This problem occured on my American Strat HSS which I bought new about 4 years ago. After being properly setup I got frett buzz only on the D and G strings only at the 16th fret. I noticed that a stright edge spanning frets 16 through 18 would rock on the 17th fret. So I gave the 17th fret a few good licks with a mallet and the problem went away. I assume the 17th fret had somehow worked up out of the neck a few thousands of an inch.

Is this common? Is it likely to reoccur? Could humidity changes cause this?

It's what's called "percussion calibration."

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You have to realize that with quality control in almost any manufacturing process, there is a tolerance for deviation based on a mean or perfect condition. Your guitar can meet quality control standards and be OK to ship but still have minor deviations as you describe.

I worked 36 years for a major manufacturer of aircraft engines and quality was ALWAYS on the front burner along with COST. One affects the other. If they spend too much time making every guitar perfect, the cost would become prohibitive. I doubt you'd find any problem with say... a $7,000 Martin.

Your guitar probably met standards that made it "good enough to ship" and I would bet a good tech would have found the sweet spot for your string height. But that's purely speculation on my part. On the other side, there is the rare out of tolerance escape so it may have been a bad neck... as shipped.

At any rate, if it plays OK for you now, don't sweat it. But don't keep pounding on it every time something goes awry.

The common joke when something didn't fit functionally with our aircraft engine parts... "Get a bigger hammer!"

I thought all Major guitar companies did a fret levelling job after the frets are installed, but prior to installing strings. It just seems like common practice to me. If Fender skips this crucial step then I may have to change my views on their manufacturing process.

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I wouldn't write off Fender just because of this one instance you read here. It happens from ANY major guitar maker's regular production line instruments. Changes in temperature and humidity between when the guitar leaves the factory and gets into your hands can do weird things too.

Or maybe neck was made on a Monday morning and the fret installer was still hungover from the weekend. Or made on a Friday afternoon and the worker was day dreaming off clocking out and getting started on the weekend

If you want closer to perfection, you'll have to get away from the regular production go the Custom Shop route in my opinion. The only guitar that I bought new off the rack that didn't need a setup or a little bit of fret tweaking was my Gibson SG. Yeah a Gibson...who knew?

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mechtonia - Glad you could fix the problem yourself (although taking your time with a fret file may have given you more precise control of the fret height rather than a mallet). But you probably should have contacted Fender first to see if this was covered under warranty. I'm guessing not though if it wasn't a big problem. Like VT BlackStrat said, the guitar possibly met the factory tolerences unfortunately.

edit: Wait a minute. Did the problem start when you bought the guitar new 4 years ago, or did it just happen recently? Who knows what happened to the guitar during those 4 years. I'm holding off judgement.

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It could re-occur. Humidity could be a factor in this. I have heard of other people with similar issues. Is your guitar a lemmon...probably not. Every guitar needs a little periodic maintenance.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
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These are, as always, just my own personal opinions...

Well, the first thing that strikes me here (other than the use of a mallet of course) is "After being properly setup I got frett buzz...". This tells me that the guitar was NOT properly set up! A good tech who would have honestly done a "proper" setup, should have noticed a high fret!

As far as the "why" it happened, my first guess would be temperature/humidity...this was just discussed in another thread in regards to "fret sprout". Basic physics...wood expands and contracts at a MUCH faster rate then metal does so even a guitar that was perfectly leveled at the factory (with "perfect" being subjective as VT's comments about "tolerance" explains), over the course of 4 summers and winters, certainly things can work their way a bit "loose". This is not a reflection on Fender's quality by any means...it's a guitar thing and nothing more.

Now because I don't know where you live or how you treat or store your guitar (i.e. in and out of the outdoors for gigs in winter, dry or overly humid basement, etc) and you say you've had the guitar for 4 years and this problem just happened when you had the guitar setup, this raises some other questions...

Was this the first time you had the guitar setup in that 4 years? If so, then yes, it's possible it could have been an actual manufacturing defect. While it's rare, it can happen. Also if this was in fact the first time you ever had the guitar setup....-why- did you wait 4 years?

