Raised Frets on new legacy

[cardofgiant]

So got my legacy hb on May 28th. The issue is that it appears my guitar's frets are raised. The ends are very sharp and at every fret I can easily slip a piece of printer paper under the fret and fingerboard. I've never seen this on any other guitar. I'm curious if g&l would fix this for me? Thanks.

http://s40.photobucket.com/user/Ritchie ... 7.jpg.html

http://s40.photobucket.com/user/Ritchie ... sort=3&o=1

[Craig]

So got my legacy hb on May 28th. The issue is that it appears my guitar's frets are raised. The ends are very sharp and at every fret I can easily slip a piece of printer paper under the fret and fingerboard. I've never seen this on any other guitar. I'm curious if g&l would fix this for me? Thanks.

http://s40.photobucket.com/user/Ritchie ... 7.jpg.html

http://s40.photobucket.com/user/Ritchie ... sort=3&o=1

Yes, raised frets would be covered by G&L's Warranty. For warranty work, you need to contact the selling dealer, see G&L's Support page.

[cardofgiant]

Hey Craig. Thanks for the response and info. Not sure if you can answer this, but based off of the pictures do you think this is an issue I should be worried about? Perhaps the fretboard is really dry? The reason I am asking here is because the people from the store I bought the guitar from are not very helpful. Thanks .

[GeorgeB]

The gaps are at every single fret, you wrote. That would clearly be a major defect which will get worse over time and you'll be never happy with that guitar unless this gets fixed quickly.

[cardofgiant]

thought I'd post an update. I ended up driving down to the G&L factory and Chris took a look at the guitar. He agreed the frets were raised and needed to be replaced. However, a couple of weeks later I was told the neck needed to be replaced. I was fine with that considering the fact that I tought the overal fit and finish of the neck was below standard. After about a month and a half I was able to pickup my guitar. I gave it a quick look over in the parking lot and was quite suprised to see a ding at the back of the neck at the fourth position. I decided to forget about it; I just want to play and enjoy my guitar. Other than that, the neck is quite nice. MUCH better than the original. The ebony fretboard is smooth, fret work is tidy, nice grain, and it feels right! the first neck had overspray on the fretboard, the nut was cut funky, G&l logo at headstock was bubbled, frets raised as mentioned, and tuning pegs were off alignment slightly. It was a real looser. Other than the ding, the new neck is just great! I am happy G&L replaced the neck to say the least! I'll probably post a couple of pictures soon.

While I have your attention I wanted to ask a question about the pickups in the guitar. I have a Legacy HB. When splitting the humbucker in the second position, should that combination be hum cancelling? I am guessing it should, but on my guitar it definitely is not. Is this normal? I suspect it is if G&L uses the same polarity configuration as fender. thanks.

[GeorgeB]

While I have your attention I wanted to ask a question about the pickups in the guitar. I have a Legacy HB. When splitting the humbucker in the second position, should that combination be hum cancelling? I am guessing it should, but on my guitar it definitely is not. Is this normal? I suspect it is if G&L uses the same polarity configuration as fender. thanks.

Hi,
To have full humbucking effect with a SC + split HB half:
i) Polarity of the coils and magnets must be correct (both must be flipped, and that would be in the RW/RP middle pickup). You want string signals in phase and noise signals out-of-phase between coils.
ii) Pickup behaviour must be identical for noise signals (the external electromagnetic fields) -- but not necessarily for string signals.
iii) Last not least, electrostatic noise pickup must be minimal, that is guitar should preferably be shielded and you should touch the strings/bridge firmly.

Coil selection and polarity of the split HB is a variable with 4-wire cabling of the pickups (like ie. with a SD JeffBeck) so something *may* have gone wrong hooking it up. Normally one would select the coil with the adjustable pole pieces and that should give correct signal to work with a Strat middle pickup. Tapping test with a small screwdriver blade with tell you which HB coil is used in the spilt (roll back treble during test). When HB both coils give the same "thump" in position 2, the spitter switch does not seem to work correctly, spoiling the noise cancelling... a possible root cause for your scenario.

Additionally, the noise sensivity must be matched as well as the impedances to a full subtraction to zero. Only then a deep null for noise signals will result when paralleling the coils.
Actually that is the hardest part, it needs very well matched pickups -- not very likely with the radically different construction of pickups used. When there is electrical mismatch the difference signal will not be zero, hum residuals will be present. You can't do much about it except using different pups which do match better in this regard.

Still, whatever happens, the position 2 noise level should *always* be a good part lower than with either pickup alone (to check roll back treble and move in front of your amp -- about 2ft distance -- to pick up enough low frequency transformer hum). If the 50/60Hz humming noise actually increases in position 2 something in the wiring is very odd.
Rolling back the treble on the guitar is essential in this test to make the low frequency magnetic noise signal the dominant signal.

[cardofgiant]

I tried your test by tapping the pickup. When split the coils that are closest to the middle pickup are activated. In other words the poles that are NOT adjustable. Is this possibly the issue?

[GeorgeB]

That could well be the problem.
Seymour Duncan Pickups (as used originally on early Legacys) are south-up, fieldwise. This means singlecoils are south polarity (except middle pup RW/RP) and adjustable coil of humbuckers are south polarity.

Assuming the pups in your guitar follow the Duncan scheme, your guitar seems to use the north HB coil in split mode, to get humcancelling this would require a south pickup in the middle and a north pickup on the neck -- and maybe G&L mistook the two SCs for each other during assembly, exchange/rewire them with each other and you should be fine.
Second possibility is to rotate the HB by 180degrees and rewire the split switch to short the north coil instead of the south coil**). This way you can keep the active coil location which is closer to the middle as the rear coil of a HB in a Strat is really close to the bridge and may sound too thin/sharp. Note that the adjustable coil often is a bit weaker in output level and may sound a bit different anyway.
Both ways you need to solder, though the second option is a bit less work overall.

**) For the JB coil split, red and white wire are connected and normally short to ground (green). Change that connection so that it shorts to "hot" (black).

@admin, is it possible to move the last posts to the approbriate thread? Thx.
And maybe we can get some insight from Mr. Gagon himself on these polarity issues.

[cardofgiant]

It seems the neck and middle pickups are in the correct place. The wiring looks to be correct compared to the diagrams provided by G&L. I am beginning to think that this is just the way it is. I may have to adjust the HB as you suggested.