Fender Player update... What to do..

skunkwerx

Some of you may remember I bought a new Player series tele over a month ago.. beholdeth,  the story is far from over. 

The original guitar came with a special run ‘joke’ nut which was installed by Stevie Wonders feet. 

See thread here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/137315/string-spacing-at-nut-looks-off#latest

It also featured Fenders bent steel saddles which require a swear box (sold seperately) and a history in tunnelling to to be able to string easily.

Issue/non issue, see thread here: http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/137490/fender-player-series-gaffe#latest



Based on mainly the nut alone, I contacted Fender Uk, who were helpful and insisted I take the guitar back to a local PMT store who would arrange to have it collected by Fender, who will sort the nut for me. 

Great! A little annoying because obviously you don’t want to instantly send a guitar off for a week and a half repair a week after buying it.. 

Anyway Pmt called me when the guitar arrived back. Said, ‘hey, come get it’. 

I asked if they could tell me exactly what had been done (it was a Monday, I couldnt get there til a Wednesday). 
They didnt have a clue. 

I emailed Fender to ask for clarification. They emailed back and said ‘I believe we’ve sent you out a brand new guitar’.. 

Err ok.. 

I get to Pmt, lo and behold its a brand new guitar. 
Heres what they sent..

Is the nut any better? A little.. I think.. 



Low E runs dangerously close to the fret ends. Loosened the neck screws, tried to move the neck in the pocket, but guess what, theres zero play, despite a gap between low E side of the neck and guitar body in the neck cavity.. 





A little gouge in the fretboard, presumably from a nut file.. 




And finally a defect in the paint, under the poly of course.. Not as bad in pictures it turns out, but you can just make it out. Hell, at least its on the back right? 
See the black swirl type marks? 




So I gave it a week and finally thought fuck it, will take it in and have a decent set up, some fret end work etc. 

The work was done absolutely fine, but foolishly I forgot to mention the neck alignment. Then again if theres no play in the neck cavity, despite there being a visual gap, I presume its gonna need work done, and tbh I’m not sure I’m up for paying for that on a brand new guitar of £519. 

Anyway I played it for an hour. Hmm the low E keeps going flat. 

Tuned back up. Played for 10 mins, low E flat again. 

Stretched the string a bit, re tuned and played for 10 mins. Flat again. 
Now with a bit of buzz. 

The hell, is the tuner broke? 
Intonations out on it now too.. 

Played some more, kept going flat, kept retuning, kept getting more buzzy, it was an endless cycle.. until I could clearly see what was happening. 

This: 





Low E saddle.. turns out the vibrations of playing are adjusting the fucking saddle for me. Its screwing itself in, all of its own accord. Look how canted thats ended up lol. Guessing either the grub screw is fucked, or the saddle thread is.. 

Anyway that was the result of playing for the half hour I’ve had with it since I bought it almost 5 weeks ago. I give up.

Except I’m clearly going to have to sort this. Again.  

thegummy

Sorry to hear of your bad luck so far.

This thread could be very useful to people though - it can sometimes seem a bit of a mystery what less-than-obvious quality problems exist in 500 quid guitars when to the untrained eye / at first glance they seem to be just as good as 2 grand guitars.

This post has some examples of things people can look out for.

Best of luck on sorting it, hope you end up with a cracker.

skunkwerx

Cheers bud! Me too. 

I did wonder if I’m being a bit picky, but then again If the neck could be aligned and the saddle screw didnt automatically adjust itself, I’d probably just suck it up because the way its been set up is lovely! 

Wish I’d have known those two issues before I took it in to be set up really, but the saddle screw thing couldnt have been known until I gave it a good half hour, and I presumed the neck would have ‘some’ play, so I didnt think it to be an issue. 

I ‘think’ the grub screw in question was actually fairly far inside the threaded hole of the saddle to begin with too, otherwise I might think my palm resting on that area could be twisting them.. 

I can only think its so loose that vibration alone is enough to turn it. 

If only Fender had just cut a new nut for my original one!! Damnit. 

