Hey Everyone!

I have been working on a copy strat recently and there is a problem with the neck alignment or something. The strings are all a little bit up too high and i don't know if i should re drill holes for the neck or something. In the pics you can kind of see the top string falling off the neck. thanks guys!

I can't really tell from the pics, but you can try this.

Loosen the strings, loosen the 4 neck screws and just push the neck in the direction it needs to move. see if the is enough to line the strings up. If so you'll just have to hold it like that while you tighten the screws.

if it's off more than what can be corrected like that, you might need to reposition the bridge.

Also worth doing is pushing the saddles together.

Take a flat bladed screwdriver and push it against the side of the saddle with the overhanging string. Tap the screwdriver gently so that the saddles all come together preferably in the opposite direction of the rogue string.

If you do try loosening the neck, slacken the strings first and don't go too mad loosening the neck screws. Use one hand on the neck and the other braced against the lower bout of the guitar and try pulling the neck into position. As you're facing the guitar, it looks like you need to be pulling the top of the neck to the right. Don't be alarmed if it creaks. Just use enough hand pressure to get it moving or you could do some serious damage.

Do something though - that guitar looks pretty unplayable in it's current condition. In fact it looks like the geometry is well out. Is that the guitar's original neck?

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Some very good questions have already been asked here, and some good suggestions have been offered. With the way that neck looks in relation to the trem unit, I’m wondering if that neck is original to the body, and if the pickguard and trem mounting are in the original locations.

Making that trem unit line up accurately with the bridge has less to do with the pickguard location than it does the neck. If you were off by a couple mm, you might be able to jog the neck when you are bolting it to the body, but the photos look like you are further off line than that. I’d pull off the pickguard off and try to take some decent measurements running a straight edge down each side of the neck making a line as if the neck would extend all the way to the bridge location (put masking tape on the body to write on). The trem unit should sit dead center in the middle of those lines. If it does not try and jog the neck in position and redraw the lines. If that does not work you will need to either re-drill the neck bolt or bridge screw holes.

Good Luck!

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'78 Fender Stratocaster
Epi USA Texan '64 RI signed by Paul McCartney
'73 Fender Mustang
Gibson LP Deluxe RI '69
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And My Frankenstein-O-Caster

Yeah it's really hard to tell how bad it is from those pics. We need a straight on front shot.

Though I have an uncomfortable feeling the saddles have already been pushed towards the treble side a bit in an effort to try and remedy the string alignment...

cravelp1115, good advice has already been given on this thread regarding adjusting the neck in its pocket. Please let us know how that works out.

If it doesn't fix the problem there's ways forward - depending how hands-on you feel like getting with some basic carpentry tools.

Unique pickguard, by the way. You'll have no difficulty if you ever need to pick your guitar out of a police line-up.

Cheers - C