Do I need frets reshaped?

Gear & Tools Talk 🎸 Guitars, Instruments & Maintenance
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Sorry for putting a topic up for a simple question but not sure if I need my frets redone. Mods please move or advise if there’s a place to properly post this.

Anyway, I noticed buzzing on the top 3 strings, but truss rod adjustments don’t help. Height on the first fret looks good so I suppose the nut is fine, and I recently put in a new saddle as it had been whittled away over time (I change tuning a lot.) Therefore only guess is maybe frets need reshaping? I’ve had the guitar for about 4 years, bought new. But I play every day and only have this guitar so…

I’ll put a photo and while it definitely isn’t as indicative as physically touching the guitar to see for oneself, it’s surely better than just words.

(Apologies if the photo is large for those with weaker internet, I’m on my phone so can’t resize)

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Yeah, mine look to be heading that way too.

Thankfully, from what I’ve read, they tend to squash outward rather than down so should just need a fret dress (filed down a bit).

I would normally have a craic at things myself, but in this case am thinking of getting it booked into a luthier.

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You’ve got some pretty healthy looking divots on those frets. May/ may not be causing problems yet. Depends. I’d take it to your local guitar shop for an informed opinion.

Cheers, Shane

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Hmm yeah I may need to take it somewhere then, since i’ve got buzzing that won’t resolve with anything else. I do generally prefer to fix things myself, however I’ve heard that with dressing only a few frets it’s not uncommon to need to level them all, as the untouched ones will stand proud and cause problems.

Thanks for the responses!

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Yeah, the process looks a pain. A kin to plastering, I won’t be doing that again either.:face_vomiting:

One for the experts. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Raise the bridge and learn to play slide guitar. That’s what I did with my old Ovation Balladeer. Slide is a good skill worth developing. Here’s my take:
Ride The Crimson Wave
The alternatives are a new guitar and/or a fret job.

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Yep, they’ll need levelling to the lowest fret. If you’ve run out of height, then a fret replacement job is probably needed - pretty expensive , and not really economically justifiable on a cheaper guitar.
You may find its not as bad as it looks, and the buzzing might be something else.
I had a somewhat similar issue some time ago that was sorted with a setup and a good fret polish.
Having said all that, my next guitar will be having stainless steel frets. :nerd_face:

Cheers, Shane

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Or play further up the neck…

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Not an expert but that looks like a re level and crown job, seems plenty of fret withe there to not need refretting

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Thanks for the further replies! For now I think I’ll wait awhile longer as it’s not unbearable. In the meantime, I’ll weight my options in terms of learning slide, utilizing my neck real estate more efficiently! :laughing:

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I have an acoustic that I’ve had for nearly 40 years and for a long while it was my only guitar. The fret wear is nowhere like yours. You need to play barre chords further up the neck and in different keys and spread the load.