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[QUESTION] Remedies for a "dead fret" with seemingly no issues?
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SmashAndDashGame is in Question
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Adjusting a T-Bucket 300CE fender acoustic-electric. Restringed, inspected bridge/nut, read up all about truss rods and made sure fretboard is level, and inspected each fret by eyesight. But STILL the high e and b strings 1st and 2nd fret are tinny and won't ring out for more than a couple seconds. I read up about hitting with a mallet, but seemed suspect.

This nightmare started with me trying to fix a buz/humming on my piezo. I didn't know until recently that you only restring one at a time to keep the bridge nut balanced on a piezo so I took piezo out, inspected it, put back in, and did my best to balance it, but it's still buzzing on the amp. Fender Fishman if it matters. copper sheath looked fine to me, but not really looking to buy a whole new pickup...

EDIT: Is it possible I brought the action too low on the bridge nut messing with the piezo? I tried loosening the high strings, tightening the ~~low strings first, then doing the high strings after hoping that'd pull it into position~~ (Don't do that.... do center strings first then work outwards), but wondering if I brought down action too low on accident...

https://imgur.com/a/B0yQ5Kl - bridge nut. (Excuse the high e string I just snapped futzing with it...)

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https://imgur.com/a/pHDd1Zx
Here is a picture of it out and in. It's a little off to the side when its out because I pushed it out, but I lined it back up correctly before putting the bridge saddle back in

Yes, however, it's on a piezo pickup that's basically in a copper mesh sleeve thing, not molded plastic so it compresses down on the piezo and has a bit of play.

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Short of doing what was suggested and chalking the frets and pressing a flat object on them, they appear level using a 3x5 card. Went up and down the board on the low side and high side of frets trying to find any fret that was too high up or too low down, but not turning up the culprit.https://imgur.com/a/qcXnjFg

I checked fretboard with a straight edge for the truss but totally skipped my mind to check each fret only a couple frets at a time. I'll give that a go.... any suggestion for the buzzing/humming from pickup?

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Well I got all buzz to go away except for slightly 1-4th fret on G, B, and e. It won't ring out. Tried going to guitar center but their "guitar tech" wasn't there today to take a look. I added relief to truss rod and frets seem fine to me. I can only assume the action is too low on the bridge saddle :\

I don't think I need to redo the bridge or anything like in the video

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Okay. So, add more relief to the neck?

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At first it was only the first some frets at the high strings, but now it was open fret on the low string so I'm getting entirely confused. It doesn't help that the piezo pickup is cheap and is just a copper mesh instead of molded plastic like guides are showing online. It's possible years of playing has compressed it.... I just unstringed whole thing to get to the bottom of it.

Edit: In hindsight the buzzing open fret on low string may be because I snapped my high e and then loosened some of the other strings while I was messing with checking fret height and wanted more room to pull strings out of my way.... would have made the nut unbalanced on the piezo pickup

https://reverb.com/item/175933-fender-fishman-isys-iii-preamp-system-blackFound the preamp system in question. If anyone could recommend a better one or replacement piezo pickup or fix for this one I'm all ears. Tired of burning through 9v batteries though so would be grateful if any are rechargable or can plug into power source also....

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3 years ago