Fret height on an HD 35

[Mountaine]

I had some new frets (the top four) and an under saddle pickup installed on a 2010 Martin HD 35. Of course, I used the factory authorized person in my area. I just miked the fret heights and they are about ten thousandths higher than any others. And there is now a shim under my nut. I don’t know if he did that. And when plugged in my low E is (hard to explain sound) splunchy. My Breedlove DRs/H is smooth as silk and balanced. The guy must have seen me coming because he tried to sell me the amp my guitar was plugged into. I found later I could get it for 60% of what he wanted. So my question is. What is the correct fret height on my guitar? This guy will never touch anything of mine again.

[JayBee1404]

I would think that the correct fret-height is ‘the height of the lowest fret’. It sounds as though he didn’t level the frets once he’d installed them, and simply shimmed your top-nut to raise the nut slots to suit the new (higher) frets. Of course, levelling frets involves matching the heights of all the frets, and you can’t add material to frets, you can only remove it - hence my ‘lowest fret’ comment.

Fret-levelling isn’t a job for the uninitiated/unskilled - get thee hence to a (good) luthier would be my advice.

At the same time, it sounds as though your saddle/slot/UST combo needs checking out by someone who knows what they’re doing, but it would be worth you checking that...

1) The bottom of the saddle is perfectly flat
2) The UST element isn’t damaged
3) There is no debris in the slot

Hope it works out for you.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV, I’m a retired accountant and guitar enthusiast, not a luthier, yadda yadda...

[Mountaine]

Thank you for your thoughts and input. As the “Martin rep”, I thought I was at a good luthier. I will start the attempts at finding a luthier who cares tomorrow.