Great point, T2. I'll see if his guitar teacher could show him how to do a set up or knows of someone who could show him.

The saga continues....

We took the guitar into the music store and had it looked at. The luthier there said the bridge and saddles needed adjusting. This fixed the problem! Yay! But, it fixed it for about 10 minutes. Ugh!

My son literally got it home, started playing it, and it has happened again. I was just sitting here patting myself on the back for getting the guitar to the shop and fixed with no issues, when he came down and said it had happened again. If I lived close to the shop, it would not be an issue, but it is a 2 hour round trip. I'm not happy.

Perhaps you should have your son show you how he is playing when the problem occurs. The guitar is not that fragile.

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Bill

Whereas you're dealing with a quite expensive investment,it may be worth your while to go back to the music shop and have them fix it again.After they have fixed the guitar don't leave the store until your son has played until the problem reappears, any reputable and experienced tech should be able to pin point the problem immediately.

It's beginning to look to me that there's something going on with the vibrato assembly in under the bridge plate.Are you sure that the lock button on the bridge plate isn't being inadvertently hit,consequently causing the strings to go weird?Have the tech look into the vibrato mechanism in under the bridge.These vibrato setups are far different and more touchy and complicated than those on Strats or with Bigsbys and can be quite temperamental,one of the springs inside may be slipping off the spring claw that's supposed to keep it in place and only slips off after a few minute's worth of playing.
One of the mounting posts on the bottom of the bridge could be missing a height adjustment screw-or both of them causing considerable instability and problems such as those you're having.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

as far fetched as it sounds , your son is not hitting the strings so hard that he is dislodging them off the saddles is he?
Make sure the strings are in one of the grooves on each saddle as in the picture below, NOT wedged in the small gaps inbetween the saddles

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

My guess, for what it's worth, is that it's the light standard fit strings that are the problem.
I recently set one of these up. First off, it NEEDS 11s or heavier.
I also shimmed the neck back slightly (cigarette packet card under the end of the neck).
Getting the bridge just right is a fine balancing act between getting the height of the whole unit and the individual saddles correct. If the whole unit is too high, the strings rattle against the side of the unit and if the saddles are too high they rattle on the intonation screw. Once you think you have it sorted, you need to check every string at every fret and re-adjust as necessary.

Lighter strings also tend to be loose enough that the various screws in the bridge unit work loose with string vibration causing the action to drop. This is why most people ditch the bridge for the Mustang one - the Mustang saddles aren't adjustable for height, so the intonation screw is never an issue and the saddles are tall enough to clear the sides of the bridge unit. Even with the Mustang bridge, you can still have issues with the action dropping. The Johnny Marr Jaguar bridge has a mod to prevent this happening with lighter strings.

I'd say a combination of light strings and heavy playing style are causing all your woes. I'm confident it's not the neck or trem unit that's the problem.

Mine works great now, though I'm middle-aged, so not so heavy handed and I can handle heavier gauges.

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"As long as I stay Between The Sun And My Shadow, I guess I'm doing well."