For quite a while, I’ve been debating whether to write blog posts and start making YouTube videos about working on guitars. I’m a hobbyist, not a professional, after all, and there are countless videos and books made by people who know far more than I. But here’s the thing; there are gaps in my knowledge base because no one book or video explains everything. There are a lot of details involved in working on guitars. And today I stumbled across a really important one.
I’m working on a MIM Strat, and I recently got an official Fret Rocker from StewMac. Here’s a tip for anyone learning fretwork – buy the Fret Rocker. It’s expensive for what it is. Buy it anyway. It’s far superior to anything else I’ve tried, and when doing fretwork, a few thousandths of an inch can make a difference. I got the frets on this neck dead freaking flat, and I was fired up to put the thing back together again. Only to find that every fret buzzed. Whattt? Can’t be! I checked the action at the 12th fret, adjusted the action to a reasonable height, and still every fret buzzed. I went back and recrowned again, polished everything up moving through my fret erasers, buffed the frets, put the neck back on, same thing! I’d checked the relief and it was perfect. What the hell was going on?
Maybe… the neck angle was wrong?
To test the neck angle, I got out my cheapo 5 piece Loupe Set. Buy them at Harbor Freight – they’re under 10 bucks. If you can’t find them at Harbor Freight, you can get them from Amazon:
Next I took my little ruler from my CruzTools set and using my 10x lens, I checked the distance from the fretboard to the bottom of the G string at the 12th fret. Then I checked it at the 17th fret. The distance should have been ever so slightly greater, but instead it was noticeably smaller. The strings were slanting DOWN from the nut to the bridge. That won’t work. My neck angle was gooched. I could either use a shim, or do a little sanding to the neck pocket or the back of the neck. But on the back of the neck, I found… a small piece of playing card stuck to the neck. There was my problem. Removed it, put the guitar back together, no more buzz.
The Loupe Set is a must have. One of the neat things you can do is put a capo on any fret that’s buzzing, then get in really close with the 10X lens and pluck the G string and watch the string vibrate. You can see the vibrating string clearing the next fret up. Or not. If not, you gots an issue.
The moral of the story is that neck angle matters. When you check your action, check at the 12th fret, and then check at the 17th fret. Between the neck angle and any fallaway that might be there, the distance ought to be ever so slightly greater at the 17th fret. If it’s less, your strings are slanting down, inviting them to buzz.
