New Legacy - string alignment issue

[Faceman]

Hi all.

I received my new Legacy today and I noticed something peculiar. Across the length of the low E string, the string is much too close to the edge of the fret board. It is most pronounced at the higher frets. The result is that the low E string slides off the fret board when I hit it. Even if I hit it lightly it slides off the edge. By comparison, the high E string has a much larger distance to the edge of the fret board. Also, several of the strings are not properly lined up with the pole pieces of the humbucker pickup.

The neck is option #3, which has the 1 11/16 fretboard. I’ve owned G&L guitars in the past and never came across this type of issue.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Joe

[gaustin]

Hmmm Yes, its true. I have a thread on my "project". I possess a ASAT with the same problem. How did you get your guitar? I see you have a legacy, Very interesting....

THere is another thread here with my issue.


George

[Faceman]

I purchased my guitar from a licensed G&L distributor. It just arrived today. I looked at your thread and saw some of the suggestions regarding shims, etc. In my opinion, a guitar from the factory should not need to be "fixed". Other than this issue, the guitar was gorgeous.

I'm a big fan of G&L guitars and this issue hasn't put me off of their instruments. It's a buzz kill to be sure, but I'm sure it will all work out.

[Philby]

Does the misalignment start at the nut? i.e. is it something as as simple as the nut slots not being properly spaced? It's hard to tell from the photos.

[Faceman]

Philby,

I had the same thought but the nut looks good. Wouldn't the PLEK process ensure that the nut was cut properly? Everything else on the guitar is awesome. Dead-on intonation, smooth frets, great fit and finish. I hope that it can be easily tweaked.

[sirmyghin]

Was it shiped to your or bought in store? The neck looks a little off in the pocket, loosen the screws a bit to see it it comes back into place.

[Craig]

I purchased my guitar from a licensed G&L distributor. It just arrived today. I looked at your thread and saw some of the suggestions regarding shims, etc. In my opinion, a guitar from the factory should not need to be "fixed". Other than this issue, the guitar was gorgeous.

I'm a big fan of G&L guitars and this issue hasn't put me off of their instruments. It's a buzz kill to be sure, but I'm sure it will all work out.

Are you located outside of the USA?
If so, did the distributor have the guitar shipped direct to you from G&L? Or was it shipped to them first and then they shipped it to you?
Were the strings in full tension when you received it, or did you need to re-tension the strings?

It's possible that the neck shifted during shipping and just needs to be re-seated fully into the neck pocket. Or someone removed (or loosened) the neck and
did not properly reseat the neck.

To do this:

With the strings tuned up, slightly loosen the four neck screws enough so that the neck will seat into the neck pocket. Then tighten the neck screws.
The strings should now be aligned correctly. If not, take it to your distributor or contact them and show or tell them about this problem. They should be able
to take care of getting it setup properly.

Hope this helps.

[gaustin]

if you can lift the pick guard and look under the pickups. I wonder if you can see a stamp with the manufacture date. curious to know what that would be.

[californiakev]

I have had several strats that had this problem, and like the others have suggested, I just loosened the screws that held the neck on and shifted the neck in the neck pocket a little and re-tightened.

There was a time where I took the neck off to check the date and put it back on and it was messed up. Turns out that when you take out the screws some wood can be sticking up in the neck pocket from the screw holes. I just scraped it down with a razor blade and it went back together nicely.

[Faceman]

I'm returning the guitar to the retailer for a refund. The alignment is too far off for me to feel comfortable with anyone adjusting it to try to get it right. I'll probably order again in the new year.


Thanks for all of the feedback.

[Darth Invader]

Hi Joe,

That's certainly a dissapointment to find, and unfortunately as long as guitars are shipped and being tossed around by truck drivers, distribution center handlers and so on, we'll continue to see instances where the guitar took a hard smack and the neck joint is often the place where it is revealed. At least neck shift is easily cured, but a very hard hit can cause stress cracks in the finish on the body around the neck pocket. We see that fairly often as well. If the guitar was shipped to you following your purchase, that was probably the time where the bang happened. It is possible that it happened before and the dealer didn't notice it, but, generally dealers check things out pretty well befor shipping.

The good news is that it's pretty easy to correct. If you're somewhat experienced in setups, you may want to have a go with it yourself. As others have said, you loosen the strings, loosen the neck screws, carefully pull the neck back into position (don't yank it as you don't want to cause stress cracks on the body finish), then tighten the neck screws and tune to pitch. You'll want to check intonation afterward. If you're not comfortable doing this, you can either call your dealer to see what they recommend or just have a local tech do it. One benefit of having a local tech do it is that you can get the guitar setup to your taste.

