Some flaws found in a Tribute S-500

[Marek82313]

Dear all,

I have found some few flaws in my Tribute S-500 and I would like to know if someone else experienced my same troubles. I described a couple of these issues in two previous posts.

The guitar is a Tribute S-500 that I purchased a couple of months ago, since I was busy I was able to play it very rarely and only recently I noticed some of these flaws.

1 Just after I purchased the guitar, as soon as I plugged it to my amp, it started producing a strange "fuzzing" noise like of electrical interference that disappeared after few minutes and after I push-pulled for a while the treble pot. After this happened, I noticed that the pot was like it was always pulled, with the bridge pickup always active. I went back to the guitar shop and they found that one of the cables of the pot was not weld properly and poured a little to the adjacent junction creating a false contact. After this, I thought it was better to let set up the guitar finely by a luthier. The guy checked the guitar and found the other following flaws.

2 The string slots at the nut were not crafted properly, he confirmed my feeling that they were slightly higher than required. The wrong height caused intonation issues at the first frets. Also some frets had to be levelled (I hope this is the correct term in english).

3 the luthier found that there were two ground wires inside the cavity under the pickguard, one was weld to the spring claw as usual, the other one was simply screwed to the wood of the cavity, although this was not covered by conductive or shielding paint and was basically useless.

Concerning the first issue, I tried the guitar in the shop before purchasing it and everything seemed fine. The troubles started only when I was back home, therefore, the pot was not probably well fixed to the pickguard and was a little unstable. Maybe the pot moved a little during the trip back home and started the false contact.

Are these common issues of the Tribute series?

I am a little disappointed of these minor flaws, expecially by the second and third. In particular, I cannot understand the meaning of the third, why screwing the ground wire to the wood?

Beside of the flaws, I still continue to think that this is a beautifull and unique guitar, much better than other brands, but I also think that more precision during the crafting and a better quality control would be necessary, although this is an eastern production.

All the best.

[Craig]

Dear all,

I have found some few flaws in my Tribute S-500 and I would like to know if someone else experienced my same troubles. I described a couple of these issues in two previous posts.

The guitar is a Tribute S-500 that I purchased a couple of months ago, since I was busy I was able to play it very rarely and only recently I noticed some of these flaws.

1 Just after I purchased the guitar, as soon as I plugged it to my amp, it started producing a strange "fuzzing" noise like of electrical interference that disappeared after few minutes and after I push-pulled for a while the treble pot. After this happened, I noticed that the pot was like it was always pulled, with the bridge pickup always active. I went back to the guitar shop and they found that one of the cables of the pot was not weld properly and poured a little to the adjacent junction creating a false contact. After this, I thought it was better to let set up the guitar finely by a luthier. The guy checked the guitar and found the other following flaws.

2 The string slots at the nut were not crafted properly, he confirmed my feeling that they were slightly higher than required. The wrong height caused intonation issues at the first frets. Also some frets had to be levelled (I hope this is the correct term in english).

3 the luthier found that there were two ground wires inside the cavity under the pickguard, one was weld to the spring claw as usual, the other one was simply screwed to the wood of the cavity, although this was not covered by conductive or shielding paint and was basically useless.

Concerning the first issue, I tried the guitar in the shop before purchasing it and everything seemed fine. The troubles started only when I was back home, therefore, the pot was not probably well fixed to the pickguard and was a little unstable. Maybe the pot moved a little during the trip back home and started the false contact.

Are these common issues of the Tribute series?

I am a little disappointed of these minor flaws, expecially by the second and third. In particular, I cannot understand the meaning of the third, why screwing the ground wire to the wood?

Beside of the flaws, I still continue to think that this is a beautifull and unique guitar, much better than other brands, but I also think that more precision during the crafting and a better quality control would be necessary, although this is an eastern production.

All the best.

If you bought this guitar new from an authorized G&L Dealer or Distributor, you have a warranty. Not knowing where you bought this, you will either need to contact the selling dealer
or the National Distributor and let them handle this under warranty. See the G&L Support page for specific details regarding warranty handling.

Regarding your other post, see my reply.

Hope this helps.

[Philby]

Problems 1 and 2 are fairly common on mid-level guitars, or even high end guitars for that matter.

These types of issues are usually rectified by the dealer when they do a pre-purchase inspection and set up. I always factor the cost of a set up into the purchase price of a guitar because, frankly, it's a good investment to have the guitar tailored to your playing preferences from the outset.

As for problem #3, no idea sorry. I bought a MIM Telecaster off EBay last year with the opposite problem. It was fully shielded but the ground wire had NOT been connected at the factory. Maybe someone at the factory forgot to apply shielding paint to yours?

[Marek82313]

I will answer to both of you.

The guitar was bought in Italy, in my town. The seller purchased the guitar from the Distributor and kept it in the store for few years. It seems that it is a little difficult to deal with this Distributor and is not very efficient, I think he did not checked whether there were flaws in the guitars he was distributing. That's why I preferred to go directly to a luthier and not use the warranty -> less troubles and less wasted time