Why are my frets popping out?
If you live in Chicago or someplace with a similar climate, you see a lot of seasonal change in temperature and humidity. These changes mess with wood. One common symptom of humidity change is something called “fret sprout.”
How to know if you have fret sprout
When you run your hand up and down the fingerboard, you’ll feel the metal of the frets. This can either be the actual tang (the part of the fret pressed into the wood) coming out of the fret slot, or the corners of the frets themselves protruding from the edge of the fretboard. What happened is the humidity dropped during the winter and the fretboard wood dried out. Metal isn’t as affected by moisture as wood, so the wood shrinks while the metal stays the same, causing the metal to stick out. Unbound fretboards in Chicago-like climates are particularly at risk, especially if you have forced-air heat without a humidifier.
How fret sprout can be limited
There are several things that can be done to limit this issue when the instrument is being built:
Binding the fretboard
Trimming the tang so it doesn’t go to the edge of the fretboard, and then filling the fret slot with wood dust and glue
Properly dressing the fret ends to help with comfort at the edge of the fretboard
Fixing fret sprout
If you do end up with fret sprout, it’s a relatively simple fix. In most cases, a light filing of the fret ends by someone skilled at fretwork is all that’s necessary, followed by proper humidity management of your instrument going forward.
When it’s a bigger issue
Sometimes it’s not actually fret sprout that you’re feeling; budget instruments often have fret ends that haven’t been properly dressed. We have seen this a couple times recently with Squier and Donner student instruments. This requires a fret end dressing, which is a different and more labor-intensive repair than fixing fret sprout.
Getting ahead of fret problems
We recommend taking any new guitar to a reputable and certified local luthier for an initial setup, where they will assess elements like fret ends and potential for fret sprout and put in place preventative measures. We do this with every instrument built at MachMachines before it’s sold and check for fret sprout as part of every setup.
Author: David Showalter, MachMachines Co-founder & Head of Instruments