show me where i was a wise guy BEFORE you guys started tearing me apart, please do so?

all emotion aside Hush, i would advise you guys to take a peak under the heel of the neck, and make sure there is nothing wonky going on there. The EJ strats are pretty much as good as you are ever gonna get, from a production strat. be a shame if something bad was going on in there.

If nothing is wrong great, and at least you 'll have the peace of mind that nothing will go south on you down the road.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

here's what NINJA said about Erlwine:

"I couldnt give a toss what dan erlewine says, he's in no way an ultimate authority on necks and alignment adjustments shouldnt have to be made on a well built guitar anyway. To quote dan 'Theres no tone like a perfectly straight neck under tension'."

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to me "i coudln't get a toss what dan werlwine says" pretty much is where i came up with the idea that NINJA doesn't repsect Erlwine

and after further examination - i see that the pocket on the EJ in question didn't have an even gap - that's prob not good , oh well , i'm no expert and never claimed to be one , hopefully the guitar will hold up well , i'd sure like to be able to play it myself....

there's still nearly 4 weeks left to return it , but unless something happens quickly he'll keep it ,

hopefully it's all ok, he has the guitar now and he'd be the last person to try to take the neck off , too bad there isn't a good repair person in the area that can look at it (there is one but there's a lottery just to get on his waiting list) , thanks for what would be a good idea

Hushdrops, calm down now. Nobody had any kind of a go at you for the first few pages. Everyone posted their views, because that's what you asked for.

YOU then proceeded to rip them apart at extraordinary length and with ludicrous inaccuracy because they weren't saying what you wanted to hear. Take a look at page three of this thread, just for example. In response to that kind of onslaught everyone has in fact been very restrained.

Again, have a look at the nastiness that is common on certain other Forums to see how gentle it has been here. After having had their views torn apart repeatedly folks finally had enough of it.

All of this is actually very rare on this forum, which is remarkably good tempered in the main, and especially friendly and non-condescending to newcomers. Look around at all the other threads running at present.

Have a good hard think about how you conduct yourself. We may just be voices in cyberspace to you, but there's actually real people on the other end of these posts. We don't like being smacked around and eventually respond in kind. Be nice to us and we'll be nice to you.

We're a forgiving lot: start being a lot more friendly and polite yourself and you'll find we all move on quickly.

That ball is in your court.

Cheers - C

Time to move on. Hush, don't be so defensive. Don't ask for opinions then get pissed at people for giving them. Opinions are just that. You'll get many different ones. In the end it's all up to you. Most here would drop that axe like a bad habit. If you don't, it's up to you. If it works for you great. Just move on. In the future if you need any help, you may not get it.

Hushpro, I couldn't disagree with that statement more. I was a new car dealership technician for 12 years for the same maker. They can be very different right off the new car carrier. You can tell which cars are beat on after a year or two just by driving. As far as the 1 in 100 theory or 1 of 1000 (like the old Jimmy Stewart movie Winchester 73) there is some truth to that. I believe that there is a possibility that it might be "special" compared to others. The decision is your friends, and his alone whether to keep it. To determine if it will be a problem in the future nobody can say absolutely yes or no. What I can tell you from my mechanical background and woodworking experience is the pocket is not square. This is more than cosmetic. While the screws hold the neck to the body most of the holding power is against the constant pull of the strings. The pocket is "mechanical advantage" to keep the neck from moving in a lateral direction as the screws are not enough by themselves. What this off square pocket means is less surface area contact at the pocket side which happens to be on the smaller thus (did I just say "thus"?) weaker side of the neck pocket. The lack of a flush fit makes it even weaker. If the wood swells or contracts with atmospheric conditions one thing is for sure, it will do it evenly. I would have to agree with niki that after a few bumps (especially in a downward direction from a playing perspecive) it may become a problem. If your friend is willing to take that chance so be it. My 98 MIM strat has no such gap.

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With every mistake we must surely be learning..

Music is the space between the notes.

OK, I just had to participate in this thread:

From a recent E.J. strat auction here in Australia that was pulled just as I was thinking I might have to bid...

