I just had my MIJ strat refreted (from vintage to 6105 size), replaced the nut to Graphtech TUSQ XL, stock rusty vintage saddles to KTS Titanium and a new set of springs at the back (Raw Vintage). I kept the stock pups for now.

All those mods are fantastic except for a wee bit buzzing on the frets approaching near the body (from the 12th up to the last fret). If i pick the D, G, B and high E strings near the bridge, it gets more conspicuous though it can't be heard that much on the amp. If I pick the string near the neck, the buzz is gone. The local luthier has repeatedly inspected the frets, fret leveled them some more until everything's right including the string height and truss rod adjustment. Am i missing something here?

Your guitar might have a slight rising tongue.
That's all I can think of with all the info you've given.

Other things that aren't guitar build involved would be fretting finger placement. If you don't already, try to fret the string as close to fret as possible. This just insures that the string will only vibrate beyond that fret and not directly on top of it.

HAPPY PLAYING!

It's possible that the neck now requires a minor pitch-angle adjustment to accommodate the fatter frets. Have your luthier install a shim in the neck pocket and see if that resolves the issue.

HTH

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

What's a good shim material? Something that does not affect the tone in a bad way.

Yes i learned it works on tall frets. But still i could feel the difference on fretting the notes close to the body vs notes before the 12th fret.

a good "luthier" should already know that arjay.

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

If his highest frets are cutting out, the last thing he needs is a shim in the neck pocket as the fingerboard should be rolling off, not ramping up. This, a good luthier should know.

_________________
You dig?

I believe you can place a shim at the top of the neck pocket to lift the head stock so it sits higher than the heel of the neck. I've used this technique to combat "rising tongue" issues in 2 of my once owned "cheapy" guitars.

This will create that incline or roll-off in the higher frets.

Sure, it can be done and for "cheapies" that's fine but it isn't right otherwise. If this was the case, no acoustic or jazzbox would ever need a neck reset.

_________________
You dig?

martian,

would the difference be that the two you mentioned are set necks and the one the OP mentioned is a bolt on? just curious here. im not in the know on this type of thing
so im learning as we go too.

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

At MOST, the neck should be parallel to the body face, not lifting back from it. Further and ideally, there should be a marginal lift from the direction of the last fret where it meets the body toward the headstock. This is in part why the uppermost part of fingerboards need the roll off. Consider the whole tilt neck thing, it only lifts the neck in the direction I mention.

_________________
You dig?

May as well just raise the action rather than shim the headstock end of the neck pocket. The results would be the same.

If the guitar has just been refretted are you sure you're not equating rough frets (not rough per-se, just grinding on the strings a bit) with fret buzz because of the way the guitar feels not played in?

_________________
No no and no

I'm 100% positive all the frets are even. He has checked at least 3-4 times. Btw, how thick should i need when shimming? What's a good material to use? Do business cards kill sustain?

I wasn't going to get into this but if you just got new frets and they are buzzing, the odds are overwhelming that something is wrong on the fingerboard end, not the neck/body joint. Or to put it another way, if it didn't do it before the new frets, it still houldn't do it now.

_________________
You dig?

Forget the shim, it's a bad idea that is the wrong solution to the problem that hasn't been diagnosed yet.

No one is saying the frets are uneven.

When a guitar is refretted. Often the crowning proccess will leave the frets feeling rough. Nothing wrong with that, a bit of playing sorts it out. All I'm asking is, are you mistaking rough feeling frets with string buzz.

If it's not happening amplified then it's most probably your technique thats causing the problem. You're being too heavy handed with the strumming hand the most likely culprit.

Or just try raising the action/lowering the pickups.

_________________
No no and no