Are you completely and positively sure the tech didn't f--- something up? In other words, did you watch this person the entire time...make sure he/she didn't knock it off the work bench or something while reaching for a screw driver (or coffee or beer)?

For that matter, if you had the guitar at home and sitting on a stand, are you sure someone didn't come along and perhaps knock it off the stand by accident then put it back on the stand and didn't say anything? I had this happen a few months back with one of my basses...I can't prove it otherwise I would have gone after the guy but the one day I noticed that the headstock on one of my basses had been broken in half. I had had an older guy over for an audition a day or two before and I had been out of the studio for a few minutes (potty break) and I -know- the guy must have knocked it over then didn't say anything...but I can't prove it. With that, I would also ask...any kids or dogs in the house?

In the same respect, were you perhaps carrying it from one room to another and maybe "bumped it" on a door frame or something else? Maybe some sort of tribute to Pete Townsend and when you did your spinning cart wheel off the top of your amp you bumped the guitar right at the 17th fret in to a mic stand?

Are you absolutely sure that the 17th fret was actually "high" and not that the frets around it were perhaps a bit low? In other words, did you actually look at the fret to see if it was seated properly before you started flogging it? Also, if you play -A LOT- it's not unheard of to need the frets leveled after only 4 years particularly if you tend to play in certain keys more than others. In my earlier years of playing, I used to wear the crap out of my 7th fret because I used to play pretty much everything in the key of A...doing all those bends on the G string really wore a lot of flat spots.

While temperature/humidity would be my first suspect, the point is that there's literally hundreds of other ways that something like this could happen without your even knowing about it. Do you have a cat? Perhaps he/she was practicing their amazing psychokinetic powers on your guitar...cats are sneaky that way! LOL!!!

Now to answer the question of "Is it likely to reoccur?", I would have to say if you just whacked it back in with a mallet, then yes...it could happen again. There are a lot of factors here since we don't actually know -why- the fret came loose in the first place (assuming that's what actually happened). If for example the fret was knocked loose by something, those tiny little tangs that hold the fret in to the wood could very well have "torn" the wood a little bit which would make it easier for the fret to come loose a second time...and whacking with a mallet could very easily exacerbate this problem. If the wood in that section of the fretboard is perhaps prone to contraction from temperature and humidity, same thing...the fret could start to come loose again. In either of those cases, it's possible the fret could need a bit of glue to keep in in place as apposed to beating on it.

So that all said, and again these are only my own personal opinions here but my first suggestion is to KEEP THE MALLET AWAY FROM YOUR GUITAR!!! I'm not trying to be rude here but I'm sorry...I just can't see the kind of mentality that would say "there's something wrong with my guitar so I'm gonna hit it with a hammer..."...that just does NOT make sense to me. Of course it's your guitar so do what you will...

Second, I would strongly suggest that you find another tech to work on your guitar for you! If the person who did your setup didn't notice a fret buzz...or simply couldn't be bothered to bring it to your attention, this person is -NOT- a competent tech. If you're going to have others do your setups for you (which considering my mallet comment above, probably isn't a bad idea for you), I would find someone who is qualified and knows how to work on guitars....and is going to be honest with you! Don't assume that just because Joe Blow So-n-So works at your local guitar shop, that they actually know how to work on a guitar! "Guitar techs" are a dime a dozen...a good guitar tech is worth his/her weight in gold!

Third...-if- this problem should re-occur, take it to the competent tech I suggested above and have the problem fixed properly instead of whacking it some more! A good tech should be able to fix the problem for you permanently (or at least until the guitar is due for a level/re-fret).

Just my $.02,
Jim

I have had friends buy a 100K Benz and have problems. Anytime you have tens of thousands of items rolling out of a factory something is going to be missed I dont care what is being produced. But you should of took it to a qualified tech first to make sure that is exactly what the problem was.

I might also suggest a dryed out fret board. I have seen this problem before.I would take it too a teck before I would be hitting it with a mallet. Don't write it off because it is an easy fix.

