Guitar God Summary
A new Fender Telecaster with the owner aspiring to get the lowest possible action.
Reported Issues:
Fret buzz and discordant overtones on certain places on the neck.
Corrective Action:
Detailed measurements of action, neck and strings, truss rod adjustment (several), fret polish, re-string, intonation adjustment.
Straight Neck???
The neck was super straight, beyond that which sometimes occurs when lighter strings are fitted. Why? In some past cases the truss rod is all that is holding the neck from becoming twisted or uneven. The blurry photographs hint at just how flat. Minor and gentle truss rod adjustments, then remeasuring saw, with some relief, a natural and consistent curve slowly returned, no twisting.
Frets, Fingerboard and Strings
The frets are new with no high spots or string dents, so fret dressing was unnecessary, which is a good lesson for the guitar builder who wrecked the frets on my 1973 Gibson SG.
I always mask off as much as I can before polishing, cleaning and re-stringing the guitar.
Intonation
I believe this was the main root cause of the discordancy, the intonation was nasty, out and very sharp.
Must be a dozen Fenders and Squires that have come through the workshop. All could do with the saddle being just a few mm further back. We will often remove the spring on the bass E-string to get the string length long enough.
