Hello Fenderists.

I know this might not belong in a Fender forum, but since my love is for the Fender guitars, and since I have experienced great help from the members here, I decided to post my request here.

I have a Gibson LP Studio, which I love. The other day when i was playing it, I found out, that I had an odd problem. When I'm bending the high E on the 14th fret a whole step up, the string is suddenly muted, and I'm not able to pluck the tone. I dont have this problem on any other fret on my gutiar, i checked that, so I guessed it could be something with the 14th fret?

Any suggestions for what it could be, and how to fix it?

Thanks,
SuneA

_________________
"When the intellectual part of guitar playing overrides the spiritual, you don't get to extreme heights."
- John Frusciante

It isn't the 14th fret. Rather, your 15th fret or to a much lesser possibility, your 16th fret has a high spot right where you are bending the string to and it mutes out. One of the two frets, again, probably the 15th, has to be taken down in that exact area.

_________________
You dig?

Hi SuneA


It could be a number of things, but I'm going to assume you have had the guitar for a while, and maybe you have just worn down your 13th and 14th frets, and when you bend up it gets muted by the frets.

If it's new, it could be a twisted neck, or more likely just needs string height and/or neck angle alightment. Get someone who knows their stuff to take a look at it, like a shop owner.


- FM247

You're string just fretted out. A higher fret wire touched the string. You'll need a fret job or raise the action at the least. I bet if you bend the string up a whole step and strum again, you'll hear it ring for a second before it dampens out...

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

It doesn't necessarily have to be a high spot on the fret work. There is also another possibility. It's not common but sometimes you run into a Strat with a saddle with height adjustment screws that want to back out. This happened to one of my Strats on a semi regular basis some years back. The high E saddle would drop ever so slowly and after about 6 to 8 months or so I would experience note drop out on bends and then I knew it was time to adjust it back. Of course on a LP it would be a thumb wheel adjustment on one end of the bridge. To check if this is the problem hold the guitar such that you can look at the space under the strings and bend your note. If it looks like the string slowly starts to make contact with most of all of the frets then you know you have to raise the high E end of your bridge. Some novices end up in this situation by trying to get the lowest possible action.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

It's fretting out.

Does this happen on all strings at the fret?

When was the last time your guitar had a complete setup done?

Take a close look at the neck. Is it twisted? Is there a fret that is higher than any others? Does the neck relief need to be adjusted? Does the string height need to be raised?

_________________
Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
Authorized WD Music Products Dealer
F/A Official Southpaw Compliance Certification Tester http://faamps.com/

http://www.facebook.com/cafeathers


I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

On a LP, the radius is 12" and this shouldn't happen because the B or G String would do the same if the bridge was too low. Its the frets, not the bridge. The 14th or 15th fret is too high on the neck to be a truss rod...

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

Not trying to be argumentative. It could very easily be a fret problem and quite likely is but without seeing the guitar it's not automatically cut and dried. You theory doesn't rule out a bridge adjustment issue. Any radius is still a radius and the B & G strings would not necessarily be affected because the bridge could be slanted or sloped and the 1st string (E) would be the lowest. The B could be very close to snuffing out but not quite close enough to actually snuff.

A straight edge and a low powered flashlight could help to determine if and where there are any high spots on the fret job.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

You're right the guitar really needs a pro to take a look. Just to add to my comments, however, Les Paul bridges do not have individually height adjustment saddles.

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC

thanks for your advices everyone.

i'm pretty sure its not the fret that is making the problem. my guitar teacher told me, to look at the bridge, which is where he sees the easiest way to fix it. next time i change me strings, he suggested me to pick the thing that holds the string out, and put a single slice of normal paper underneath, so that the string would be about 0,5mm higher. i trust him, when he says that is the solution, but should i still have it checked out at a store?

some facts:
the guitar was bought second handed, after three months with the first owner.
its made in march, 2008.
it has no custom jobs done.
i have never had it checked out at a guitar tech before.

btw sorry for my late answer, have a big musical going on, where im playing a quite big role

SuneA

_________________
"When the intellectual part of guitar playing overrides the spiritual, you don't get to extreme heights."
- John Frusciante

Gibson Guitars should get the, "once-over" routinely every six months by a competent tech. If they need some tweaking, fine. If they don't, that's fine too. You've had the guitar for approximately a year and a half and have never had it evaluated. So right here, this is three times longer and of course, not good.

NEVER presume that even the greatest guitar teacher or even guitar player in the world is a competent tech!

No properly functioning Gibson guitar needs a shim under a bridge saddle. The saddle I might add, is set in place by its intonation screw so by stuffing inappropriate shims underneath it, this can and will create other problems as the shim is in effect, prying up the saddle and taking the intonation screw along with it. Of course too, a shim of itself looks rather ridiculous. Now if it is just a question of the saddle itself being cut too low (which I STRONGLY doubt), then the saddle should be replaced and recut.

The bottom line: With all due respect, your teacher is surely not a tech with that kind of remedy. He is merely treating a symptom and not a cause. Further, I still stand by what I originally have said, you have a high 15th fret in that 'bend to' area. Lastly, if you've, "read between the lines", you're guitar is grossly overdue for professional (and competent) servicing to not only get to the root cause of this but to have your guitar properly restored to optimum playing condition.

_________________
You dig?

How durable is a piece of paper going to be? All that is doing is raising the action on that string which also throws off the innotation. You're better off have a real guitar tech do a basic fret job.

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


facebook.com/313DBC