Hi guys,
I just recieved a Fender Classic 60s Lacquer. All is good aside from the high E string runs very close to the edge of the fretboard at the pick-up end. It starts at 2.5mm from the edge at the nut and finishes at 1.5mm at the last fret. On all my other guitars it the opposite, closer at the nut and more room at the other end. I’ve not noticed it effecting my playing, but I’m be conscious not to drag the string off the fret.
Is this likely to be to be a production fault or is it a traditional guitar thing?
It’s a shame, because everything else about it is spot on.
Comments
De-tune down a couple of tones to take some tension away - Loosen each neck plate screw a bit - 1/4 in protruding - Then hold headstock and kind of lever neck so more of the Top E string is now over the fingerboard - I've done this many times and easier to do than describe - Re-tighten neck plate screws - re-tune and it should be better - Very little room for negotiation on a perfect alignment
Such vintage style saddles and they can move of centre towards one side so check this - again de-tune and 'push' saddle back in line
Bottom line is that it should not happen - might be factory error or moved in transit - Not a big deal to adjust in the right hands
however if required you legal rights do protect you
Post a pic of the neck to the last 5/10 frets if that helps you and like wise the bridge/saddles looking up to the neck pick up area
Funnily enough my bolt on Ibanez gio £150 job has great alignment and 0 wiggle room in the neck pocket.
Yet my fender has a small gap..
contactemea@fender.com
I’ll play it some more tomorrow and see how I feel about it. Not massively in love with it so far, it’s a Classic 60s Lacquer Strat. Now thinking it might be worth swapping for a American Original 60 or a Clapton Strat.
It’s not a big deal on a bolt-on neck guitar unless it won’t go far enough to align properly - most have a little play in them. It’s daft to return a guitar for such a trivial adjustment.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Safest way to do it:
Slacken the 4 middle strings til there is no tension left in them.
Slacken both E strings til there is just enough tension in them to keep them straight, but no more.
This is so the outer E strings act as guidelines.
Once thats done there is no tension pulling on the neck, ie pulling on the headstock. So its now safe to loosen the 4 screws on the back of the neck.
Loosen them a bit, try and gently move the neck. If no joy, loosen some more. Dont loosen them all the way though.
I’m pretty sure they arent threaded through the body, only in the neck, so if they come out, you’ll need to carefully re-engage them with the thread in the neck. Its important, otherwise you’ll strip the thread, which is just wood remember.
Once loosened, if there is play in the neck pocket you’ll be able to move the neck easily.
If you’ve loosened the screws and there is no play, dont force it, there probably isnt any or enough wiggle room, and thats when you’re likely to incur finish cracks. These wont be structural or in the wood, and most bolt ons end up with them at some point.
Theyre just in the lacquer.
If you do have wiggle room, simply move the neck until both E strings run equidistant from the edge of the fretboard, or near as damnit.
Then slowly tighten the 4 neck screws whilst making sure you keep the neck where you want it.
Tighten them in small increments in a cross pattern.
Top left, bottom right, top right, bottom left, for example.
This method of tightening screws is useful for a lot of mutiple screw jobbies. It ensures you tighten them all with fairly equal pressure on the join, rather than tightening the top 2 all the way up tight with the bottom 2 loose, then tightening the bottom 2.
Its also much less likely to cause any finish cracks for example.
Do them up firm but not too tight.
Theres no real torque measurements, so as long as theyre firm, you’re good to go.
Retune to pitch and then make your mind up about returning it!
Take it back to the shop and if they can't resolve it to your satisfaction ask for another one.