Stratocaster Low E string alignment off (on high end models) ?

Hullboy

Morning Guys,

 I'm currently looking at higher level strats - AVRI's and Custom Shop. Quality should be very good right? In that case, why am I seeing a lot of Strats where the low E string seems to get much nearer the edge of the fretboard the closer the bridge you get.

From my small amount of research last night this seems to be limited to strats only with vintage spec bridges, because either the string spacing is too wide, or that the neck simply needs slackening and realigning. Am I correct here?

Just wanted to check that it's not actually some fundamental flaw with the instrument and something that can hopefully be rectified easily enough. It's holding me back from buying a lot of nice guitars that I've seen!

TINMAN82

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

guitars4you

TINMAN82 said:

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

I can see what you mean about the green Strat - but sometimes the angle of the pic will make it look worse than it is

phil_b

I guess there is always a compromise somewhere. and most players wont use the low E near the bridge. so it may not be a problem unless it starts to interfere with playing

Hullboy

TINMAN82 said:

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

So it is indeed a bridge spacing issue? As in being too wide?

guitars4you said:

TINMAN82 said:

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

I can see what you mean about the green Strat - but sometimes the angle of the pic will make it look worse than it is

That's why i purposely attached photos of ones that look pretty dead on centre. 

TINMAN82

Hullboy said:

TINMAN82 said:

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

So it is indeed a bridge spacing issue? As in being too wide?

guitars4you said:

TINMAN82 said:

Green one looks off and I think the neck needs aligned. IMO the other two look fairly typical. That’s the downside of vintage spaced Strat bridges and why Callaham offer a conversion bridge with narrower spacing.

I can see what you mean about the green Strat - but sometimes the angle of the pic will make it look worse than it is

That's why i purposely attached photos of ones that look pretty dead on centre. 

This is a well documented thing on t’interweb, I’m no luthier or expert. Vintage spacing of 2 7/32 (56mm) vs modern Fender (and Gibson) which is around 52-54mm. The vintage Strat spacing is actually closer to the 57mm, wide spacing seen on some finger picking friendly acoustics like my 00028ec.

I personally like vintage Strat trems and have one on my CS ‘61 strat. Good for hybrid picking or finger style on the Strat too. But occasionally I do push the e strings off the edge when soloing at higher frets.

guitarmangler

With a bolt on neck, if I can, I’ll try and purposefully pull the neck so it slants that way a little. I would prefer more room in the high e side for vibrato (especially up the top of the neck) than have it look uniform. It can be a bit easy to fall off the fingerboard above the 12th fret in the low e, but I rarely play those notes anyway.

ICBM

It’s a fundamental flaw in the design. The vintage bridge string spacing is too wide for the standard neck width. That’s why modern versions of the bridge use slightly narrower spacing.