I brought my 79 USA strat to a shop and he measured the frets with a little metal ruler and said I'd need all new frets as they are pretty worn. I am the original owner. I don't have the 300 bucks he's asking to get a fret job. I tried raising the string a bit .. It didn't stop the chock and I also got nervous that I'd screw something up worse. I'm bummed out cause I need my guitar working now. [size=200][/size]Is there anything else I can do before packing up my guitar for months and month until I can raise the money...to fix.. Maybe... Very sad and distressed. I tend to believe the shops evaluation but...money I don't have . And you guessed it .. For whatever reason while playing I'll need that note bent just at that spot at that time... Thanks for listening.Oh yeah I forgot to mention when I originally joined this forum was for a previous post about sudden b string was lowered and had lost all action ... This lead me to same guitar shop in question and they replaced the nut. That seemed to work but that was not that long ago...and you'd think the shop would have mentioned something about the frets then... Anyway when I brought the guitar back about the choking high e at the 7th fret... They said unrelated and blah blah. The thing is the shop is pretty reputable .

Raise the string a bit more. You won't hurt anything by having a high action.

You could try having a little more relief in the neck as it's a center fret that is suffering. It's not really the way to go but it could pull you out of trouble for a while.

Ultimately, gotta get some fretwork done. It may be ok with just a leveling job rather than a refret.

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No no and no

Sounds to me like the shop cut the high E nut slot too deep. Even reputable shops make mistakes. However, reputable shops admit their mistakes and correct them.

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Bill

Just for the heck of it, cut a little piece of a little e string and place in the nut slot underneath the little e string. If this fixes it, the nut slot has been cut too deeply, like bluesky636 mentioned. Also, this could be a temporary fix until you can get your guitar refretted, nut recut, etc.

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2010 American Deluxe Strat Sunset Metallic - Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in the neck and middle, Dimarzio AT-1 humbucker in the bridge.
PRS Custom 22 with solid rosewood neck
Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne 1x12 combo
DRRI

If they said your frets were shot when you initially brought the guitar in, they should have also told you that cutting a new nut was somewhat of a waste of money. I say this because merely cutting a new nut not MAY solve some of your current fingerboard woes but it won't prevent the pending ones such as but not limited to the ones you are beginning to experience now. Further, upon installation of the new frets, there is a distinct possibility (not an absolute, mind you) that you'd have to get a new nut along with the new frets. Unfortunately, installing new frets (and a new nut) is one of those skills where contrary to "Infallible Web Dogma", such tasks MUST be done by a COMPETENT professional. There is NO "YMMV" on this one!

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You dig?

+1000

At 33 years old, the guitar now requires some major service and there's no way to tiptoe around that. As the adage goes, you can pay me now or you can pay me later but sooner or later, you will pay. That said, you do have some other options besides a refret -- you can simply re-neck the guitar with new furniture, or you can trade the guitar in (likely it's worth the price of a new AVRI '70s model, which would approximate the look, feel, and vibe of the existing instrument). If you rely on your guitar professionally (as in providing your livelihood) it's imperative to maintain your equipment to professional standards. There is no "free lunch" or "magic bullet" in that regards.

Arjay

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"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

All the replies make sense. You see I trusted the shop. I gotta get the money together but ...no doubt it will be many months at the least. Kinda wish the shop guys had taken better evaluation of my strat and looked at the whole pic before the nut job. It's just one stupid fret right now but I know it's gonna get worse. I need a wrench as the one I have seems slightly too small.. Can I get a wrench at lowes...homedepot ? If so what's the size? Thanks everyone. I don't know that a fret job would fix my strats problem. Its quite worrisome.

Just maybe I ran into luck last night but I won't know for a while.... Cousins friend knows a celebrity's guitar tech? Well we will see about that.. In the meantime I better get a wrench and assume Some strat downtime.... Was in the middle of a recording (my own) ... So it can wait ...There's no substitute..