When the guitar is strung? How about perfectly straight neck and level frets? Seems to me this is hard to come by. All the electrics I've tried acoustically buzz.

I've played mostly classical guitar and acoustical buzz spells disaster. (Classical necks have much less tension than electrics when strung.) I set out to level the frets on my Strat (2008 HYW1 neck) by hammering some frets down farther (seemed they were not all the way down) and I got the frets as level as I can but I still have a little buzz here and there. Suppose I'll live with it, I don't think it can be heard thru an amp. It was set up professionally 2x over the last 6 mths.

hey,

have you tried raising the strings? action? you will find that hwy1 strats do have higher (taller) frets than an american standard.

hope you get rid of the buzz, and no it is not rare to have leveled frets.

good luck

You hammered them down You probably flatend them some And yes the Hwy One has ginormous frets!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

"I set out to level the frets on my strat by hammering some frets as level as I can.........."

Oh my God!!!!!!! That statement made me feel the same as hearing someone scratch a blackboard with their fingernails!!!!!!!!!

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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

Hammered them down????
Man thats not the way forwards.

I've guitars that have come with perfectly level frets, and ones that came looking like a roller coaster. Unfortunately and i hate to say this because i love em. The bad ones were the cheaper guitars including my MIM baja tele. Still their sorted now.
If i were you i'd get my guitar to a repairshop fast. Frets arent hard to work on but you need to use the correct procedures and be attentive at all stages. Needless to say your going to need the frets re-crowned. How did you check the straightness of the neck? You cant use the string method, that checks the fret tops at best.

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No no and no

Hi cool9: since a string vibrates in an arc which varies in size along its length, a straight neck ain't the best route to buzz free sound - unless you have the action set a little higher.

What you need is a touch of relief, or front bow. So the slight concave shape of the fingerboard and frets matches the convex shape of the vibrating string (approximately).

For this and to check out the state of your frets I strongly recommend a visit to a good guitar tech. As does everyone else on this thread.

Good luck - C

Hello Cool9,

One of these will completely
eliminate any string buzz.

Cheers.

Mr. Bill perhaps Ceri can use that hammer to fix Nikininja's formerly blue MIM strat body on Jag_man's thread...

This must be destroy your Strat day sponsored by the Gibson Guitar co.
What is wrong with you people?

I am very hard on frets for some reason but here is a lil tip to have your frets last longer make sure to wipe down your strings very good after playing simple but useful. My friend Mike who is a wiz and also fixes all my axes told me this years ago and was right. As when your strings are dirty and grimy they tend to really dig into the freats and cause those lil notches that sooner or later make you have to do a grind and polish.Now I love the way a fret dress feels but only after the first one, then they are to low after the second and feel like no freats at all and though the neck is super fast you cant bend for $@!&,and then comes the refret.But after cleaning my strings on a steady bases I have noticed big time the life of my frets tripled.

Hey man, I'd agree with nikininja, get that thing sorted. If you've any problems or doubts, best thing to do is ask on a forum or something, particularly this one, everyone is nice and helpful, as opposed to doing random (even potentially dangerous) things to your guitar.

That's just my advice anyway

Thanks!

James.

I didn't flatten any frets. I used the plastic end of a fret hammer to tap some of the frets down because I could see some space between fretboard and fret. Like I said, it was professionally set up by Sam Ash last month. Jumbo frets don't refer to the height of the fret but the width. The fret height is about the same as medium-jumbo frets. I made a fretboard level (ie. Stew Mac type) to check the straightness of just the neck and it is very, very straight. Thanks for the hilarious replies.

+1

LAY DOWN THE HAMMER

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Paddle faster! I hear banjo music!

Uh, I beg to differ. The frets on my Highway One are definitely higher than medium jumbos.

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

Use the hammer. If that doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.

Or: Using an orbital sander with 100 grit paper for that, "good look", grind the frets down so that they are perfectly level with the fretboard. Then, simply adjust the neck. By necessity, if the neck is perfectly straight, the frets will be too. So, not only will you have super low action, not only will you avoid the extra step of a hammer, but best of all, you won't have to wipe the fingerboard down. Restring with a .008 gauge string for all six strings and your fret rattle will disappear too!

Now for the adventurous, if you want to weaken your pickups' magnets a bit for that often sought after 'vintage' tone, make sure you run the sander's motor in close proximity to the pickups.

You can thank me later.

To the youngsters and the naive: DO NOT do anything I've said in this post!

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You dig?

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.