickel make decent 4/64(Q) and ~5/64(N) thickness gauges for checking string height at the 12th fret.
An 18" steel ruler is a good tool for checking the flatness of the neck at the fret tops, which is what you are playing on, but if the frets are not level, it can give deceptive results. 12" is a little short, as it only goes from the 1st to 12th fret, but it is still usable to get a general idea if you don't have an 18" steel on hand.

You may just need to have a couple of frets dressed down, or it may be something as simple as a setup.

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Post subject: Re: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:17 pm
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Fret wear, fret sprout etc. .... those are things that usually come on slowly and if you're playing regularly will notice it growing worse.

If it started suddenly and recently then my first questions are:
Did you change strings and then it started?
And if so, did you switch string gauge or material type?
Did you adjust your bridge or neck at all?

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Post subject: Re: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 12:55 am
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Funny you should mention that BMW-KTM. I was thinking the same with string gauge being reduced from say stock 9s to 8s or changed 10s to 9s. Perhaps, a nut filing change could be included as a culprit. If so, maybe this could be somewhat checked (if only for a little noticed difference), with a capo at the first fret, I don’t know; but, I’m guessing string gauge and/or nut would have initially been mentioned unless unknown. In any case I agree with the afore mentioned, and you made a good point about these problems that they would have likely reared their ugly head to troubleshoot by elimination.

Rich, you’re right that humidity is also suspect not knowing the environment especially at this time of year, depending on location. 2 years ago my maple neck/fretboard shrunk a minor amount with humidity and the frets were dressed for smoothness. This, however, as you well know, would be obvious with fret overhang on the edges of the fretboard. The bending as discussed could have been compromised accordingly as I see it; but, add what was said to be possible and it could be a combination of things. A stock setup according to specs with 9s should at least rule some things out. No?

Looking forward to your solution, Pa7tip.

FSB

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Post subject: Re: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:08 am
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Thanks so much for the responses. I have reset everything to the recommended specs regarding neck relief and string height. When I brought the guitar in to have it checked for the fret out problem the tech at the store raised my action a lot to eliminate the fretting out problem. I knew this wasn't the solution because it never used to fret out before at comfortable string height. I have got it now to the point that i can get a pretty clean bend up to 1 1/2 steps but it does begin to fret out when the bend reaches two whole steps. i did check the levelness of the frets as recommended with a credit card. There does seem to be just a tiny bit of rocking going on around the 19th-20th fret. Maybe just a fret dressing is all I need. Thanks again for the responses.


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Post subject: Re: Fretting out when bending
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:33 pm
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You’re welcome, Pa7tip. Rich and BMW-KTM made some valid contribution, and that’s pretty common here in the Forum(s). We like teamwork and problem solving. A lot of times, more often than not, there are more than one solution to a problem as you are experiencing. That said, good to know that you’ve made some improvement to your problem. Let us know if the fret work (and what is done) makes a difference, should you decide to go that route. It will help others to know. Thanks, for keeping us posted.

FSB

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