Acoustic Guitar Frets: Dead Frets Identification

Dead Frets on Acoustic Guitar Fretboard

If a buzzing sound is heard, there may be a dead fret on the acoustic guitar neck fretboard. Don’t be frightened by the word “dead”, the “dead” can almost always be resurrected.

The factors that cause the dead fret is various. Uneven or loose frets, insufficient neck relief and vibrates, etc., can cause such kind of problem.

Thus, in this article, we try to explain as accurate as possible to help you to figure out what is going on.

Acoustic Guitar Fret Dressing

A main factor that causes the dead fret is badly worn frets. This often occurs on the very often played acoustic guitar.

Over time, the fret that is on the most played position of the acoustic guitar neck, will become worn in comparison to its neighboring frets. To solve this, we recommend to replace the worn fret. To level the remaining frets to the same height with the worn one is not recommended.

The main reason is that the replacement is normally cost less.

Another reason is that the top of the worn fret will increase the contact area with the string. That will allow the string to vibrate against the fret wire to absorbs much of the energy of the note. Besides, this will speed up the wearing of the strings.

Once this type of problem occurs, it is better to look for help from the store or luthier, unless you have this kind of experience and quite familiar with the work since you have done before.

Uneven Fret

For most of time, the dead fret is caused by uneven fret on the guitar fretboard. The uneven fret means one fret sitting higher than its surrounding frets on the guitar fretboard. This is mainly caused by the physical problem of fretboard.

The higher fret can be pressed back into place with fret hammer in some cases. At the same time, super glue is also necessary to help to recover the position of the fret. However, be care that the glue should not be spread on the fretboard, just penetrate into the fret slot.

Like uneven fret, loosen fret is also frequently found on the acoustic guitar neck fretboard. This is caused by careless building or long time playing, etc. Anyway, it is easy to detect the loosen fret. With a small block of timber and press it firmly against the ends of the frets. Any movement can be detected. This can be fixed with the glue.

Final Thoughts

Once you get dead fret caused by any reason, it is recommended to go to a store or luthier for help. Because they can help you to identify what is going on fast and comprehensively check if there any other issues. Most importantly, they can professionally fix the problem without cause other unexpected problem. Especially when you are lack of experience and tools. Or, please feel free to CONTACT US for free consultation.