Dear Fender fans!

This is my first post to this forum so if I misplaced my post admins pls move it onto the right spot

I'm a big fan of fender guitars and wanted one american strat my whole life. Now that I'm a bit older and our band ain't playing anymore I bought myself one. I hope I get soon back into shape and we regroup since playing in a band was one of the dearest things I did in life.

Ok, where's the problem?

I was looking for a guitar about a year. I wanted to get myself an American Standard HSS in a classic black/white/rosewood and with an S-1 switching system which in newer models is removed.

So I finally found one at our local Fender dealer, but the guitar was there fo about 2-3 years.

The guitar sound great, has no scrathes or otherwise damaged, but there was one suspicious thing.

The rosewood neck seemed to bright to me, not dark enough. Even frets are not what they are supposed to be.

Since I'm really no expert I dumbly believed the reseller that that's all normal. But after some time I visited the best fender service shop to do a complete setup on my guitar and the technician told me that this guitar has not been properly stored before I bought it, but the neck is clearly worn out or tired (I don't now how to describe it )and that he had much trouble setting up the neck tension. Also he mentioned that the frets are not in contidion that on a new guitar should be.

So now I don't know what to do. I could do some repairs on the neck, change the frets, but i bought a guita in a store...

My question is, can I get a replacement neck under a one year warranty for a guitar eventhough the neck is probably in that state because the reseller didn't store it correctly?

What would you suggest me.

Thanks for your help,
Tomi

P.S. BTW any opinions about locking tuners? Planning to replace originals with locking since the guitar detunes quite quickly

Welcome.

A very light rosewood oftentimes means the fingerboard is dry. A premium fretboard conditioner may solve that problem.

Neck tension is relative. Frankly, I don't know what he means by "having trouble setting the neck tension" as even a dried out neck's truss rod will cooperate.

You say, "the reseller". Are you in fact, the first owner of this guitar? Premising you are, if the frets aren't in like new condition and the guitar is new old stock, your guitar was probably the, "storewhore" for the three years it sat there. Here too though, "worn out and tired" makes no sense if this is a new guitar. Of note is the fact that it sat there for three years for a reason.

Locking tuners will only treat symptoms and not causes if your guitar cannot hold its tuning.

Personally, I wouldn't spend any more money on it. Rather, I'd bring it back and demand a refund or an exchange as apparently, there's a lot more history to that guitar which the dealer isn't telling you. Lastly, if that neck looks like it has three years of abuse, I doubt very strongly Fender will consider it a warranty issue by any means and let's face it, you can't blame them either.

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You dig?

Hi Martian,

Thanks for your comments.
Yes I am the first owner.
I don't think the guitar was abused other than not being stored properly.

All the foils and stickers were on the guitar and there were no scrathes visible anywhere, not even on the pickguard.
Also the strings were rusty, which is also why frets aren't like new I presume.
Dryed out seems correct persumption.

The guitar has been set up ok and the technician said it might be ok as long it isn't exposed to big temperature and humidity changes as it probably was. He said that the neck should adapt now that its setup...
It's also fine to play, but looks should be nicer. Nevertheless the guitar wasn't cheap
The other problem is that I like the S-1 switch A LOT. That is mainly in the neck position (turned ON) to get very close to that sweet child of mine tone The new American standards don't have it though...
I also like the pickups more than on the deluxe ones-call me weird

Ok I'll try my luck with the dealer and at least get something out of it (maybe refretting and renewing the neck) and some other stuff for free. I don't know. I am mad about it though. But I kind of got connected to the poor abused guitar...

Thanks for your answer again,
T.

You're welcome and good luck!

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You dig?

Some pics so you can express your opinion about this being suited for a new guitar?

