Problem with wearing down frets

[swanson47]

I bought my guitar 6 months ago and the third fret has already worn and sounds like crapola. It gives that buzzing sound on the high E string.
My question is, how often does this happen to guitars. And what can I do to prevent this from happening?

[Jstickley]

This happens quite often, and believe it or not, it is alot of time, not a fret problem. The truss rod could be out of adjustment, the bridge maybe out of adjustment. These are things that you would need to check before you can go farther. I would be on it being a combination of those things. If you are 110% positive that your guitar is setup correctly, it could be a fret issue. Depending on the neck, and the make of the guitar, you maybe able to have just that fret replaced, although like strings, its a good idea to eaither replace all frets, or none at all. This is because there is a bit of a taper on the frets that go from the nut to the end of the neck.

I hope this helps you a little. Maybe you could post some clear pictures of your bridge, and a top shot of your neck, lets see if there is any flex in the neck.

Jesse

[swanson47]

Thanks for the advice Jstickley, turns out you were right. I took my guitar to the local music shop and found there is a hump in the neck and the bridge needs adjusted. The guy I talked to that worked there said that he'd fix it for 20 bucks.

[Meekguitarrepair]

That sounds about right. I charge $10.00 per fret if I'm doing individual frets and the fingerboard is not bound. A normal setup will include light fret work like this as well as action (saddle and nut height), innotation, truss rod adjustment if needed, clean and pollish and a new set of strings. Normal price for setups is in the range of $50.00 to $75.00 on the average IF all of the above is included in the setup.