Okay, so....
MIM Standard Strat strung with 11's and I tune it a half step low. Setup with the bridge almost flush to the body. Neck relief is set to spec, intonation is correct.
It's all good except that I get a little fretting out at the 11th fret. I've managed to eliminate most of it but I have to raise the saddles up pretty high to get the buzz to go away and still can't entirely eliminate it when played hard.
Is this a neck pitch issue or a fret dressing issue or something else? Anybody able to muse on how I would zero in on the problem?
If it's a prominent buzz fretting at the 11th fret then you would have to say the 12th fret is high. I would get a short straight edge on it to see how high it is and have a good look to make sure it hasn't poped loose. Any loose frets need to be fixed then it's possible to do a local fret level in just that area if you don't want the whole thing leveled.
get a good straightedge -- a steel scale or similar -- and lay it on its edge along the frets in that area to see if you have any high (beyond 11th) or low (prob 11th) frets. if so, address by first rechecking relief, and then if necessary tapping in a 'popped' fret (superglue to hold in a stubborn one), or leveling and recrowning offending frets where necessary.
it might be that the shape of the 11th fret is unusual or worn and it needs either recrowning or replacing. flatter and worn flat frets are more likely to have buzzing issues.
or if you cannot hear the buzz through the amp, maybe just ignore it. sometimes things are not perfect, but it really doesn't matter in practice.
(I see Jayy types faster and has beaten me to the response -- obviously I agree)
-=tension & release=-
Thanks for the input. I know it's not a popped fret. Hadn't thought about the possibility of it being the 11th fret being low - I'll get out the straight edge.
It's not that bad, and you don't hear it much through the amp, but it's just enough to bug me a little so I figure I'll make a little effort to clean it up. Besides, it's been a couple years since I really sat down and did intonation on this guitar, and I'm using different gague strings than I used to so it needs some attention anyway....
