Fret Sprouting (Maple vs Rosewood)

[cliff78]

i've experienced the same thing. a luthier told me that the frets on my musicman wasnt glued to the board. frets protrude more in maple if not glued. rosewood fretboards are not pprone to this even if the frets are not glued. have them glued on by a luthier. thats what i did. it made a huge difference

 

[Figjam]

Im not sure glue would affect it. If the board shrinks, it shrinks. Glue or no glue.

 

[robobass13]

someone elses post here is correct, any wood can do this, It has to do with the fact that all wood has a certain moisture content, even after it has bee cured for a peroid of time, I think if you cure out a section of maple and an equal size section of rosewood for the same amount of time, because the rosewood is more pourous it will have a smaller amount of moisture left in it, so the maple will tend to hold more and tend to shrink over time.

 

[Spudmurphy]

I've got it on an older guitar I have, not an EBMM....

I't happened on my tele which has a rosewood board and it happened 20+ years after it was built so Sonig it can happen a long time after the wood has apparently cured.
It happened because I had a new heating system installed in my house about 3 years ago which was soooo much better than the crappy heating sysem I had been running for 17 years. I noticed that the frets had got a bit "sharp" and took my guitar back to Mr Dearnaley, who confirmed that the new heating system was causing the air to be drier in my house.
He taped up the board with masking tape, cut the tape where the frets are.
He then took a Bastard File, and run it back and forth along the edges of the frets.
After he had dealt with the"fret sprout" he did a fret dress and new set of strings - £20 !!
Always nice to have your guitar looked after by the guy who built it.

 

[DKWilkins]

I've had it happen before w/ maple, ebony and rosewood boards. Sometimes adding a bit of moisture back into the boards will reverse the process. If you have any plastic 35mm film canisters you can poke a couple of holes in the top, take a small bit of sponge, wet it, wring it out so that it feels dry and no longer drips and put it in the canister. Place the canister in the case with the bass. Leave it closed up for several days and check it out.

 

[Straight UP]

Great to know and something to watch for..

 

[PocketGroove82]

Thanks for all this info guys!
I recently bought a humidifier for my room, and I mentioned it on talkbass. I asked what people thought about them and their uses, and all I got back were responses about germs. It was sad.
Thanks for something meaningful

 

[J_Alexander]

i have a dehumidifier in my guitar room to keep the humidity constant ove the summer. we have a whole house humidifier in the heating system so its pretty constant around 50 to 60 percent. i do have a one room humidifier if needed during the winter but other then that my room is pretty much the same all yr.