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Question Choke-Out Question

mikeller

mikeller

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
2,805
Location
Central Ohio
For too long my Luke (2) has a choke out - primarily on the 2nd string, bending on the 20th fret up a whole step (that would be a G to an A). It does NOT chock out bending from the 19th fret and is extremely minimal bending from the 21st fret. It only chokes out bending from the 20th.

I apparently have a high fret - enough to choke out, but not enough to detect when a very well qualified local guitar repair gentleman would lay a tool on it to check for a high fret.

My questions are - which fret would be high then, the 20th or 21st? And how, is the best way to deal with this?

Thanks!!!
 
You need a small piece of flat metal - a straight edge. Small enough to bridge across 3 frets at the position mentioned. If there is an eneven fret the straight edge should rock. A practice favoured by some is to ramp off the frets from the 12 fret to the 22/24 fret - giving a VERY slight slope. This helps with extreme bending in the higher register.

Stewmac sell just the tool and i'll get a link to it for you
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that is basically the tool my tech used, but nothing rocked. The high spot must be very miniscule. He used a fret hammer to tap the fret to make sure it was seated well, but that didn't help. I have tried to be patient and "play it out" but its winning and I am loosing, LOL.

Spudmurphy said:
You need a small piece of flat metal - a straight edge. Small enough to bridge across 3 frets at the position mentioned. If there is an eneven fret the straight edge should rock. A practice favoured by some is to ramp off the frets from the 12 fret to the 22/24 fret - giving a VERY slight slope. This helps with extreme bending in the higher register.

Stewmac sell just the tool and i'll get a link to it for you
Click to expand...
 
The tool was this one

STEWMAC.COM : Fret Rocker

My way of thinking is that if it's that small a deviation, it wouldn't hurt to use 1000 grit wet and dry on a straight edge. This would take off hardly anything at all. Choking is something that he should be able to take care of - part of his bread and butter work really?
But if all fails then a full fret dress should resolve it - maybe consider sending it to EB as they know their instruments?
 
Thank you sir - I may try the 1000 grit first. The rest of the frets are like new, virtually no wear at all. I hate to dress them all down if I can avoid.
 
If the problem comes from bending at the 20th fret the problem is EITHER at 21 (which could be too high) OR at 20 (which could be too low).

A credit card is a great straight edge as a fret rocker. Old cards can be cut to size so that we can test three frets at at time. Use your rocker on 18 - 19 - 20, then 19 - 20 - 21, then 20 - 21 - 22, and finally 21 - 22 - 23 to figure out where the problem is.
 
Look. If fret 20 has a problem and fret 19 does not it's not a bridge setting, OK?

You either do a fretlevel or you rip fret 21 out of the fretboard.
 
Another way to to it is to do a fret dress that will give you a compound radius on the frets. Normally when you do a fret level you follow the radius of the fret board. Think of it like the top of a cylinder. A compound radius is when you level as if the shape was a cone.
It's a common fix (so my guitar building buddy says) on strats or guitars with a similar radius.
.. and I agree too that it's not a bridge / saddle adjustment.
 
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