High E off fretboard/70's vintage reissue

[hassenpfeffer]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me out here. I have a 70's american-made vintage reissue strat. Everything is great on the guitar but the high e string is spaced almost off the fretboard. It's so bad, that sometimes when i play, the string goes off the fretboard.

Any ideas on how to correct this?

Thanks!

[jmasin]

Is it this way for the entire length or worse at higher frets?

You say when you play it goes off, is it off unfretted or is it just very close? How does it compare with the low-E?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but it is hard to understand the exact issue. Vintage bridges have a much wider spacing so if you aren't used to them the strings do seem very close to the edge. (forgive me if you know this).

The other possibility is the neck can shift slightly due to an impact or whatever, meaning that the neck could be angled slightly, in the plane of the body, but away from the Low-E (downward) thereby causing the high-E to get too close to the edge of the fretboard.

If high-E and low-E are equally far from the edge at the nut, but very different at the higher frets, I'd say it was that the neck angle had shifted. Which in this case loosening the bolts a bit and shifting it back is the fix.

More information would help.

[hassenpfeffer]

Hi there,

All the other strings and spacing are fine, except for the high E.

The high E seems to veer off near the high frets, past the 12 fret or so (nearer the nut is fine), and gets worse as it gets the bridge.

I do notice that the saddle that holds the high E is offset from the other saddles a bit - is this how the 70s strat RI's are made on purpose?

At either rate, if the problem is with the neck, all i need to do is loosed the 3 bolts and shift the neck a bit, correct? It has this micro-tilt thing which I'm not sure how to work...

Thanks!

[Strat-Talk]

It could also be a mis-cut Nut with the high E cut in the wrong place. I don't know anything about 70's Strats having an offset high E saddle. My '79 didn't.

Are you sure the bridge was installed straight at the factory? The 70's guitars show some spotty QC.

[jmasin]

If spacing of the low-E to the edge of the fretboard is ok then it doesn't sound like the neck. Basically the string spread (distance from high-E to low-E) should be centered in the neck, if it isn't then the neck may be offset. For example, if you were to shift all strings toward the low-E by the same amount, would that solve the problem? if yes, then the neck can be moved slightly (slightly!).

All this is kind of hard to diagnose over the web with no photos, so it may be best if you take it to a guitar tech to get a "hands-on" opinion. I would not want for you to start messing with things based on our "guessing" and create a bigger problem.

Jon

[hassenpfeffer]

thanks guys - i will take a picture and post tomorrow and you can see what i mean....

[jcwu]

Originally Posted by hassenpfeffer

I do notice that the saddle that holds the high E is offset from the other saddles a bit - is this how the 70s strat RI's are made on purpose?

Can you push the saddle back into place? Push down on trem bar to somewhat relieve string tension (or just detune the E string) and try to push the saddle back into place, so it's lined up nice with all the other saddles..

[ToneMonkey]

This post was deleted as it made Tonemonkey look like an arse!
See bollocking below.


[Webmaster Edit] Those aren't going to work, they are not jpg files. Without a recongized file extension the system has no way to tell that they are photos.[/edit]

[jmasin]

Originally Posted by ToneMonkey

If posting these pics fails go to http://good-times.webshots.com/album/564219526nUfvTV

Maybe it's the "good-times" in the url but my company has blocked that site LOL

[ToneMonkey]

Lets try it this way! ;)

Here's my 70's VRI. Feels good to me. Maybe it will give you a clue, hassenpfeffer.

[ToneMonkey]

OH yeh !!!
That worked for me!! ;)

Jmasin?

[Strat-Talk]

ToneMonkey, to use WebShots as a photo host. Click on the words "Link To It" in the yellow box on the left hand side of the page of the photo you want to show. A window will show up with three choices and associated coding. The bottom one is Post on a Forum. Simply copy the code in that box and put that in your thread it will look like this:
[url=http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2161745300103304921SdQebj]
[IMG]http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/69/569/7/45/30/2161745300103304921SdQebj_th.jpg[/IMG][/url]

And, when you do it will look like this:



And when someone clicks on the photo it will take them to the main graphic on Webshots.

There are much better and more convenient webhosts, that won't limit you to thumbnail posting. You can even use the photo gallery here to do this.

[jmasin]

Originally Posted by ToneMonkey

OH yeh !!!
That worked for me!! ;)

Jmasin?

Yep!

[aznrambo481]

The neck probably isn't straight in relation to the strings. I guess the way to fix that would be to redrill holes into the neck for the screws... Another possible fix would be to slot a nut with a shorter distance between the strings (especially taking the high E into account).

[dan P]

First thing I would do is loosen the strings, loosen the 4 neck screws and try to shift the neck over...usually there is a little play that will let you shift her....

[softmonkey]

I had the same problem on my mid-80s '62 reissue. Same thing with the high E saddle too. I took it to this tech and he kind of fixed it.

[jmasin]

Originally Posted by dan P

First thing I would do is loosen the strings, loosen the 4 neck screws and try to shift the neck over...usually there is a little play that will let you shift her....

I'd certainly do that before drilling