Hi there knowledgeable strummers and luthiers!
One of my favourite sounding guitars is my Gitane 270, but the frets are rather tall and it's noticeable how sluggish it feels when sliding from note to note compared with my slicker Cholet, whose frets are lower and rounder. Am I likely to improve that playability on the Gitane by taking the tops of the frets off and polishing each side? I don't want to do anything that will feel odd or make it worse.
Can very low frets present problems in any way? How low can you go? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having very low, flush frets?
Thanks! Jamie
Comments
This is best done by a professional, with the proper tools. The worse thing you can do is unwittingly lower the height of any fret while attempting to round them. That will result in buzzes. If you want to lower them all together, it can be done, but they have to be carefully planed together very accurately, followed by careful rounding while leaving the new fret heights undisturbed.
Thanks. I'm aware of keeping them level, and I've done it before and have the correct files. I'd just like to know about how different heights of fret feel to the player, and what happens if fret height is very low.
The frets on my guitar were very low before they were replaced recently. It was no problem only instead of another leveling and crowning, I went with the swap. The drawback with low frets (and wide in my case) was there wasn't a lot of room left for a nice crown so it wasn't the smoothest to slide across because of the d shaped shoulders. A total opposite with the new stainless steel frets, fingers glide across so easily.
Yes, that D shape could end up causing me grief! What's the best way of smoothing that off? In the past I've run very fine wet and dry paper up and down the fretboard using my fingers (rather than a sanding block) to rub the edges of the frets.
That I wouldn't know. But it was only occasionally that I would encounter a snag, it was far from being frequent.
I used this gizmo occasionally to smooth out some spots. It works surprisingly well.
Hmmm, I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at Buco! Tell me more please!
This thing
but what they don't show is the notch on the stick which hugs the fret.
These pictures are very pleasing. You have a wonderful eye, Buco! Did anyone else know this about him?? What other secrets do you hold??
Ahaaa, thanks! I shall have a go at making my own version with the correct profile.