fretting doesn't change pitch

seasidesal

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Hi Everyone -

I have a baritone that was built by a friend but he is not available to help me troubleshoot this problem, and I am fairly inexperienced although learning. The uke has a very nice sound and overall pretty good intonation on each string, up to fret 12.

Fretting at 13,14,15,and 16 doesn't change the pitch at all on any of the strings. Then, fretting at 17 and 18 does decently change the pitch again on all strings.

I'm thinking it's one or more high frets, but definitely need some advice about what else it could be before I ask someone to take a look at it (to save them some time and to save me some money).

Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide.
 
yeah, i'm guessing fret 16 is high. Do you get a big jump in pitch from fret 11 to 12?

if you have a good straight edge, like a ruler, you can set it on the frets. If there's a high one, it should be pretty obvious.
 
One easy way to pinpoint a high fret is with a very short straightedge - something so short, it only spans three frets at a time. Guitar parts suppliers sell little business card sized straightedges in little odd shapes such that each side is a different length, but you can use a credit card, or the short end of a ruler, or any other short, true surface. Go up the neck, spanning three frets at a time, and try to rock the straightedge. If it does not rock, move up another fret. If it rocks, the middle of the three frets you're spanning right now is high.

You can check with a ruler or long straightedge laid against all the frets at once, but if your neck has relief, it can be easy for that to mask the true problem. If you do try to check with a long straightedge, it can be helpful to cut a little short strip of paper, and try to slide it under each fret. If you find one lone fret where the paper won't slide under the straightedge, that's your high fret.

Ultimately though, unless you're going to attempt the repair yourself, or you're just trying to learn, the tech will probably just diagnose things themselves even if you tell them you think you know what the problem is! It is good to check yourself though, so you can learn to identify problems (and then maybe one day you'll fix them yourself). This could be a lone high fret (easy to fix by leveling the frets), or a neck that's twisted or bowed (may or may not be easy to fix, also may or may not point to the neck being generally unstable), or it could be a loose fret (which sometimes pops up from it's slot and acts like a high fret, but when fretted as you play, may actually sit right back down into the slot). Loose frets tend to often be the cause of an amateur/owner not being able to diagnose the problem, since when they go to check for a high fret, they may be pressing down on the ruler/straightedge hard enough to re-seat the fret, so everything looks good. But as soon as the pressure is off, the fret pops back up. So if your checking with a ruler gets you confused, you can check for a fret that's moving - look at the frets around the problem area, and try to slip the edge of a sheet of paper between the fretboard and the fret crown. If you find a fret where the paper fits, push down on it and see if the paper no longer fits. If that's the case, the fret is loose.
 
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