Guitar developed dead frets (fretting out) past the 12th?

[MetalHeadMike]

Also @Bardagh, as I said I got hygrometers and room humidifiers. This past cold snap when it was in single digit temps here in north Georgia...my room humidifiers could not keep up. It still got down to 30% at 68* F (the temp matters) even running one full blast all day in the same room. I can only imagine how dry it gets without running a humidifier when it's that cold outside.

Yeah, try keeping a guitar in check at -47 and 11% humidity...that's where I was week before Xmas.

 

[Dino 939]

The truss rod is designed to affect the relief along the entire length of the neck... from the first fret near the nut... to the last near the bridge.

There is an issue with the neck. Maybe a bad truss rod (non-functional) or a twisted neck... that's why all frets past a certain point are affected. If you've not troubleshot a similar issue in the past, seek out a well recommended luthier in your area. Also could be two or more raised frets as well, but most likely there is an issue with the neck.

The issue is with the neck relief specifically... and from your description, you need to add more relief. That's why the strings are fretting out.

Exactly.
It’s literally always the neck relief, few dude’s or guitar techs get it right on the money or even close sometimes.
Desperation is the mother of invention,
so I went and bought the appropriate
luthier tools to do it my own damn self.
Now I don’t like anybody working on my guitars,
except myself.
My quote to them is:

“Cut the dramatic’s and put the eye of the tiger
on that neck and get it sorted”.

 

[Dino 939]

This reminds me of when I would teach employee’s
to build confidence and get right to the point of it.

“You gotta know what you’re looking at”.

Many don’t understand the mechanism of it,
Go easy with “Righty Tighty & Lefty Lucy’
And take the appropriate time to
use your mind and get a feel for the action & response of it.
Suddenly that scrooge of a guitar technician
is having you set up his guitars.

 

[Bardagh]

@Bardagh if you have to take it somewhere for work; Maple Street in downtown ATL is pretty good for acoustic guitar work. Or you could take a couple very short road trips to Nashville. I have a guitar at Glaser Instruments right now getting work done. Saw the Tom Bukovac show the day I dropped it off...I'll see something cool when I pick it up.

I usually take things to Southeast Guitar Repair in Buford, but hopefully I won’t even have to do that. Man it takes a hell of a lot to get me to drive further south than Forsyth county.

 

[phil b]

While I do agree with truss rod adjustments, there is definitely a reason why the neck went out like it did. When the guitar dries out the top flattens and the action drops. No amount of truss rod adjustment will bring the top back up. That needs humidification. The reason I really suspect humidity is because of where the problem is located and its an acoustic, which can cause exactly the problem OP described with the upper frets. when the top sinks too much. when the humidity drops real fast and the guitar is a little dry to begin with it can be a shit show real fast. Like overnight.

I worked at Kramer guitars in NJ wayyyyy back in the day so I do have experience with neck setup, adjustment.ect. and I also have a lot of experience (unfortunately) with guitars going south because of humidity. Hopefully this is the case cause its the best and easiest fix.

 

[Bardagh]

Yeah sighting down the bass side of the neck I can see how it follows a slight relief curve until it hits the body of the guitar, where it’s like the curve hasn’t resolved completely and instead there is a bump up.

On this guitar the first fret that is over the body is the 14th, which is where the problem remains, as on the 5th and 6th the 14th fret is actually fretting the note of the 15th. From the 15th on everything’s hunky-dory.

The 4th string still has a buzz on the 14th but the note is at least sounding.

 

[Bardagh]

Talked to the guy in town who has an instrument shop and does set ups and repair work (I don't use him mostly because he's kind of weird and difficult to deal with) and of course it is definitely due to the guitar drying out. Wood shrinkage in the fret board/neck causing a relative hump once the board passes over the body. It's been days in the case now with just the humicase sponge because I'm still waiting on the other humidifying gel pouches and it has improved but the 5th and 6th strings just don't seem to be getting there.

He said it can take a couple weeks or more sometimes for it to sort itself out - but the last thing you want to do if this happens is take any corrective measures on the frets or bridge, because eventually (especially down here) it would remoisturize and then you would have an inverse reaction that would then be even harder to correct.

Fortunately it still plays fine everywhere else on the neck so I can still use it to work on some songs in the interim, but for the most part it's got to just rehab in the case with some humidity. I was honestly kind of shocked to think it could take weeks, upward of a month for the guitar to re-humidify.

 

[phil b]

Yea, you definitely dont want to adjust anything until it comes back. Good news is once it comes back all should be fine... Only thing is that guitar will always be susceptible to drying out now. Try the Boveda packs and keep that case humidifier damp. As long as you do that, that guitar should last a lifetime.