On leveling frets, how much tolerance is acceptable?

[vanstry]

Okay, wasn't sure how best to put the question in the title, but basically I just got my all maple P-bass neck in the mail (warmoth) and I took a straight edge to it and I think a couple of frets down past 15 may be a little high, we're talking maybe a thousandth or two. I haven't had the opportunity to measure it or get in there with a shorter straight edge to get a better look at it yet.

I've never leveled frets before, so I have no idea what's the tolerance that people find acceptable. So I figured I would ask before jumping to any conclusions.

Thanks.

 

[Cagey]

Tolerance is personal. For folks who prefer a somewhat higher action, you can get away with murder. For the shredders of this world who have the strings  nearly laying on the frets, there's no such thing as tolerance. It has to be level. Personally, I level as if for a shredder, and if the player wants the action high, then no harm done.

It might be worth it to string it up and see how it plays, then adjust later if needed. My only concern would be the cost of bass strings. In my experinece, strings don't always respond well to removal and reinstallation, so it's to be avoided.

Since it's a new neck, the frets need attention anyway, if for no other reason than to dress the ends and polish them up. If you're gonna do that, you may as well have the high frets knocked down to size.

 

[vanstry]

Actually, the ends are already dressed, which surprised me. I'm going to take a better straight edge to it tomorrow, after I finish the neck (Tru-oil). But right now I'm thinking of doing what you suggested and waiting until I see how it plays.

 

[AirCap]

The lower the action goes, the less variance in fret height can be tolerated. There's just no wiggle room left. Some people think a thousandth shouldn't matter, but yeah - it can when the strings are laying on the frets and the neck is perfectly straight.

 

[stratamania]

The fret ends are probably beveled but that is not a final dressing. A final dressing would finesse the bevels even further.

 

[Cagey]

Right. The top view is how frets normally ship, the bottom is up to you (or your pet fret guy).

Bevelled fret ends​

Dressed fret ends​

Warmoth themselves tell you right on their site that you may want to have someone pay attention to a new neck.

 

[vanstry]

Umm, maybe I got lucky or something, but they actually look like the bottom picture. The last neck I got from a (much cheaper) place looked like the top picture, and the frets even extended past the neck in places, so I had to dress up the ends quite a bit.

So maybe whoever did the neck at Warmoth got bored and decided to do a nicer job? Cause they're even polished.

 

[mayfly]

I have had that experience with the occasional warmoth neck.  The neck on Kashmir came with wonderfully dressed fret ends.  They sure don't all come out that way.  I've been keeping quiet about it because I was worried it was a warmoth staffer that did it for their own guitar.  If they found out I got that neck they might want it back! 

Maybe it was an experiment to try some kinda groovy fret end dressing machine or something.

 

[Fat Pete]

The (stainless) frets on my 'Beast' came from Warmoth looking like this:

It was a screaming deal though, so I suspect it may have been a customer return. Despite the ok dress, the frets were definitely not polished.