Someone out there likes a tight pocket, and isn't afraid to ask!

great catch Monod

my friend found a great luthier just before the return period expired on the rw ej

the prob with the pocket gap wasn't that there was one - but because it was flush at the bottom (very tight) and so much of a gap near the top - meaning the pocket wasn't cut correctly, shouldn't have made it past QC as far as the Fender cert tech saw it , advised to return it, wait many months if needed until coming across another one that sounded / played as well as the one in question

plus - the nut was cut too low on the 2 lowest strings (open buzzing) , something we noticed but knew could be corrected under warranty - but still an "issue" that would have to be dealt with

- the Tone knob suddenly became very loose , could be replaced under warranty as well but another issue

- in the luthier's eyes, the fret job was very poorly done (lots of fret sprout) , not covered under warranty likely - would require a bit of $$$ to correct

so the guitar was returned, no new models have arrived ...

one more thing, after the guitar was returned , my friend asked to be notified whenever another rosewood ej arrived in the store

he never received a call, but i saw a one and was surprised cause they didn't call him to let him know, turns out the reason was because they have the one that he returned for sale as "new" !

plus the price is now $2510 instead of the $1,999 price that he paid (the guitar had a pre price increase retail price, now they are selling it at the new increased price)

i didn't bother to even look at, just enough to see the serial # after wondering if it could have been the one that he bought / returned that had a few issues

the fact that the store's in house fender tech noticed issues with the guitar, a shame that they put it up for sale as new instead of sending it back to Fender

no surprise that it's 3+ months later and nobody has bought it (as a new $2510 guitar) - plus i'll never buy from the huge big box retailer that has this used problemed guitar up for sale as "new"

Did your friend just return it for cash? Or did he return it telling them to replace it with another EJ RW? As it was new, I would have expected them to to return it to fender, and get a replacement for him.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

they offered to have another one shipped to them (no idea what they would do with the orig guitar, like i said it's back on the shelf to be sold as new again) , the orig guitar he bought out of state while on vacation

normally like me, he'd only buy a guitar after checking it out a few times. In this case he came across the EJ rw while out of town - he checked it out, because it was so resonant, he liked it but not enough right away to purchase so quickly - because though the ej rosewoods were so hard to find (they still are) and with the salesperson telling him that he could return it with no problem (for a full refund) within 30 days at a location near his hometown - he ended up taking the guitar home.

he really wanted to keep it but as you can see with this thread (which was made to help get some opinions on the potential issues with the guitar which became evident once he got back home) he had some reservations about the guitar - he didn't want to return it because of the playability (minus buzzzing on the open two lo strings due to the nut being cut too low) and awesome tone (compared to my maple EJ) .......

after bringing it to a luthier (plus a tech at the "big box store") a few issues were noted, at that point he knew it would be wise to return the guitar.

he still wanted one but there were no other models in the area - it was either wait for one to be shipped in, try it out and keep it OR get a refund and when they receive another one, come in and try it out. he chose to get the refund because waiting for another one to come in could have taken a while putting him past the 30 days and what if another one wasn't so hot? He'd be stuck with the replacement sight unseen.

so he honestly wanted another one, but the store hastily refunded him (acknowledging that it had a few issues) , never did call him because a new one never did arrive - instead they put the one he returned back on the shelf . he would have surely bought another one, being at home with many chances to check it out (if it sounded like the one he returned , had no issues or at least not so many issues) .

so they lost out on a sale , had to eat the return and nobody was satisfied. i guess he could have called Fender about the issue but it seemed easier to go with the store's policy, take the refund, when a new one came in, check it out, buy it ...

to note too - he had never returned anything in the past (to that chain / store) , has purchased a few amps, Strat's (two CS models) from the same store (which they could see his "history" thru their system) - he's prob spent close to $15k if not more over the past 10+ years with them - you'd think they would have given his $$$ back (not just because their policy states you can return for a full refund even if there's no prob with the guitar and their sales people tell folks, "that's why you should buy from us, because we have a generous return policy" <to make the sale> .

I didn't check to see if they attempted to remedy any of the issues (maybe using their in-house cert tech) .

btw - this guitar is STILL for sale as "NEW" at the same GC which is was returned (saw it yesterday almost a year later & it's not even marked at the new lower price of $1,999) .