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A friend had a re-fret done on a Strat and now it plays sharp at the first few frets. He admits to having a heavy hand when playing. I checked the guitar and the notes are correct when fretted lightly at the fret. Is this simply a case of the crowns being too high? The fretwire seems to be in the "medium" range and I measured the height at around .040"

Thanks,
Chuck

I'm gonna go with yes on this one, based on my own experience as a heavy-handed player. The frets are higher than they used to be, and he's likely bending the strings as he presses them into the fretboard. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the guitar or even with the player. They just don't fit the way they used to. The two solutions would be to either lower the frets or to get the player to ease up.

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David Morris

the nut slots are probably way too high also

I had a client years ago.... I refretted his 335 with Jim Dunlop 6100, which the rockers usually love. My client played straight country. Anyway - after he picked up the guitar he had trouble with the guitar going out of tune. He thought I didn't intonate it properly. I asked him to play for me in the store, and you could see his knuckles turning white as he fretted. He was bending the strings out of tune.

He was very upset when I told him to lighten up, or live with it. He wanted the high frets so he could do his triple string pedal steel licks ala Amos Garrett. Eventually he had me grind down the frets about .020, which seemed to solve the problem.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I tried jumbo/medium height frets on a build.
Same problem. I filed 'em way down.

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