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Acoustic Guitar Fretboard Question

Dear Sirs,
I can't find an answer to this question on the internet. I've searched for a week to no avail. Here's my question......I made a slotted straight edge to determine the straightness of the fingerboard on an Epiphone acoustic EJ-200 Artist that I have. It's relatively new and has not been set up. I adjusted the truss rod under string tension (tuned) and made the neck completely flat through the relief area and have contact to the straight edge all the way up to the 15th fret. THIS is where I have a problem....I am not a Luthier ...the straight edge loses contact with the
fingerboard wood the rest of the way to the last fret. Is this a normal thing? ...and how would you go about leveling frets on a guitar like this?

Am I only supposed to level the frets only up to the 15th fret or am I supposed to try to make ALL frets relatively level to a straightedge? How would you approach this particular set of conditions?
Thank you for your assistance.
Sam

Sam,
Guitars sound and play best with the neck set with about a 3 degree drop back. Many makers put an arch on their guitar tops, for two reasons. If the top dries out, it will flatten out instead of cracking. And tops sound better with a little arch bent into them. When the tops are braced, the bottoms of the braces are curved and they are pressed into a dished out surface. The fingerboard tongue runs up the slight arch of the top and stays perfectly flat with the rest of the board. If you happen to use a flat top on a guitar, and need the 3 degrees dropback, something has to give. Some, very few, makers fit a little wedge of wood under the fingerboard tongue, so that the fingerboard will be flat from nut to sound hole. Most just allow the drop off at the 15th fret. The common mantra among luthiers is "nobody plays up there anyway." Level the frets from #15 back to #1. A couple of shots on the tongue to make sure there are no high frets, then round and polish them all. In truth, the frets 16 through 20 will work fine.

One last rant. You mentioned a relief area. Relief is for very light electric guitar strings. An EJ-200 should have mediums, .013 to .056. The plane of the fret tops should be perfectly flat. If you get a buzz between the 2nd and 20th frets, you need to redo your fret leveling. Slide you hand along the back of the neck behind the fret leveler. Don't use a fixed neck holder. You tend to get low frets over the holder. If the frets buzz evenly all the way up, raise the saddle. If just the first fret buzzes, the nut is too low.
Good luck.

Steve Mason