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I just refinished guitar #2 and just got it strung up. I was getting pretty bad fret board buzz from the fretboard extension before it was refinished, so I pulled the frets from 12 on up and put a slight ramp from 14 fret to soundhole. That fixed most of my issues, but when I restrung, I'm still getting a lot of buzz on the A, D & G strings from fret 3 to fret 10. I adjusted my truss rod so that a business card can fit under the string at the 7th fret while pressing the 14 and 1st fret. I'm pretty sure my truss rod is set perfectly. Should I level only this area of the frets for the A, D, and G strings? What else can I do? Any help will be much appreciated!
Tracy

Tracy,

I'm no expert, but I have built enough guitars to have some experience fixing fret buzz. Buzz is irritating, but it's not that hard to fix.

There are only a few possible causes of fret buzz. I would try to rule them out in this order:

(1) Nut slots filed too low. This is not your problem, because that would only cause buzz on the open position.

(2) Action set too low on the buzzing strings. Easy to check.

(3) Fretboard not level/truss rod not properly adjusted. Your "business card" test suggests this is not the problem.

(4) One or more frets is "high" in isolated positions. If the three strings are buzzing substantially on the tenth fret, but not on the eleventh, your eleventh fret may be high in the area of the A,D,G strings. If so, you should get an increasing amount of buzz as you move up to the tenth fret, but then no buzz at all when you move to the eleventh fret. If you have these symptoms, just file the eleventh fret down a tiny bit (one or two passes with a fine file works) under these strings and re-check and re-file as necessary.

Good luck!

I'd reccomend perusing the MIMF's Buzz FAQ, which provides you with a step by step approach to finding and fixing buzzes.

Alternately, do something like Rick Turner does (will be trying this on the next few instruments, no direct experience yet), and set up the guitar so the neck's adjusted dead flat, tuned to pitch, and use a flattened piece of angle iron stock to level the frets under each string. Near as I can tell, it's like using a StewMac/Erlewine neck jig, only with actual string tension.

Cool tip , that angle iron!

I too am refinishing my first guitar. It's been stripped down for some years, so I don't know what the fingerboard's gonna do.

Frets.com has an at length treatise on fret buzz diagnosis:
FRETS.COM fret buzz diagnosis

Maybe that'll help to have printed out for reference

Let us know how it turns out Tracy

Thanks for all the help guys! I think I know what the problem is...I think I levelled my frets one too many times and got them too low and flat. The frets.com site had a picture of frets that are too flat, and mine look just like it. I will pull the frets 1-12 and level, then re-fret. I think this will do it. I'll let you know if that is what it was.
Tracy

Tracy,

If your're gonna pull em, heat them with a larger soldering gun (file a little concave into the tip to mate with the fret.)

You might want to consider pulling them all, put it in a jig under tension, and sand the whole board. Then if you seat the new frets properly , you may not even need to do leveling and crowning. PM me if you want to talk it through. Not sure if you have radius snading blocks etc...

TIm McNight's got a good explanation of this: Tim's fretting technique

G'day!
Terry Stowell38670.529375

Thanks Terry! I've already pulled the frets twice, so once more is no biggie. The problem is that I do not know what I'm doing. But the more times I do it, the better I get. I always use a soldering gun by the way. Also, the reason I don't want to pull all the frets is because I just redid the fb extension with new frets a week ago. I thought my previous buzzing was caused by that. It turns out that I had other issues with flat frets in the middle of the fb. Oh well, live and learn. Thanks again for the tips.
Tracy

This is a little off the subject but in the same ball park. I had a rattle in a 00 I built a few years ago that was driving me crazy! I decided it was the truss rod and proceeded to fill it with silicone sealer. No joy! It still rattled. I took it over to my buddy Steve Kinnard for a look-see and he discovered a loose knob on one of the tuning machines! A couple of drops of super glue and no rattle! Boy did I feel stupid! The little wood plugs on the back of the neck make a good story at any rate!

Bummer Dale! Thanks for posting, we all learn from each others mistakes! I pulled the frets 1-12 last night, and tonight will reinstall them. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Tracy