I hope this works out quickly and easily, so you can get on with enjoying your guitar.

Regards,

Dave McLaren

[SJG]

If this was an old Fender I'd say yep...the neck shifted to one side which was a very common problem. That problem was caused by the neck pocket being way to sloppy. This is not a Fender, it's a G&L, and G&L's have extremely tight neck pockets. In order to move those strings over to the right alignment there would have to be at least a .030" gap between the neck and the body on the high E side. Not going to happen on a G&L. Either the neck pocket was cut in the wrong place or the bridge was mounted off to the side. I would think the latter.
Have him send it back and do a little QC investigation Dave. Post the results. Lot of enthusiats interested in this one. I'd much rather own up to a mislocated bridge than admit G&L neck pockets are so loose you can adjust string location with the neck.
Joe, can you post a picture of both sides of the neck pocket?

[Faceman]

Hi all.

I'm not able to photograph the neck pocket, as I've already shipped the guitar back to the retailer. I didn't attempt any adjustments as suggested, only because I wanted to return the guitar in the same exact condition as it was when I received it. When I looked at the neck pocket, the neck appeared to be seated very tightly. There wasn't even a small gap on either side of the neck, so I don't think that a neck tweak would have helped the issue. There wasn't anywhere for the neck to move.

From the look of it, it appeared that the bridge was not placed properly on the guitar. It was probably shifted too far towards the upper bout, which reduced the fretboard space on the low E string and gave too much fretboard space on the high E string. It's too bad because except for this issue, the finish and finish were impressive.

I'm still keen on G&L guitars and I'll probably own another one at some point, but this one didn't work out.

Cheers.

[Darth Invader]

Philby,

I had the same thought but the nut looks good. Wouldn't the PLEK process ensure that the nut was cut properly? Everything else on the guitar is awesome. Dead-on intonation, smooth frets, great fit and finish. I hope that it can be easily tweaked.

That's true, the Plek does cut the fret slots. It knows exactly how wide the neck is at the nut because it measures it, then calculates exactly where the slots need to be for each particular neck. It's from Germany, and you know what Vince said.

[Darth Invader]

If this was an old Fender I'd say yep...the neck shifted to one side which was a very common problem. That problem was caused by the neck pocket being way to sloppy. This is not a Fender, it's a G&L, and G&L's have extremely tight neck pockets. In order to move those strings over to the right alignment there would have to be at least a .030" gap between the neck and the body on the high E side. Not going to happen on a G&L. Either the neck pocket was cut in the wrong place or the bridge was mounted off to the side. I would think the latter.
Have him send it back and do a little QC investigation Dave. Post the results. Lot of enthusiats interested in this one. I'd much rather own up to a mislocated bridge than admit G&L neck pockets are so loose you can adjust string location with the neck.
Joe, can you post a picture of both sides of the neck pocket?

You know I'm always fine with handling things when they go wrong. Thing is, this really does happen, and on high end bolt-on guitars like G&L as well. The neck pocket is snug, but it's not tight enough to stress the wood. There is enough give in the body wood that the neck can be shifted with enough steady torque or sudden impact, which of course puts more stress on the wood and that's why sometimes when "shift happens" that it causes a stress crack in the body finish. You've seen that happen here: once in a while a guy posts a pic of his guitar with a crack right at the neck pocket. That's from a whack in shipping, or the guitar was dropped on stage etc. Also remember that the neck is held with wood screws, and the guitar may have gone a long distance through climate changes (shrinkage/expansion) and those wood screws may have lost some tension, increasing the likelihood that it's going to suffer more upon impact. As for the the bridge, it can't be in the wrong location relative to the neck pocket or any other routing on the front of the guitar, because they're done at the same time when the body blank is on the Haas CNC, with it's location fixed by two beefy locating pins plus vacuum suction below. When it's on the Haas, it doesn't shift, period.

The bummer is that it seems tough to believe, but all of us making bolt-on guitars, from the top-end down to the basement, have to deal with it. Fortunately, here in the US the UPS people are good with taking care of our claims. Usually dealers take care of this, or perhaps the distributor if it's outside the US, but sometimes they come back here and we straighten things out. Again, just because this happens from time to time doesn't mean it's rampant. It's just an inherent risk of shipping.