OilCityPickups

Aw that's really crap ... sorry to hear about all your hassle. I'd say the instrument needs bounced back to Fender again ... pronto ... and if it were me I'd see if I could find someone reasonably senior at Fender UK to whom I could point out the unacceptability of significant faults in two consecutive £500 quid guitars! 

EricTheWeary

Some bits on TDPRI about the Player telecaster, suggestion that Fender are in the process of changing the bridge saddles on this model. In the USA owners have had them replaced under warranty by an alternative but not here. 

Hope you get sorted. 

ICBM

I agree with TheGuitarWeasel. Send it back. Again.

The nut is still not acceptable. Fender need to find out why they’re being done like this and sort it out.

The bridge saddle height screws self-adjusting with vibration is a known issue - it can be fixed with threadlock or superglue.

joetele

Yep, send it back. If you don't tell them there's a problem, they won't fix it on future guitars (or yours) 

dindude

Yup send it back, not good enough. I can put up with a few cosmetic imperfections on a £500 guitar, but there’s some fundamentals not right there.

darthed1981

Take it back and buy a Squier.

The Far East is the only way to guarantee quality these days

Johnnyseven

Buy a Gotoh bridge and send Fender the bill.

skunkwerx

Thanks for all the replies guys, makes me feel better that I’m not being overly picky! 

Fender Uk only seem to have an email, so I’ll email the same guy who dealt with it before. I expect he’ll say take it into Pmt again, but I’ll try to get them to actually sort it this time!

OilCityPickups

skunkwerx said:

Thanks for all the replies guys, makes me feel better that I’m not being overly picky! 

Fender Uk only seem to have an email, so I’ll email the same guy who dealt with it before. I expect he’ll say take it into Pmt again, but I’ll try to get them to actually sort it this time!

You have a legal right to expect new goods to be free of defects (unless you are advised of them and bought the item as B stock or whatever) ... the finish issue, the marked fingerboard and the poorly cut nut are all defects that you have a right not to expect, that's not picky, that's just asserting your consumer rights. Companies need to be made aware that they are selling sub standard goods to allow them to recall lines/products if necessary and take remedial action. That's in the companies interests as well as yours. 

rossi

Your replacement is probably from the same dud batch  as the first one .all sent to the UK possibly deliberately as its harder to send back when the importer doesnt come up with goods .Its happened before on products i know of .

terada

First a thread with tonnes of GIbsons that everyone is happy with (no defects etc), now fender demonstrating poor QC twice with the same customer.

I'm confused

skunkwerx

terada said:

First a thread with tonnes of GIbsons that everyone is happy with (no defects etc), now fender demonstrating poor QC twice with the same customer.

I'm confused

Haha I know right. 

Its all gone weird. 

OilCityPickups

terada said:

First a thread with tonnes of GIbsons that everyone is happy with (no defects etc), now fender demonstrating poor QC twice with the same customer.

I'm confused

Welcome to an alternate universe ... you have slipped through a crack in reality ... 

darthed1981

Possible explanation for poor quality at the Mexican factory...

The best Mexican workers were all recently invited up the road to a seminar and family day at Fender headquarters in California.

Currently, they are trying to get their kids back.

chrishill901

TheGuitarWeasel said:

terada said:

First a thread with tonnes of GIbsons that everyone is happy with (no defects etc), now fender demonstrating poor QC twice with the same customer.

I'm confused

Welcome to an alternate universe ... you have slipped through a crack in reality ... 

this is like a really crap episode of Sliders where they finally think they are home but ‘Cryin’ Man’ can’t get his Fender to stay in tune so he knows something’s up....

You are well within your right to send it back again, and as others have mentioned you sort of should anyway because it might highlight an issue with a batch that other users may not notice... many younger players with richer parents than I had when I was a bairn start out on guitars like this and wouldn’t notice what you have but ignorance isn’t always bliss, Fender should know

MattFGBI

PM incoming @skunkwerx ;

skunkwerx

MattFGBI said:

PM incoming @skunkwerx ;

Ah cheers buddy! 

I havent had a chance to do anything yet, just about to head into work now but will check back once I finish. 

duotone

This reminds me of Phillip McKnight’s review of the American Professional Telecaster Deluxe.

https://youtu.be/3HatSqi7kmY