Fixing a loose fret

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

I have a 1976 Ovation acoustic guitar with a loose 13th fret. The treble end is loose which causes the high E string and the B string on the 12th fret to sound buzzy and the 13th fret to sound quite dull. The fret fails to grab the fingerboard at all on that end, it can be pressed in easily by hand and then springs right back out.

The guitar will need a refretting at some point a few years down the road so I don't want to do anything that will make that impossible or difficult. The general interweb consensus on sites like frets.com is to run some thin superglue under the fret. Is this going to cause bigger problems down the road?

Or would it make sense to have just the one fret replaced by a competent luthier and filed down to match the others?

I posted this question on the Ovation Fan Club and got one reply suggesting using thin super glue. The guitar is well humidified, so I don't think there is any solution other than replacing the fret or gluing it in. A complete refret is beyond the budget for now. What do the HFC experts say?

Here she is. The guitar is the Patriot model in celebration of the bicentennial in 1976. The cabinet behind it is an authentic 18th century piece.

[backinit]

I wonder if you could pop the fret out completely, modify the barb on that end and reinstall.

I would be tempted to run alittle superglue along the edge of the fret wire as it sits then quickly set a bar clamp on it with a chunk of oak along the fret wire and protection for the back of the neck.

[murkat]

Masking tape the area off, press and hold (small clamp device) in place, very thin bead of super glue.

The super glue will wick into the area (and every where else it is allowed to... )

Let set, dry. Lightly scrape (razor blade) residual leftover away, use 800 ~ 1500 W/D sandpaper to match

rest of fretboard. Level fret with the fret neighbors. Buff and blend.

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

Just to close this out, I spoke with Greg at BCR today on the phone. He graciously offered a few minutes of his time to give me some guidance.

Greg correctly diagnosed the problem as a bent fret. The curve is not proper when viewed closely, and it is obvious that it has been dented under the B string. Most likely a previous owner tried to tap down a high fret and bent the fret, popping one end up. The cure is to have the fret removed, bent to the correct shape, and re-installed.

So in this case I will take it to the local shop that has a reputation of having a good luthier. This one is beyond my skill level.

[BCR Greg]

Great talking to you today, fella.

Lemme know how it plays out.

[Turdus]

Interesting timing here. Just yesterday I took one of my basses to the local repair guy. Had 2 notes, near neck body joint, that were completely choked. He tapped the frets with a plastic tipped hammer, and this corrected the problem.

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

I had a new guitar that had one fret a bit high, where you could see that it wasn't sitting all the way flush to the fretboard. I placed a little piece of wood on the fret and lightly tapped it with a hammer to seat the fret fully. It fixed the problem permanently. But when I mentioned it to a friend working at a local store, he and the owner (a very good luthier by reputation) both gasped and said I was lucky that I didn't do more harm than good.

It looks like the previous owner of the guitar in this thread tried to reseat the fret and bent it. Who knows what he/she used as a tool. It must not be too rare that people damage their frets this way if Greg had a good idea what the problem was without even seeing the guitar in person.

[BCR Greg]

No....I'm just a genius.

[cloakerz]

can't argue with you on that one greg, i really mean it

[BCR Greg]

Don't encourage me, I get insufferable.