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John Myung Bongo 4

Frets poking out

A

AlecS

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
10
Location
Minneapolis
Hi guys-

Weird one here. I just received a new Stingray today. It's a beautiful Sky Blue Stingray 4HH with a pearl pick guard. The problem is the frets are sticking out from the neck so much it's really unplayable. It's new (unplayed) and the shop I bought it from is blaming it on shipping. He says the neck wood must have shrank in the 5 days it was shipping. He wants me to just hit it with some steel wool (!). I am not going at my new bass with steel wool. Seriously, has anyone seen this? Take a look at the attachment.

The neck was pretty severely cupped when I got it with super high action. I was able to fix this with the truss rod and some bridge adjustment so I'm wondering if this had been sitting somewhere super dry for a long time that could cause the neck to contract so much.

Thoughts?

thanks!
alec
 

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The store should take that back.

Yes, it's a relatively easy fix to a situation that will occur when an instrument experiences (drastic) humidity changes but you shouldn't have to do this kind of work on a new instrument.
 
AlecS said:
Hi guys-

Weird one here. I just received a new Stingray today. It's a beautiful Sky Blue Stingray 4HH with a pearl pick guard. The problem is the frets are sticking out from the neck so much it's really unplayable. It's new (unplayed) and the shop I bought it from is blaming it on shipping. He says the neck wood must have shrank in the 5 days it was shipping. He wants me to just hit it with some steel wool (!). I am not going at my new bass with steel wool. Seriously, has anyone seen this? Take a look at the attachment.

The neck was pretty severely cupped when I got it with super high action. I was able to fix this with the truss rod and some bridge adjustment so I'm wondering if this had been sitting somewhere super dry for a long time that could cause the neck to contract so much.

Thoughts?

thanks!
alec
Click to expand...

Hey Alec,

Thanks for playing Music Man, please shoot me an email, we'll get you taken care of!
[email protected]
 
I have had this happen to a other brand guitar once. Noticed too late that it was catching heat from a radiator on the floor below and that dried the guitar to extreme extend. It shouldnt happen in normal temparature and humidity
 
It happens every year with my sterling 5. Being winter-fret sprout. Can't wait for spring.
 
EBMM custome service is excellent, they will take care of your problem.
 
Movielife said:
EBMM will sort it. Never seen that on an EBMM
so probably just unlucky with temperatures.
Click to expand...

Seen that on plenty of basses, but never on a
brand new one ! BTW in my experience maple
FBs are much more vulnerable to this. Agreed
that you should not accept excuses on a new
bass. CS has already spoken [in your favor].

------------------------------------------------

Assuming you receive a good replacement it's
perficklee normal to expect the fret sprout to
recur in the future, unless you live in a verrry
constant climate. I've ground down all the fret
ends on a few basses [including rosewood, it's
not immune to this], and I always do it during
the driest part of winter to effect a maximum
cure against future seasonal changes.
 
Last edited:
i live very far north, and when it gets cold during winter it gets extremely dry.

so i have had a few basses that got fret sprout. the reason is simple, wood reacts to humidity and moves whilst metal doesnt.

it can happen no matter which brand of basses and is for me something to be expected.
once taken care of it wont return next year ;)

dan erlewine explains it fairly well. do note that he wants to sell the stew mac tools, like the angled file.

Short video: Making a guitar neck more comfortable to play | stewmac.com

MrM
 
This has been a tough winter for some of my frets too. And not just on one or two MM basses.

Does anyone here file their own frets? If so what are you using? I was thinking of bragging some tools from Stewmac and giving it a shot on my own. Would save me some money and hassle.
 
I had this happen on my Stingray--after 20 years. It's more common on maple fretboards I think, and it's worse in winter. Not hard to take care of though--if you like the bass just get the feet sprout fixed and you're good to go.

Tom
 
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