Cold weather and my Albert Lee

[jabba]

I recently purchased a used Albert Lee on ebay from a seller down in Arizona. It took a week to get up to Manitoba (a very cold week), which included the guitar spending the weekend in a Canada Post shipping depot somewhere. When I got the guitar (which I love, by the way) I noticed the fret ends were sticking out a little from the neck...which I attribute to the cold climate up here and its affect on the guitar (I'm thinking that the neck shrunk a little due to cold exposure in shipping).

Is there anything I can do about this? ....I know that this is temporary and changes in temperature and humidity do have affect the guitar in different ways in the short-term, I'm just wondering if there's something I can be doing.....try to humidifiy the room I store the guitar in or something like that?? Any thoughts?

 

[roburado]

I attribute to the cold climate up here and its affect on the guitar (I'm thinking that the neck shrunk a little due to cold exposure in shipping).

Any thoughts?

Yeah. My thoughts are that it could have shrunk in Arizona, because of the dry climate.

 

[jongitarz]

If you have a good tech in your area, it's not a tough job to knock down the "fret sprout"

 

[roburado]

If you have a good tech in your area, it's not a tough job to knock down the "fret sprout"

Jon, how is this done? I have a Taylor that needs that kind of TLC.

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I had this done to a Wolfgang that I bought from Sweden. It was sold to me cheap because of the sprout. The seller said it got so cold overnight in the store it happened to nearly all of the unbound necks. It cost me about £60 to have it fixed. All they do (correct me if I am wrong) is file the fret ends down. After it was done you could not notice it had ever happened.

 

[dg5150]

I would leave it for a while till it gets used to the climate !! I had this happen to an EVH that i bought from the states. The frets were sticking out a mile !! but it seemed to sort itself out over a few weeks, and they are fine now .

Doug

 

[jabba]

Thanks for all the advice......I think I will bring it to my tech for a look and get an idea of how much it will cost to get the fret ends filed down (plus I know he'll flip when I show him the Albert)....I have a feeling my tech will tell me to wait a while and see if it settles on its own as you've suggested.

 

[dg5150]

I wouldnt get the sharp fret ends filed down, just in case the neck goes back!!

Doug

 

[lenny]

DONT FILE THE frets...............the guitar needs some humidity its just dried out from the Arizona climate.........what i used to do with my old fenders that had fret spout is put them in a humidified room like they have at the music stores for the Acoustics, it will take the better part of a 5 day week to swell the wood back but it WILL come back it just needs some time and some humidity dont forget guitars are just wood and these necks are unfinished so moisture can enter or exit very easily hope this helps

 

[d-bone]

I had to file down the edges on 2 EBMM ,1 wolfgang and 1 strat. In the winter the humidity gets very dry here in Sweden especially around february and mars the wood shrinks, and swells back in the summer around july. I filed down the sharp edges in mars when the wood was shrunk the most, that way the frets will never be sharp again. Very good result.

I think Sweden and Canada have similar climat/humidity changes.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I had a new heating system installed in my house. Not long after my "TeleE developed a fret sprout. I took it to MR Dearnaley who built it and he filed the frets down - £20 including a set of strings and a fret dress.
No problems since.
Let's see some pics of yer Albert ?

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I had to file down the edges on 2 EBMM ,1 wolfgang and 1 strat. In the winter the humidity gets very dry here in Sweden especially around february and mars the wood shrinks, and swells back in the summer around july. I filed down the sharp edges in mars when the wood was shrunk the most, that way the frets will never be sharp again. Very good result.

I think Sweden and Canada have similar climat/humidity changes.

Where are you from in Sweden?

 

[jabba]

I had a new heating system installed in my house. Not long after my "TeleE developed a fret sprout. I took it to MR Dearnaley who built it and he filed the frets down - £20 including a set of strings and a fret dress.
No problems since.
Let's see some pics of yer Albert ?

Hey Spud - I'll try to get some pics up this weekend.....

Cheers

 

[GWDavis28]

Jabba when I got my AL from Phoniex it had Fret Sprout, since it was NOS I sent it back to "The Man" Jon and he pimped it out and fixed the frets for me.

Glenn |B)

 

[beej]

Jabba when I got my AL from Phoniex it had Fret Sprout, since it was NOS I sent it back to "The Man" Jon and he pimped it out and fixed the frets for me.

Good call Glenn ... that Jon - he'll take care of ya

 

[Jimi D]

Don't worry about having the fret sprout filed down - even if the neck swells with humidity in the summer, nothing bad will happen if the fret ends have been shaved slightly... Don't forget lenny, a winter in Manitoba is a lot dryer (and colder!) than one in Nova Scotia - believe me, I've lived in both climates...

 

[lenny]

Don't worry about having the fret sprout filed down - even if the neck swells with humidity in the summer, nothing bad will happen if the fret ends have been shaved slightly... Don't forget lenny, a winter in Manitoba is a lot dryer (and colder!) than one in Nova Scotia - believe me, I've lived in both climates...

Well no arguments about the weather but what does it have to do with a relative humidty of his house and the relative humidty of arizona?....a humidified room is the same here or alberta or arizona.....its a controlled climate .....I have never had to file a fret due to fret sprout i put the guitar in a climatized room and they have always come back for me .........i just wanted him to know that before anyone attacked his frets with a file
again just my experience sorry to sound stand offish its just i have been playing with OLD/uncared for stuff for more than 20 years and if the frets were the right size from the factory in my opinion there is no need to file a little moisture will do wonders

HAPPY HOLIDAZE EVERYONE dEC IS HERE! 24 DAYS TILL SANTA

 

[Shnook]

I learned a lot of humidity related stuff from watching the tech videos on the Taylor Guitar site. They are mostly talking about acoustic bodies, but unbound necks react in a very similar way. I had 'fret sprout' on a Wolfgang I bought years ago. I dressed the neck with a colorless lemon oil and balanced out the humidity in the room, (bought humidity reader and humidifier) and within a few weeks the 'sprout' pretty much corrected itself.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Don't fret on this and get them filed.

It's no biggie - my mate is asked to do it regularly.

You can't keep the guitar in "humidor" conditions all it's life. It'll be perfect after the job is done - trust me.

Now where's the damn pics

 

[azzy_wazzy]

Now where's the damn pics

+1!!!

Spud, Trev finally got to play an AL today (with piezo no less) - he's in luuuuuurve