Leveling frets where neck meets body (hump)

constantine

Hi - The neck on my dell arte is pretty straight except on the bass side where the neck meets the body at the 14th fret, there is a small hump and uneveness in the fingerboard. Is there any special technique to level the higher frets where the hump is on the higher frets?

thanks

Jeff Moore

No.
If its bad enough you have to re-fret the whole thing and level the fret board.
I just level the frets if it isn't really bad. Because you say its only bad on the bass side, it must not be
too bad, so a fret leveling oughta do it.

You should keep the humidity where your guitars live at 40-55%. Winter heating of your home and dry air in sub freezing climates, or dry air in Arizona like climates are the likeliest cause.

I'm not a luthier but have done my own set ups (if crudely) for a long time.
I don't want to get into how I do it, cause I often get a bad reaction from others who mean well.
Just wanted to offer an answer.
Many guitar shops will do a fret level. I don't know what's reasonable price wise.

Jazzaferri

I had that issue on a guitar that was worked out with some work on the fret board and then fret levelleing. worked out well and the guitar had great tone so was worth the hassle.

placidothecat

That's really common. A luthier can tell you if it just needs a bit of fret leveling, or a more drastic (but not really too bad) fretboard plane and refret. I recently had a plane and refret done on an old archtop, and while I was a little nervous, it came out wonderful and is now one of the best playing guitars I've ever had.

Josh Hegg

Yes.
It can be leveled. I have done this many times. It's not often that a refret is needed due to a 12, 13 or 14 fret "hump". It's about a .3mm "hump" and this can be fixed via fret leveling.

Cheers,
Josh

constantine

It turned out great..thanks for all the help guys!!!