EVO Gold

[meowmix]

Hey Louis, or anyone who has tried.

How is the EVO Gold?

When I received my new Custom made guitar last year, it was in horrible shape to play. Really, really bad.
The saddles were not even close. String height all over the place. It was like someone at the shop just threw it together.

Brought it over to shop, and first thing he noticed was the nut was all wrong. I wasn't happy about that,
but I figured I would have to take the new guitar to the shop for a setup anyways. I had him put on a new nut (1 5/8 specs)
and give the guitar an adjustment.

Guitar was better but not where it should be. I have 2 other identical guitars, so I know how they should play.
After some time I had enough. Brought it back to the shop, and after closer examination, the SS fret job was bad.
The tech filed too much of the frets. The high E keeps falling off the fretboard.
Thanks G&L.

The current work around is to put a new nut on, but have the slots off where they should be.
Personally, I want all of my guitars setup the same exact way.

I have heard of good things about the EVO gold and wanted to hear what the opinions on them are.

[willross]

I've heard good things about that wire and Ed Roman (RIP) used and praised a similar alloy for fret wire. As for the Custom guitar, I would have returned it immediately! If I was in Cali, I'd drive it there myself!!!


Cheers,

Will

[meowmix]

To the naked eye, it is hard to tell the difference between the SS bevel cut and the other.
Here is an image of the bevel cut on the guitar in question.
This could very well be within G&L tolerance. You can see how an aggressive cut and take up some much needed real estate on a 1 5/8" neck.

I do not want to take it to G&L until all my ducks are in a row.
There is something wrong, and I just found out another possibility.

First, lets take a look at the good working guitars.
This first pic. Look at the Low E and how it travels along the neck.
The distance between the string and the top of the neck length is uniform.
Well almost. A little dip at the end.


Lets take a look at the high E and the bottom of the neck length.
As you can see it is mostly uniform. Not perfect, but good enough.


Let's go to another working guitar.
Low E

High E

Not too bad.

Now to the guitar in question.
The Low E is the best of all three.


The high E is the problem.


There is a visual dip between the 12 fret and the 7th. The area where the string bends the most.
I broke my camera. Need to get a better shot, but it is there. And I think this is where the problem is.

[louis cyfer]

i love the evo gold frets. my favorite fret. your tech won't like it though, hard to work with. it looks like that not just the frets, but the guitar neck itself has a problem, the wood is also missing there.

[meowmix]

i love the evo gold frets. my favorite fret. your tech won't like it though, hard to work with. it looks like that not just the frets, but the guitar neck itself has a problem, the wood is also missing there.

My tech does SS, and if they do that then they could handle EVO gold. It worked great for you on the SRV guitar, all hardware was gold.

I am beginning to think the fret job could have been better but the neck is the real issue. I see it warped, hard to tell as I am not an expert on this.

[louis cyfer]

i love the evo gold frets. my favorite fret. your tech won't like it though, hard to work with. it looks like that not just the frets, but the guitar neck itself has a problem, the wood is also missing there.

My tech does SS, and if they do that then they could handle EVO gold. It worked great for you on the SRV guitar, all hardware was gold.

I am beginning to think the fret job could have been better but the neck is the real issue. I see it warped, hard to tell as I am not an expert on this.

they should. my tech bitched and moaned that the evo was harder to radius and harder to level and crown than ss. but as long as they have the diamond files and a good radius jig, they should be able to handle it. the results are sure worth it.

[sirmyghin]

You sure the neck is seated well in the pocket, could have taken a bump and slipped slightly. From your pictures though, there appears to be more than enough room to not slide of the fretboard. Often bolt on necks get 'uneven' in that sense when the neck takes a good bump (often during shipping). I have seen a lot of people complain about going off the fretboard, but very few times it was anything but significant or an actual construction flaw.

Bad fretwork though, interesting if it is a G&L, as they are all plekked no? If it is a random small luthier no surprise, they often specialize in the appearance department not the good guitar department in my experience.

[Philby]

You sure the neck is seated well in the pocket, could have taken a bump and slipped slightly.

I think Sirmy might be on the money here. There appears to be ample room on the low E side and not enough room on the high E side. Which suggests to me that the neck needs re-seating in the pocket by loosening the bolts and slightly adjusting the angle to get the high E travelling more 'in-board'.

IIRC, this is one of the first instructions in the G&L owner's manual. The neck can easily be knocked out of whack during transport.