Hey all, I recently bought off ebay a JM signature and a YM signature strat, and they are both in excellent condition,except that both guitars high e string is almost unplayably close to the outside edge of the fret. It is almost as if the neck s were installed out of line, or the bridge incorrectly placed. I have a few strats and teles, and have never seen this on any of them. Anyone have this problem? What is the cure? It seems odd that Fender would let these relativly high-end strats ship in this condition. All replies and discussions appreciated.

how about the nut?

anyway, welcome to the forum!

Hi bassdawgie: two things. First is that you can probably pull those necks back into alignment. Loosen the four neck screws just to the point where they are not holding the neck absolutely tight anymore. Then pull the headstock towards the bass side and see if there's enough movement in the neck pocket for you to adjust the alignment of the neck and make the two e/E strings equal distances from their respective fingerboard edges. Retighten the screws.

People often describe "yanking" or "tugging" the neck into position. I'd go a lot more easily than that, so as not to damage the sides of the neck pocket itself.

If that treatment don't work then a luthier can gently reshape one or both sides of the pocket to make it align properly. If your guitars are within their warranty period the cost of that will be covered. But it's fairly unlikely that you'll need recourse to this work.

The second thing is that there is an additional issue with the Yngwie Strat. We've heard so many people complaining here that their top e string falls of the edges of the frets that I looked into it further. The long and short of it appears to be that the fretboard scalloping somehow has the effect of making the e string feel as if it's too close to the fret ends. And yet it isn't.

I don't have scalloped fingerboards, but according to experienced players that do it is just a consequence on the playing feel of that sort of neck and it is necessary to adjust fretting technique to accomodate it.

Obviously, you need to get the neck properly aligned first though, before you can think about that more subtle issue...

Good luck - C

I have a YJM, and I've had a far few problems: a slightly twisted neck on the one I took back to the shop, which was replaced with the one I have now.

Interestingly both of these guitars had relatively badly routed neck pockets resulting in slightly unsightly gaps between the pocket and neck. I've heard others mentioning the same thing here & on other sites, so it seems to be quite common. Why on earth Fender allow a relatively expensive 'run' of guitars like this to leave the factory with less than perfectly routed neck pockets I have no idea. Especially when most other MIA guitars do not suffer from this problem??

That said I have to say that out of all the Fenders I've picked up, this type have the MOST PERFECT neck profile IMHO! Described as a 'modern C shape', it is actually a very slighly 'v' like 'c', if that makes any sense! Also the the width at the nut seems smaller than an American Standard, for example, and the neck feels quite small further up also, no doubt due to the profile. The lovely cool feel of the nitro finsih realy helps too, MUCH nicer to touch than polyurathane!

The 'unplugged' sound is loud, and yet the sustain is good too!

Yes the strings do tend to slip off, but as Ceri poiunts out, I think that is to do with the 'feel' caused by the scallops.

I'm considering putting a narrower bridge and saddles on mine - like those on the American Standard, that will bring the strings in from the sides a bit, as I like the narrow string spacing on the standard.

I perdsonly do not thing it is esier to play than a non scallped board. I don't use it for 'shredding' but rather for blues with lots of bends and heavy vibrato - perfect!!

Thes guitars are not found commonly in shops in the UK, but I feel strongly that anyone who hasn't, should try out one of these guitars. The feel and sound really good.

I'm considering puting 57/62 vintage PU on this, as I have done to another of my guitars, If there is any slight weak link it may me the Dimarzio PUs in my opinion, very good, but not what I necessarily want.

Everyone - PLEASE go try one!!

It would be a good idea to loosen the strings (but don't take them off!) quite a bit before you loosen the four neck screws!

This problem has plagued Strats since Day One.

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Bass, I would just take them to a shop to get straightened out as there is nothing here of great concern.As far as the models you have there polar opposite of eachother, so thats kind of weird you just buy 2 guitars with the same problem.Where they both from the same seller. As far as a warranty Fender would not recognize it as you are not the original owner as I bought my Beck and Clapton models on Ebay so that I know,but again nothing major to fix.

The cure for this is to buy your musical instruments at reputable music stores where you can actually check out the merchandise in person before you buy. For the life of me I can't understand why somebody would buy a guitar off ebay, unless you are living on top of Ayers Rock in the middle of the Australian outback. Even then I think I would go to town to buy a guitar.

Why do you think people are hawking their wares on ebay? Because there is something wrong, that's why. To those of you who are happy with what they've got, congratulations. Count yourself among the lucky. I don't roll the dice when buying a guitar. I want to play it first.

I won't even buy a guitar from a place like Musician's Friend. I don't care if they have a good return policy. It would be too much of a PITA. And besides, I can buy locally at better prices anyway.

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Gosh, yes; I forgot to mention that very important detail. Oops! ...Thanks.


Hi Adrian: there was a long article and interview with Yngwie in Guitarist magazine a few issues ago, when Fender brought out the "Play Louder" YM Strat. I'm sure it talked about the high e string thing - but I'm away from home for a few days and can't look it up. Still: if I'm remembering right even Yngwie has noticed the e string falling off the frets problem.

Odd, huh?

Cheers - C

.[/quote]
Hi Adrian: there was a long article and interview with Yngwie in Guitarist magazine a few issues ago, when Fender brought out the "Play Louder" YM Strat. I'm sure it talked about the high e string thing - but I'm away from home for a few days and can't look it up. Still: if I'm remembering right even Yngwie has noticed the e string falling off the frets problem.

Odd, huh?

Cheers - C[/quote]

Hi Ceri

I'd love to know the ref. I love to have a read of that one!

Enjoy your travels!

haha thats funny becuase a friend of mine bought the same guitar from ebay and had that same problem...
he told me that the problem was that the nut was off center.. try to adjust that and see if that fixes it

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