Crowning Frets

[Bevo1995]

I just recently leveled the frets on my 9yo son's SX shortie. (I wish I'd had an instrument that nice when I was nine!)

This left the tops of several of the frets (mostly from about the 15th fret up) fairly flat. I did not have the proper tool to re-crown the frets so I just polished them and left them flat. The flattest spots are somewhere around 1/3-1/2 the width of the fret.

It plays fine, which makes me wonder what additional advantage I would see if I properly crowned them, or if a certain amount of flatness is generally considered acceptable.

Since then I've paid closer attention to the frets on my basses, as well as those that I've played at stores. Many of them have frets with a significantly flat top (these are brand new instruments of various brands).

So what am I missing?

[stflbn]

Fret crowning file from StewMac, or Warmoth.

Easy to do prior to polishing. Crowned frets are smoother playing and more precise.

[dmusic148]

It'll play a bit more in-tune of you crown them, and there will be less friction when bending notes.

[Bevo1995]

Cool. That makes sense. Thanks for the replies.