Fret buzz at the Ninth Fret only

[dewey finn]

I have a Hamer a special that I recently acquired. The guitar plays great but I get this annoying fret buzz at the ninth fret. I cannot adjust the string height enough to eliminate it. The buzz is only occurring on the ninth fret. Is this a high fret?

[zenmindbeginner]

1). Your ninth fret might be low

2). Your tenth fret might be high

3). Your ninth fret may be too flat and needs a bit of crowning

As far as a fret that's too flat is concerned, the point of string contact must be with the very top of the fret. If the fret is too flat, there will be buzzing because the string is contacting with too large a section of the fret. That's why frets are rounded at the top... to provide a single point of contact with the string.

The instant solution would be to get a little more relief into the neck via loosening the truss rod. This naturally bows the neck forward near the middle of the fretboard. Since the ninth fret is near the middle, some relief might get rid of the buzzing instantly. This will make the guitar a little more difficult to play but will onlu positively effect your tone which isn't a bad trade-off.

You can tell if a fret is too high or low by rocking a metal straightedge across the 8th to 10th fret. If you can rock it a bit, the 9th fret is too high, you'll notice right away if it's too low. Look at the shape of the fret, is it flat from wear or is it still nice and rounded? Rock the straightedge between the 9th to the 11th fret, this will tell you if the 10th is too high.

If you have an assortment of needle files and find that the 10th fret is simply too high, you can try and get the fret down a bit and then crown the sides a bit if you are daring and comfortable with this type of work. If you're not, take it to a repairman, but try and diagnose the problem yourself before you bring it in. The repairman will appreciate your willingness to get involved in your own guitar's action and at the very least, will take you seriously.

[humfree]

Keep in mind that if it is low, or the tenth is high, even after dressing the problem frets, the others on up the neck may now buzz because they will be too high. You may need a fret dress from 9 on.

Peace

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

Is it just one string, or some, or all of them?

Look really closely at the 9th, 10th, and 11th frets. You may see that the 10th or 11th is not seated fully or evenly, or that the 9th is worn or flat across the top.

Stew Mac sells all the cool tools you need to do your own fretwork. Their fret rocker is a flat edged triangle that you can use to find one fret that is too high or too low. Your local hobby shop may have something similar. You need something short enough to span only 3 or 4 frets. Stew Mac also sells fret crowning files which will put a nice round top on your frets. They do sell fret files for filing the fret down.

Finding a high or low fret is simple with a good straight edge, and crowning a flat fret is easy to do without doing any irreversible damage. But filing down a high fret is risky. If you take it down too far you have created a much bigger problem. Plus, maybe the problem was a low fret rather than that fret being high. A good luthier is a safe bet when it comes to filing down high frets, though I have done it with great care on several of my guitars and had good results.