Ok it sounds like I should clarify. I didn't actually take a metal hammer and pound on the fret. I took a soft rubber mallet and a paperboard spacer and applied a few directed taps to the suspect fret. Checked with a straight edge. And repeated.

Also, it was only the 17th fret and I am sure that it was high. I determined this by checking the adjacent frets with a straight edge.

As far as setup, I got the guitar setup at a reputable shop once and did one setup myself. But regardless of the setup job, even with rediculus neck relief and super high action I still got the 17th fret buzz.

I guess my real question is "is it normal for frets to work up out of the fret board with humidity and temperature changes?" Or would this be indicative of a poor fret job/quality problem/ etc.

Which is why a manufacturer's Cpk (process capability) must be sufficient to ensure each feature is well between LCL and UCL when the process is in control. SPC should be used to indicate a control failure before an out of spec part is made. OK I'm just messing with you but I am an engineer so I understand manufacturing.

Well... if Fender adopted Six Sigma in all there manufacturing processes then perhaps these escapes would not happen. I too am (was... I'm recently retired) an engineer and worked in the tool design area. I was also a Green Belt in Six Sigma. Thanks for your feedback.

Just messin' with you too.

Well, to reiterate what I and others have said previously, yes...humidity and temperature changes -can- cause this to happen. Is it normal? Not to such a degree as you have suggested yours was but it -can- happen. That said, as I also said before, there are also many other things that can cause this as well.

As far as it being related to "poor fret job/quality problem/ etc." if you're just noticing this after -4 years-, then I would probably think no...it's not an issue with the manufacturing at all. -If- this problem had of been there since day one when you bought the guitar new, then yes...a manufacturing issue would be suspect...of course that would beg the question of why you waited so long to take care of it. Your post however seems to imply that this is something that you've recently just noticed since it was setup.

Also...



Ok...I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful here but...only 2 setups in 4 years? I could most certainly be wrong here but to me this would seem to indicate a certain degree of "neglect" in regards to this instrument as a whole. I won't speak for others here but personally I check my setup every time I change strings and adjust it as necessary which is typically every 2 to 4 months depending on how much I'm playing the given instrument at the time (more for guitars I play frequently, less for guitars that sit on the stand more). Again I'm not trying to be rude but to me this is like a person who says "I've only changed the oil in my car twice over the past 4 years...why doesn't it run right?". Very simply, a guitar's setup...including any fret maintenance, is not a "set it and forget it" kind of thing. Your guitar is only going to play as well as you take care of it.

I also have to add here that I find the term "reputable shop" to be extremely subjective. Some folks think that Guitar Center for example is a "reputable shop" but honestly, I'm not going to pay some 18 year old dipsh*t who makes minimum to touch, let alone work on one of my guitars! Just because the "shop" may be allegedly reputable, doesn't mean the person working on your guitar actually is! Did you talk to the tech...ask him/her what their experience was? How much experience they have working on Strats specifically? References??? Was the person doing that actual work really a tech or just one of the sales people who does this stuff on the side? Again here, I have to say that if the fret was as high as you suggest, that tells me the person who did your setup -should- have noticed it and either corrected it properly or at the very least brought it to your attention.

Either way, without looking at the guitar personally and without knowing exactly what may or may not have happened, I don't think anyone here is going to be able to give you a completely definitive answer...it's most likely as temperature/humidity thing but it's also quite possible it could be something else...as I said earlier, perhaps the guitar even got knocked against something without you knowing it or realizing it and that fret got pulled/pushed up a bit...it happens.

As always, just my own opinions...please take them as such.
Jim

You mean to say that a fret popped up on a guitar that had been through the extremes of sixteen season changes, a setup and possible adjustment of the truss rod and you're concerned about ONE fret that popped up (one fret that you yourself were able to reset)? If it had never popped up before, what makes you think that your axe is a lemon?

I don't think you have a lemon, I think you have a device that just needed a little "calibration", or perhaps a better climate- and humidity-controlled environment...

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