Finding the causes of fret buzz on your guitar or bass is often a process of elimination – nut slots, neck relief, bridge saddle snags and even troublesome strings can all play their part. I focus on some of these in my guitar setup tutorial but uneven frets can often be another culprit – and that's not such a straightforward issue to tackle at home. Or is it?
Wood and metal move, especially over time and under the tension of playing and strings. You'll never have absolutely perfectly levelled frets as a result, but you can isolate trouble spots, file them level and then crown and polish them up again for a much improved playing experience.
This has understandably been a job for experienced techs and repair people over the years, and for good reason. It requires patience, methodical skills and the knowledge to know when not to go too far. For those reasons I'd always advise going to a professional for fret work as the first port of call, but if you do feel like investing in the tools to do some of this work yourselves, MusicNomad has been busy developing tools to make it easier for players to work on their frets, and maybe save some money in the longer term.
