FHOPKINS - actually there's no problem , just so the .013" gap in the pocket won't cause a structural problem in the future it's all good because the guitar sounds better than maybe any Strat i have ever heard and it plays very well

it's just that if that gap could cause a problem in the future - that would be problem because right now, other than a small gap that you have to go out of the way to notice - it's a super Strat

if he wants to return it he can, there's a 30 day policy (from a national chain store) , so theres no issue

the only issue is - rather to risk returning and NOT coming across another EJ rosewood or any other Strat for that matter that plays and sounds as good as this one - that's the simple version

if the gap won't change / the neck will remain stable / aligned as-is - then everything is fine , no way he'd return it, and I'll be able to play it when we jam

as far DAVIDOS - even though his pocket isn't perfect either, he's more than satisfied with the sound / playability of his rosewood EJ over his other guitars (which just like me, he has an older EJ, and a custom shop mb '54)

I think some people just wouldn't accept any defect on a new guitar, not even a cosmetic defect.

I'd rather a standout playing / sounding guitar any day with defects that don't affect the playability / sound (paint chips, dings, any other aesthetic imperfections) - even on a new guitar, no matter if it's a cheap Squier or a master-built custom shop Strat. When a guitar plays really well and just has standout sound, that's what grabs me.

I even bought a relic '56 a few years ago when i previously swore I'd never waste $$$$ the relic gimmick - but the '56 relic that i bought played really well, it has an unfinished neck and felt so comfortable (it also had 6105 frets and a 9.5" radius) - that I traded all but one of my guitars for the '56 .

On a new car I'd DEFINITELY wouldn't settle for a single cosmetic defect, because most cars are THE SAME, but when it comes to a new guitar, not all of them end up the same

thanks for all for responding and if anyone has any repair experience pls let me know if you think the gap could cause an issue in the future.

FHOPKINS and CVILLEIRA - both of you wouldn't keep this guitar if it sounded and played better than another of the same model because of the .013" neck pocket gap?

just based on the principle that it's new and shouldn't even have a cosmetic defect even if that meant you returned it and the next one had a perfect fit & finish but it didn't sound or play as well as the 1st?

or do you think that the gap will cause a problem down the line?

thanks

If I liked it, I would keep it.

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My other guitar is a Strat.

i agree, just as soon as it can be confirmed that the gap WON'T cause any problems in the future , it's a done deal

i'd take a really great guitar with a cosmetic flaw over a perfect fit & finish model that doesn't play / sound as well as the slightly flawed (just so the flaw is purely cosmetic)

Hi hushdrops: am I misreading - you're sounding rather defensive? You posted asking for advice, remember...

As a matter of fact, some of the people who have posted replies do have the very repair experience you are asking for and are writing with that in mind. And I believe everyone on this thread are guitarists of long standing with mostly decades of playing under their belts: it's from that experience that they are concerned that this issue might develop into a loose joint over time.

Regarding the high e string's position: I don't think anyone is getting confused by the binding. People are comparing the high and low Es and seeing that the top one is far nearer the edge than the other. That neck is crooked and needs straightening. As has been described earlier, that is perfectly do-able. But to need to do it on a brand new top end guitar is worrisome. Along with the gap you've so carefully pictured for us it suggests a neck pocket with "issues".

If your friend feels the unique sound of this instrument outweighs these things then that's fine: his choice to make. You asked for thoughts and you now have some pretty expert views to take into consideration.

Cheers - C

I'd agree that the neck is misaligned as a result of the pocket. Whether that will make a difference to the intonation of the guitar i dont know. It stands to reason that frets fitted at 90degrees to the neck wont be sitting at a perfect 90degrees to the strings on a misaligned neck. Whatever anyone tells you its a fact of all stringed instruments that weak points deteriorate over time. String tension on guitars isnt balanced which is why necks can twist without proper regular maintainance. It looks to me like fender have used the binding to cover some quite sloppy workmanship.
Theres better than that out there for the money. Everyone says their guitar has the sound. I think its more down to the player. One johnson strat isnt going to sound much different from the other. You'll definately find another that sounds as good or better. For the price of that guitar you can head towards customshop customclassic or timemachine series and enter a different world altogether. The new variation of the custom classic based on the american deluxe guitars looks very interesting.
http://www.fender.com/customshop/instruments/search.php?partno=0155192

