In some pictures it seems that Keith has pretty flat frets in his Telecaster(s?) but is there more exact information about of this? Maybe it's also different with Tele's in standard tuning and Tele's with open G tuning? ..I'm just curious.

Could you expound please by what yoyu mean by flat frets? Did you mean wide? The frets have to match the radius of the neck and Fenders from the '50s especially have a pronounced curve of the fret board. I suspect that Keith's Teles have been refretted more than once ove the years and probably with wide fret wire.

i suspect he means low, as in "The 1957 LP 2PU Custom was nicknamed 'The Fretless Wonder' for its low frets"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-05 09:32 by with sssoul.

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Stones62
and Fenders from the '50s especially have a pronounced curve of the fret board.

7.5" radius, which is as curved as it gets.

A bitch to set up though if you want low action and be able to pull off bends.

Modern Fenders have 9.5" or more (and that's still quite pronounced).

Gibsons are a bit flatter.

Some guitars these days are practically flat.

I prefer the 9.5" - 10" for comfort.

Compound radius (changes down the neck) is the best but expensive.

Guitar neck set up is an art that eludes me most of the time, I can get close but there is always something...

As I recall Keith used to have lower frets on the 60s burst tele than on the others.[that was about 20 years ago though ! ]

Like Stones62 said, many of Keith's guitars have probably had a number of refrets.

[The fretboard sanding and levelling required to correctly refret a maple neck often results in the radius being somewhat reduced with repeated refrets.
Although really low frets don't suite bending very much, I'd be very surprised if keith liked especially high frets. With his energetic style of playing it's very esat to push chords out of tune if the frets are too high and you can't feel the fretboard unde your fingers.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-05 18:26 by Spud.

This is from 81 tour.
looks like frets are not normal "half circle" but straight and polished instead. then again.. might be just optical illusion.

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johnnyjolene

This is from 81 tour.
looks like frets are not normal "half circle" but straight and polished instead. then again.. might be just optical illusion.

That's a pretty high action!!!

I can't play them like that.

I always wondered how high Keith set his action, some players have it high like SRV.

But Telecasters always have some fret buzz for me if I set it even medium low. I don't know if it's that Fender don't pay so much attention to the frets?

I managed to get sweet low action on some guitars, a Gibson Melody Maker, an Epiphone Casino and a cheap old SX telecaster.

I do understand the parameters and I do have the right tools, feeler gauges, truss rod adjustment, 64th inch ruler - tried it all, tried manufacturers specs.

Some will and some won't.

Pictures like that can be very misleading.

the frets in that picture look like the stock frets on a late 70s Tele to me....wider that other eras. I had a Tele regretted recently and the repair guy decided that he was using those without telling me...he ended up buying me a new neck with the frets I wanted and had had on that Tele...I have never read nor heard Keith talk about his fret board. I have assumed that he can play anything after having played so many guitars. I have some guitars with fully flat fretboard (easier for slide to me) and many with various radii.....I worry more about the sounds I make than the gear I have to employ