P.S. sorry for any mistakes in spellin or otherwise-I'm not native English speaker

hmmm, am std with s1 switching,
sounds like you bought a fender american deluxe hss, im guessing you paid about 1078.00 for it. its black and has abalone fret markers and lsr nut.


the pickups are the same as am deluxe, except they are wound hotter on the hss.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Hmm... I don't think that they would dare to do that. As far as I know American Std's had S-1 switching until 2006 or sth. No lsr nut or locnkings... The pickups are very differently sounding than on a deluxe - more raw, unfiltered... Singles tex-mex, humbucker is also different-not sure though.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

As I suspected, the fingerboard looks incredibly dry. I see that there are abrasions on those very dry frets too. Apparently an equally dry string set was grinding across the frets instead of smoothly sliding across the frets.

Get some premium conditioner on that fingerboard AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and make sure the conditioner is worked in well everywhere. Upon accomplishing this, those fret abrasions should quickly smooth away with normal use.

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You dig?

Well, your words are very similar to the ones I heard from a service guy
I'll try to compensate at least for the repair cost and get at least footswitch for my amp and some stuff in the store for emotional pain...

Maybe I'll try to do that and stick with my adopted, previousli abused love and cherish it till the end of time ))

Thank for the advice.

One more pic for before:



I'll post after when it is serviced.

Other than that issue should I replace original nut with LSR and tuners for locking for tuning stability.
I tightened the tuners so guitar is pretty much int tune until the first tremolo usage

Do you think I would solve much with LSR+lockings?
On the other hand I heard that LSR takes away some of the sustain?
If thats true I'll rather tune more...

This has nothing to do with the topic, and I apologize, but I can't help but find it funny that your last pic looks like the guitar is wired straight into the wall plug above it...

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1999 Fender American Standard Stratocaster, Lake Placid Blue (with a little age this color gets beautiful)
Rio Grande DCSS Pickups
2007 Fender CyberTwin SE

It looks like a really nice guitar which will give you many years of faithful service once you cure it of it's dehydration.

I do not like the LSR nut at all. It makes the action very stiff, a tad higher than it has to be and the bearings tend to mash down and become elliptical over time which of course, creates a whole other bunch of problems. As to sustain, I never really dwelled on it as it would only applies to open strings any way.

A properly cut and lubricated 'regular' nut will still serve you better. Remember too, all these nut 'gimmicks' that have come out of the years are just that, "gimmicks". If they really were a boon to the world of guitars, each and every, "higher end" guitar regardless of brand would be made with them standard.

To me, locking tuners are simply a convenience for some. A properly set up Strat with standard tremolo, standard tuners and a standard nut will hold it's tune just fine provided that one doesn't confuse this type of system's function with that of a Floyd Rose locking type system.

I've said this a million times: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

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You dig?

@Martian: I agree about lsr, I tried out one deluxe when I was deciding between deluxe and standard and it really didn't feel so good. Might be the gimmicks And I hated that noiseless pickups-maybe me weird again
If it makes action worse I'll really forget about it and buy myself some strings and picks instead

I'm already having trouble adjusting myself to higher strat action than I was used to on my previous Washburns. Liked them aswell-sorry I sold them
Also to the thicker strings, but 10-46 sounds much better to me.

@a.davis: Yeeeah! It's rock house with built in amp It really looks like that Cool

Thanks everybody for the help and I'll post one pic after the makover is done.

Kind regards to all,
Tomi

That's the wall of sound. I'm looking for one myself.

Tomi that's a great looking guitar and you seem to like it so condition the hell out of the fretboard and if need be, you can always .000 steel wool the frets. I think .000 is the finest, anyway, I do that on occasion to my guitars. Just be careful in doing so. Don't get into the wood. use masking tape if needed.

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Fender 50th Anniversary Strat
Fender Road Worn '50s Strat
Fender Highway One (HSS) Strat (D standard tuning)
Fender '72 Tele Deluxe
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212

I think rehydrating the neck wil be enough for now.
I do like it a lot. And can't buy those anymore so I'll keep it.

Frets aren't that bad and as Martian said they might also recover when fretboard is lubricated.

Thanks.