This is probably a bad idea...

[brandass]

...but I'm thinking about a radical fret leveling, to shave Extra Jumbo frets down to a height similar to Vintage.

 

End result would be low and wide, which should make finger and chord sliding (I do a lot of that) much smoother.

 

It's a Schecter C-1+. Love everything else about it (dropped in 57/57+, which made all the difference), and it's a set neck.

 

This will probably pass. But is it worth considering at all? If so, would you go Plek?

[guitarcapo]

What ends up happening is that you get intonation irregularities because the string is breaking over a less precise point from fret to fret. There's also this sound to everything that I can only describe as similar to a "fretless guitar"

Sort of thicker. Not really buzzy like a sitar but sort of indistinct and fuzzy.

If you ever heard someone play fretless bass high up on the neck it's kind of like that sound.

 

The best argument for tall frets in my opinion isn't that you can file them down more...or even that they last longer. It's that you can get a sort of "scallopped fingerboard" effect with them where you can dig in and change the pitch. Get easier vibrato going on and your touch effects the pitch more.

Instead of getting vibrato from shaking the strings in a direction perpendicular to the strings, you get more subtle vibrato by pressing and releasing the string, or by shaking the string in the direction parallel to the strings. I'm sure there are other advantages like the extra metal making the neck as a whole heavier and denser and maybe that effecting the sound.

Also I think some super fast shredders get more speed by using very light strings and not having their fretting fingers have to press all the way and touch the fretboard...but I'm not one of those guys to elaborate on the pros and cons of that.

 

But I wouldn't advise using tall frets as some sort of compensation for bad fretwork you foresee happening. If you have to remove so much fret top so that the abraded area is more than 1/3 the width of the fret, that's a guitar that didn't have a flat fingerboard to start with.

[Elias Graves]

I don't like big frets! The frets on my 5th Avenue are much more pleasant than the ones on my Gibson. Just a touch too much pressure and a chord sounds like

 

EG

[brandass]

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

EG, that's exactly the sort of thing that drives me crazy.

 

But gc's arguments are compelling - does, indeed, seem like a bad idea.

 

Guess I'll either have to get used to it (mainly need to develop a lighter touch) or let it go ().

 

Thanks again!

[Elias Graves]

I find heavier strings help.

 

EG

[brandass]

That makes perfect sense, I'll give that a shot - thanks for the tip!

[catscurlyear]

are you sure the tops of your frets have been profiled properly ?. you could stone them down as low as you want but if you don`t re-profile them (round the tops off ) your fingers would still get caught on them .

[brandass]

I think they're still stock. I haven't done anything with them yet. I did buy used, but there were no signs of activity in that area (and the previous owner wasn't exactly subtle in the changes he made to the wiring ). In any case, fret tops appear to be nicely rounded and smooth, just too high for my liking (at this point anyway).

[DaleH]

As long as the frets are leveled and crowned the guitar should work fine. With regular fret maintance they would get to that point anyway.

[MahaloVision]

yep, if you go lower then you should re-profile the tops, either rounded or try a semi-triangular.

 

I've played low-and-wide, and it's not all that it's cracked up to be. at least IMHO.