Regards,

Dave

[BillEvans1956]

...as long as guitars are shipped and being tossed around by truck drivers, distribution center handlers and so on, we'll continue to see instances where the guitar took a hard smack and the neck joint is often the place where it is revealed.

My most recent acquisition (ASAT Special Deluxe custom) was shipped from Texas to the UK without any problems that I have seen or heard. Was I lucky then? It was shipped in a G&G case which provides a really snug fit for the guitar. And, the dealer packed it really well inside a heavy duty cardboard box. The robustness is probably testament to the quality of the G&L build.

Bill

[Darth Invader]

My most recent acquisition (ASAT Special Deluxe custom) was shipped from Texas to the UK without any problems that I have seen or heard. Was I lucky then? It was shipped in a G&G case which provides a really snug fit for the guitar. And, the dealer packed it really well inside a heavy duty cardboard box. The robustness is probably testament to the quality of the G&L build.

Thanks, Bill. I want to stress that despite the handling of shippers, the vast majority of time there is no problem. Sounds like your dealer is a seasoned veteran and took care to pack your guitar well for the long journey.

Dave

[sirmyghin]

My most recent acquisition (ASAT Special Deluxe custom) was shipped from Texas to the UK without any problems that I have seen or heard. Was I lucky then? It was shipped in a G&G case which provides a really snug fit for the guitar. And, the dealer packed it really well inside a heavy duty cardboard box. The robustness is probably testament to the quality of the G&L build.

Thanks, Bill. I want to stress that despite the handling of shippers, the vast majority of time there is no problem. Sounds like your dealer is a seasoned veteran and took care to pack your guitar well for the long journey.

Dave

Mine made it from Cali to Ontario and was also fine, you guys sell a fine case btw. I immediately though, and carvin uses those others cases why?

[Darth Invader]

I don't know what Carvin uses, they're sort of off my radar though they do make some cool guitars. As for us, we finally decided we'll just bit the bullet, and invest more money into the cases. We went with G&G because they'd done them for us for decades, they're right nearby in Los Angeles, they've been good to us and they make a great product. When we need limited runs of cases, they happy too. When we wanted to do a form fitted case, meaning one for each body shape, they jumped right on it. We didn't have that kind of service with the molded case makers. In my opinion, they're the G&L of case makers.

[yowhatsshakin]

In my opinion, they're the G&L of case makers.

Hear, hear! Fully agree with that assessment.

[sirmyghin]

I don't know what Carvin uses, they're sort of off my radar though they do make some cool guitars. As for us, we finally decided we'll just bit the bullet, and invest more money into the cases. We went with G&G because they'd done them for us for decades, they're right nearby in Los Angeles, they've been good to us and they make a great product. When we need limited runs of cases, they happy too. When we wanted to do a form fitted case, meaning one for each body shape, they jumped right on it. We didn't have that kind of service with the molded case makers. In my opinion, they're the G&L of case makers.

Supplied but G&G but use unfitted ABS cases (guitar shaped ones) and unfited tweed rectangles. There are some fitted tolex similar to yours but only for the V's. The form fitting is the big thing here, one size fits all is not good enough for guitars moving a lot. Everything is sort of a step up. Tolex over tweed, the inner carpet is nicer, the clasps are the slide type not just loops (less chance of getting unhinged imo), and it is just heavier.

It is kind of like taking the economy vs the luxury sedan. The function is identical but the details...

[BillEvans1956]

My most recent acquisition (ASAT Special Deluxe custom) was shipped from Texas to the UK without any problems that I have seen or heard. Was I lucky then? It was shipped in a G&G case which provides a really snug fit for the guitar. And, the dealer packed it really well inside a heavy duty cardboard box. The robustness is probably testament to the quality of the G&L build.

Thanks, Bill. I want to stress that despite the handling of shippers, the vast majority of time there is no problem. Sounds like your dealer is a seasoned veteran and took care to pack your guitar well for the long journey.

Dave

Yes, indeed Dave. I can highly recommend Grapevine Guitar Works of Grapevine, Texas http://www.grapevineguitarworks.com/servlet/StoreFront. Sean (seen here with Bob Taylor of 'Taylor Guitars' http://www.metrousedguitar.com/images/cl/taylorday2/) really is a great guy. He was extremely helpful throughout, right from first contact, right through the purchase, right through delivery. Those guys at Grapevine Guitar Works really understand their customers' needs. Check them out.

Bill