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Ceri - no i'm not defensive, i am new to this board, it seems as though nobody has said that the gap will cause problems , some (i beluive you were one) stated that they would return the guitar simply because they wouldn't settle for any type of defect on a new instruemtn

i simply feel that it's more important for the guitar to play and sound well than to worry about a dfect that won't cause any issues down teh line , that's all

some folks said just get another one, but to me and my friend , this one sounds much better than most any strat we have come across

nobody said that they were a repair person, i don't follow the board so i don't know who has luthier skills unless they were to state so, sorry

thanks for your input

i really again just caught the vibe that it wont cause any future issues, which is nice

i wouldn't want to argue the point that it does have the "mojo" that so many strat players are after but don't recieve from most new strat's (of any price) , that's all subjective , cool

a few other people pointed (one on this board, didn't you see that post?) out the binding was making it appear that the HI E was closer to the edge of the fretboard , not just me (and on 2 other forums others stated that too) , you really think the Hi E is too far over?

looking at the edge of the fret (not the end of the rosewood) there's ample room - plus there's no issue playing pull-off's on the hi E string , in fact i just played the AC / DC tune Heatseaker I think it's called - the one with the intro on the HI E string , the repeated pattern.......

the guitar plays great, so the alignmet even if it's "off" is fine, ,the whole point was to find out if the pocket gap could cause future alinemnt issues - and most everyone on all forums have stated that the bolts are what holds the neck in place and that the .013" gap won't be an issue.

in fact a few people even posted that they have similar gaps in their pockets (some much more) and thre guitars are fine, one is from the earlt 90's, they even posted a pic, that was on another forum

Curious Ceri - do you think that DAVIDOS's EJ RW has issues as well? He posted earlier in this thread?

Thanks for info (yeah it sure does stink that there's a gap in the pocket of the EJ, but i think it's worth the risk - either it's just above the typical Strat of any price, or we just get "duds" in the local shops - anything could be the case, it's all subjective (just wanted to clear that the neck won't move around because of the "gap", which shoudln't be the case)

thanks again Ceri

thanks for the info NikiNinja - you can see that the neck is misaligned from the pics? to me and most others it just seemed that the pocket was a bit cut out too much leaving a gap and that the neck is actual aligned properly? The intonation is spot on (at least using an accurate software tuner, no strobe over here) - the Hi E has plenty of room , the low E as well

Even if it's misaligned it plays really well, so the real question of this whole deal really is /was - will teh .013" gap lead to future problems? (a change of the current neck positioning)

Because if not, then it's fine as it is now , so all will be well and one can accept the fact that there is a fault in a new guitar - just so it doesn't compromise the future of the instrument.

Thanks for your insight - and I'd like to know how you can tell that the alignment is way off from the pics? Because I'm a player but obviously not a luthier. I'd like to know what you see that shows that it's out of alignment (other than the gap - which could just be that the pocket is larger than need be and the neck is bolted on correctly and in place)

Nikininja: How can you tell that the binding is covering slooppy fretwork?

Are you implying that's the case with all of the new rosewood EJ's or do you see something in the pictures of my friend's neck ?

Thanks!

nikininja - My friend got the rosewood EJ for $1,999 minus 10% (basically no tax afterall) , that's not a bad price considering the new increases.

The Rosewood EJ is unique and quite different - the custom shop guitar you point out is nothing like the EJ rosewood - it won't sound anything like it having a humbucker , plus the radius of the EJ is 12" - not that the custom shop guitar isn't a very great guitar - but it's just very different - and that just goes to show how to everyone each desired Strat or guitar for that matter (to the Gibson or Ibanez fans for example versus Fender fans) .

I have an early maple EJ and I have played many of them - every time I am near a music store i stop by and try out a few guitars and they usually have an EJ stock everywhere I go. Only a handful have felt right to me.

