I have a useless $2700 custom plus had to pay 78 dollars for FMIC to tell me.. w/pics

[Dogbone]

What a real bummer I do hope that you can get the guitar setup to your liking... I hate seeing anyone spend the money on a CS, and really not even get to enjoy it, and then turn it on ebay and take a loss
Damn shame is all I know.

[Flatpicker]

AK,
I really wouldnt put that on the bay. Work or Fight with FMIC to get it straightened out. You are the customer here and paid money in good faith that they would provide you with a product that you deem acceptable. Esp because this is a CS piece and not a production unit where they can claim it was built to spec.

Basically, Fender owes you a guitar that is built to your preferences and you should hold their feet to the fire. They have to do it right.

If you resell it, all your doing is voiding the warranty for the next person. If that neck gets worse, it'll be unplayable for everybody.

[dg]

I agree with Flatpicker 100%. After reading through this, and especially after hearing that the action is high at the 3rd fret, it sounds like there is some kind of hump or twist that they may have tried to overcome by shimming the nut. The heavier strings make me think that they may not have been able to get adequate relief with the truss rod nut loosened all the way with .009s, so they needed the added tension of heavier strings to get the relief. These are just guesses on my part without seeing the guitar in person.

edit- Just want to make it clear that those are just a couple of things you might want to check for or ask the tech to look into. Trying to help, not meant as an accusation or to pile on J/C.

[Spivonious]

Wait until they get back from NAMM and find out what they actually did. You paid $2700. Either they fix the neck or they give you new one.

[AK47]

AK,
I really wouldnt put that on the bay. Work or Fight with FMIC to get it straightened out. You are the customer here and paid money in good faith that they would provide you with a product that you deem acceptable. Esp because this is a CS piece and not a production unit where they can claim it was built to spec.

Basically, Fender owes you a guitar that is built to your preferences and you should hold their feet to the fire. They have to do it right.

If you resell it, all your doing is voiding the warranty for the next person. If that neck gets worse, it'll be unplayable for everybody.

Here is the foreseeable problem. I am just speculating what will happen this week.

When I get it adjusted and the correct strings on it. I bet the action maybe set lower but it still will end up high on the higher frets. This will probably be considered "acceptable by FMIC standards" and I will be screwed. Ever had a guitar the you could never quite get the action correct on?

It may be acceptable action for those people that play blues and SRV type stuff but I bought this as a metal guitar. Like my Jacksons or Anderson the action should be so low you can play the guitar and do bends without any effort. Like my Tom Anderson strat that I keep using as a refrence on how a guitar should be setup and play.

Maybe my standards are too high for a "acceptable action" on a guitar. The only other guitar I ever had a similar issue on was one of those Neck thru Peavey super starts with a bright pink finish from the 80's cant remember the name of it. I just sold that since I could never get it to play correctly back in 94 and it did have a slight neck twist in it.

[strat2tele1]

Once again, it is a custom shop and you paid for a custom built guitar. A custom guitar built to your specs, as well as your standards. You should demand nothing less as they would never treat an artist, ie Phil Collen, Adrian Smith, etc., like that.

[pro-fusion]

Maybe my standards are too high for a "acceptable action" on a guitar.

A $2,700 guitar had better be damned close to perfect, in my opinion.

Obviously, those of us here in Internet Land can't properly diagnose what's going on with your guitar, but it doesn't look promising. If something really is wrong with it, I'd seriously hound FMIC to make it right.

[AK47]

Why did you wait until now? If I paid $2700 for a guitar that was obviously defective, it would be sent back within a week.

Regardless, I hope you can get in contact with someone from Charvel and get this straightened out (no pun intended).

Tell you the truth at the time I knew it was going to be a back and forth after I went to Torres then GC and I just did not want to deal with at the time because of other issues going on my life.

ETA I am going to get some pics up... I am going to drop the Charvel later at CB Perkins today. I just want to give you guys something to refrence.

[JACKSONFREAK]

AK. This is FMIC's issue. They should fix it under warranty. The limited lifetime warranty states that it's for the craftsmanship and materials. (ie wood warping, finish flaking, things our of alignment. etc) So Call FMIC and talk to them politely professionally and maturely. Tell them the dilemma one more time> If they say that cant do anything with it. Be ready to site the Warranty to them. And if that still doesnt work. get the BBB involved. It's Fenders issue not any dealers or technicians problem. It's solely FMIC. They will fix it even if by force. Don't ebay it. Its not worth the hassle and losing all the money you paid for it plus the work you've already had done. Which i dont understand. It's a warranty issue. You shouldnt pay for anything other than maybe shipping. Go to GC and see what's up with that 70 bucks they charged ya for it not being right. Even tho it was a warranty issue. This tells me that the tech they used isnt a FMIC registered tech. If thats the case it may have voided the warranty and then its GC's/techs fault and they should get it taken care of out of thier own pocket for voiding your warranty for working on something they couldnt fix.
Gil

[phill_up]

Wow. I had completely forgotten about this, especially when you didn't mention it during the conversations we had while dealing with the problems on your DigiCamo.

