AT my guitar center 9 OUT OF 10 Fender strats i pick up have sharp feeling frets on the sides of the neck.I hate this and i wont buy won like this.I have a 88 strat and a 85 tele that have been smooth since the day i brought them.Its seem like the new guitars are beeing rushed though their contruction.Mexi made and usa made guitars have this problem.The guy at g center says you have to buy american to get the smooth feel.So i showed him the usa standerd strats and they all had the sharp edge.Then he just shook his head then i left.Any one else notice this $@!&.If im gonna spend $999 on MIA strat i would hope it would be satifactory.
Also i played one of those 50s vibe squires and the neck wasnt as sharp as the others.Im frustrated and confused.

I agree angelripper1. Sharp fret edges are unacceptable. 2 weeks ago I bought an American Standard Strat. from bestbuy.com. When it arrived I immediately inspected the neck and it had sharp edge frets. This is unacceptable on a $1000 guitar. I took the guitar back and got a refund. Last week I re-ordered another American made Strat. and this one turned out just fine. The moral is do not settle for poorly made guitars.

It suck I still have yet to see a Fender guitar of bass without something wrong with it. When I bought my Strat I tried maybe 10 or so and all of them had sharp fret ends, the sales guy told me it was because of the weather but all the other brand guitars I tried were fine. I also played 3 different Squier guitars (2 Calssic Vibe and one Vintage Modified Tele) and the quality was soooo much better, the frets were almost perfect and the setups on all of them were killer. I think I'm gonna give my Strat away, I never play it and there's just so many little thing wrong with it quality wise that I really don't see the point in keeping it.

Now dont get me wrong i love fenders and i play mine all the time.But i was goona buy a new one but im not finding good quality in the one i want.Now i played a vintage 57 reisue and it was perfect but i cant afford $1500.I am williing to pay 1000 but like i said the frets were sharp

I agree ... there are really bad new fender guitars out there, in fact it would be strange not to see one at guitar center that has some kind of problem from factory ... I think the inspection guys should really inprove their inspection techniques to make sure every guitar comes out clean..

The Fender inspection may be just dandy - but sharp fret edges are more likely the result of improper environmental conditions (i.e.: dryness) which cause the wood to shrink a bit. I had this with my $2200 (!) Peavey EVH Wolfgang - mainly because it sat in the damned shipping facility for nearly two weeks due to winter weather conditions and other annoyances. In dry areas (like Colorado), it is imperative to maintain humidity levels either in the case or in the room. I've seen what this can do to an unprotected acoustic guitar first hand - it is not a pretty sight.

One of the biggest issues with sharp frets comes from the fact that guiatrs are made at one temperature, shipped at another temperature, and stored at another. As the temperature cools the wood contracts, however the metal frets do not.

A proper setup will take care of the sharp edges as anyone who does setups should also be able to file the frets as part of it.

And most places will cover the setup when you buy the guitar.

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CREDO ELVEM IPSUM ETAIM VIVERE

The neck of a guitar will often dry out and shrink, causing the fret edges to stick out. Since it's winter, that'll be a very common problem. However, in the summer, I understand the problem is quite the opposite. I'm ready for summer, personally! My Strat's fret edges have grown quite sharp since the winter.

I under stand the wood shrinking thind but 1 have 13 guitars and none of them ever had this problem.I think its more of a quality control problem.

Hi angelripper1: that certainly is a shocking experience. I must say, I've never come across anything like it, which makes me wonder if others are right and it is the conditions in the shop that are the cause of the problem.

Just as an experiment you could try visiting a small independent guitar store and see if you find the same thing. Those shops are usually the ones that know how to look after their stock, providing the right conditions and addressing any "fret sprout" problems that do occur.

I seriously doubt that the guitars are leaving the factory like this (at any level of the catalog) simply because it is such an easy issue to deal with. Seconds of work to put it right with Fender's industrial equipment - and from their point of view vital that they do, because it is such a crucial part of making a sale.

As you have shown!

Cheers - C

Im definetly gonna try another dealer.

I've never had a problem with sharp frets.......maybe I'm just lucky.

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"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."-John Wayne

Well, yeah. You're from San Francisco. Have you ever seen humidity go below 30%, ever? I'm from Philadelphia and this type of thing was never a concern at all. I only became educated about it when I moved to Colorado - which is basically a desert up against the Rocky Mountains. For instance, today, the humidity actually went to about 25% and I had the humidifier running at high most of the day to compensate. Low humidity can destroy a guitar in a few weeks if not accounted for - really (I mean - REALLY!!!). I hope that imparts the impact. Wood dries quickly. And if unintended, the damage is permanent. Now you have a good piece of firewood.

I'm surprised that there isn't a humidifier accompanying every guitar that activates on the proper conditions because it is so detrimental if the conditions are not proper.

The humidity in SF is usually about 50% and on up. I also have a house in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the humidity there is in the 30's. Still I've had no problems (knocking on wood)

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"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."-John Wayne

Well, you should be concerned when the humidity goes below 40% for more than a few days. The damage accrues as the dryness continues for extended periods. As you said, in some areas it never happens. In others, it is a continuous battle. All of the music shops here around Denver have humidifiers going almost incidentally. And I have mine on the ready with a humidistat monitoriing for good measure. As I said, this is something that I never thought about in Philly as it is regularly humid. But here in desert-land, it is a must if you want your guitars to survive.