My Friend's rosewood - like DAVIDOS said, it's a super resonant guitar , some may like that, some may not. I have a CS MB '54 and a '56 Relic and I prefer the EJ rosewood neck p/u tone over all of my guitars - because his guitar has the (to me) ultimate (hard to explain - maybe "woody" tone) - like the Hendrix organic vibe - but that's just to me, some people may not like that sound, may prefer humbuckers in a strat (in both bridge and neck), that's what's so cool about guitars.

What's not so cool is that for players that don't have repair experience, it's hard to know warning signs - like you said necks can warp if not cared for - other than keeping it strung, stored in a decent climate - I don't do anything else for my guitars - and I'm sure there are things that could go wrong - but how do i know what else to do / care for them? That's the part that's not so cool about guitars - one can play 'em easily but learning all of the little things about caring for them can get crazy....

but then i have a friend with some great guitars and they are cheap models too, he throws them all around - but every time i play them, they play well - even though he doesn't take care of them, so i guess it's cool afterall - it's all rock n roll!

thanks for you view, time to rock out on my friend's rosewood EJ b4 he picks it back up.

I just realized that nnija said this:

"This past 5 years it seems to work loose more frequently. The problem on your friends guitar isnt that the neck pocket is big its cut at an angle."

That his mexican strat was ok at 1st but now has problems, hope my friend's neck holds up (by the bolts) , if not i guess he'll pay for repairs (good thing he got the EJ RW at $1,999 out the door versus $2,510 in case he has to pay for repairs in the upcoming years)

Slapchop saw the Hi E is ok , that the binding makes it appear to be too close to the edge... , also he tells us that the bolts hold the neck in place and points out that the treble side of the pocket has almost no wood at all (normally on all Strat's) - point taken. Here's Slapchop's comment again:

"Fender-style necks are held in place by the neck screws, a fact that should be obvious by looking at the high-E string side of the pocket... there's almost no wood there at all. The need for a perfect neck pocket fit is a myth... some of the finest playing and sounding Fenders I ever played had pocket gaps you could slide a 1.0mm pick into easily. My Warmoth neck and body fit together like a single piece of wood, which is nice cosmetically, but I don'tthink it affects tone or playing. If your neck shifts under use, the neck screws need to be tightened, and I honestly don't think that a neck pocket gap will cause problems as it ages. "

i learned that many folks don't care for EJ's, each person's ideal sounding guitar is something that shouldn't even be debated , that it's too hard to go voer something like this online from a player's perspective - finding a good luthier is a must!

thanks for all that posted, the guitar's a keeper and i hope to play it whenver i jam wiht my friend

The 2 E strings arent equal to the neck edges. That shows the neck as being misaligned. Strats are very much a knockup job. They build bodies and necks completely seperate from eachother. Then throw em together and sling some electrical compnents inside. Its not really the high end instrument builders skill of pensa or prs though im certain fender posses the skill to build like they do. Mistakes happen. All you really need to do is weigh up whether the mistakes on your friends guitar are likely to cause problems in 10/20/30 years and how prepared he is to risk that it wont. Doubtless its a fine sounding instrument. Fender wouldnt have lasted 60 odd years unless they knew a thing or two about tone and mr johnsons input is likely to have enhanced that. Making a very nice sounding guitar.

I have a mexican strat that 14 years ago i had to realign the neck. It was sitting much the same as yours. Now its worked itself to the beginings of instability. Its quite a easy fix, forum user Martian posted a great tip on it. Should i have to fix it? The only answer to that is that i should of kept my eyes open when i bought it. Its proved to be a good instrument over the years. Hundreds of hours of play give the now old neck a feel that rivals my CS guitar, but its unusable as a working instrument because of said instability. Hence my hardline attitude to any pocket problems.

These misalignment problems have been a part of fender since the day they first made the telecaster. The manuals in the 50's guitars even tell you to crank the neck round to combat it. Not very good advice as i think that method eventually causes instability more so than uneven string tension.

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