I'm happy to help in any way I can, let me know if you need me to get involved!

You even got bionic involved in this and it is still going on? :think:

[UFORocks]

Fuck what they say about "Acceptable by FMIC Standards". You paid for a custom shop guitar, right? You tell them how YOU want the action, and if they can't make that happen with that neck then they need to replace it. If all else fails then take them to small claims court and sue them, and bring a luthier along with you as an expert witness. Depending on your state laws $2700 might fall within the small claims limit.

Hell, after they're served they may just do what you want for the sake of avoiding the hassle.

-Steve

[Flatpicker]

You know, It's way past time for FMIC to step up to the plate on this issue.
We know that members of the company monitor this forum. And you know that a substantial amount of money is paid to your organization from this forum on a yearly basis.

You use us here when you post the newest guitars, as is shown by the posts for the Adrian Smith, and the new Charvel Production series. You notify us of any new merch, and how much free advertising do you get from any of us who post our new toys or other great deals we have gotten from a FMIC dealer. We buy your product and this is not the way to treat your customers.

Respectfully, We would ask that you make this right by our member AK47. If that means building a new neck for his guitar, it's time for your team to do so. He's played by the rules of the stated warranty and has brought this to various technicians.

If you are reading this post, I'd love to see some response to his issue. Preferably in the form of a RA # and a new neck being made for this guitar.

Enough of this. This is bad by anybody's standards and a rep from the company should rectify this.

Please ask your self how much value this board has brought to the brands on a yearly basis. Honestly, most of us are gear whores who spend more than is sane to enjoy our hobby. Would you rather we spend that money on another brand? Would you rather we recommend to anyone asking us to buy a non-FMIC guitar?

I guess, my question to the FMIC staff who visit here is this. Are we worth anything to the organization as customers?

[UFORocks]

You know, you're right on brother. It's hard to fathom how many J/C guitars are owned by the members of this board, and how many J/C guitars were bought by new players because of this board.

-Steve

[Flatpicker]

I'll use myself as an example.
Before finding the JCF I owned no Jackson or Charvel guitar.

This is what I have bought new over the last 4 years.

SLSMG
RR1T (resold)
SL1
SL1T (on order)
DK2
CS Charvel Star
EVH B&W
DK2LE

Maybe it's not much in the grand scheme of things, but, it's honest money.
I shoulden't be afraid that they won't honor their warranty's.

[AK47]

I will update you guys Tuesday afternoon. I spoke with CB Perkins about my Charvel and asked whats the deal with the high action and 10 guage strings. I was kind of concerned as I did not get a real straight answer on anything they told me to come down to the store Tuesday afternoon and they will get FMIC on the phone and we can discuss all the issues.

Like I stated many times before I suck at setting up guitars with floating Floyd Rose bridges. All I know is when I received my guitar from Matt it was unplayable. Had Torres set it up but it was playable with high action on the high frets, low on the low frets as you can see it in the written receipt from them. Then later GC and their weak setup.

Now I have a guitar with high action across the board from the low to high frets. It is playable now but I have played off the rack Korean Deans that were set up better.

CB Perkins has setup guitars for me before and I had no issue ever of me having to come back and cry about action being to high or this and that but when I was on the phone I was asked about what exactley are my expectations for a "Playable guitar" and what is considered acceptable by my standards may be different then FMICs standards. Then he said he did not really want to get into a discussion on the phone and I should come in and I agreed I dont blame him for not wanting to get into a discussion about a warranty issue over the phone when it should be discussed in person.

So I will update tommorow when I come back from the store.

One other thing was when I picked up my Charvel on Saturday I did ask if there was any paperwork. I figured FMIC would include a itemized list of what was done since it was a warranty repair. They told me there was no such paperwork or it was not shipped with the guitar.

This is what I mean by I may Ebay it. If it is unaccaptable to my playing standards but acceptable to most people or FMIC then I have no choice but to sell it. It will never play right for me but there are others who dont mind a guitar with higher action.

Its going to come down to an issue of what is acceptable to me vs. FMIC I already know it.