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Two years ago my wife bought me a beautiful au'Natural PC-1 for X-mas. After a few days the honeymoon phase was over and I quickly noticed some issues with the guitar. The factory set up was garbage, action was way to high for a USA Jackson, and it was just really difficult to play.
I changed the string gauge to 10-46, set the relief the way I like and tried to get the action down to an acceptable level. At this point I noticed the Nut was high... Action at the nut was 3mm off the fretboard and 5mm at the 12th fret. If I went any lower the result was lots of fret buzz and fretted out notes when bending the B or high E. Completely unacceptable for a USA guitar retailing for $3000.
I brought the guitar to a local authorized Fender service center and explained my issues. Long story short they said the guitar was "within spec". I accepted this because if they can tell me this guitar is fine then I dont want them touching it any further...
I basically stopped playing the guitar. Picked it up once in a while and would get disappointed all over again.
Few days ago I called Phil Jacoby at Philtone guitars in Baltimore. I explained my issues with this guitar and we set up a time to evaluate the guitar.
I live in central Jersey, Philtone is 2.5 hours from home but the fact that they have a Plek machine and a solid reputation led me to them.
Met Phil today and he quickly identified the problem areas with my PC-1.
1. Many of the frets were not seated properly into the fretboard.
2. The nut is not only high but 10 thousandth's of an inch to far from the first fret.
3 The break angle of the nut is incorrect causing the string clamps to actually act as the nut. This also causes a "plinky" sound when playing open strings with Floyd equipped guitars.
Phil's initial recommendation was I should sell it and cut my losses. I wouldn't feel comfortable selling a guitar with those issues so I asked him to make it right.
He's going to flow "Thin CA" glue under the frets and reseat them.
Scan the guitar with the Plek to determine proper nut height.
Set the nut height, break angle, and correct the distance to the first fret.
Plek the fretboard, and do a final crown by hand.
Phil definitely instilled confidence in me that he would make it right. So much so I also left my Wolfgang with him for a refret. It's getting SS 6105's, a new nut (It's a stop tail guitar), and the Plek treatment...
I really hope the Jackson comes out great. My wife asks me once in a while why I never play it...
I changed the string gauge to 10-46, set the relief the way I like and tried to get the action down to an acceptable level. At this point I noticed the Nut was high... Action at the nut was 3mm off the fretboard and 5mm at the 12th fret. If I went any lower the result was lots of fret buzz and fretted out notes when bending the B or high E. Completely unacceptable for a USA guitar retailing for $3000.
I brought the guitar to a local authorized Fender service center and explained my issues. Long story short they said the guitar was "within spec". I accepted this because if they can tell me this guitar is fine then I dont want them touching it any further...
I basically stopped playing the guitar. Picked it up once in a while and would get disappointed all over again.
Few days ago I called Phil Jacoby at Philtone guitars in Baltimore. I explained my issues with this guitar and we set up a time to evaluate the guitar.
I live in central Jersey, Philtone is 2.5 hours from home but the fact that they have a Plek machine and a solid reputation led me to them.
Met Phil today and he quickly identified the problem areas with my PC-1.
1. Many of the frets were not seated properly into the fretboard.
2. The nut is not only high but 10 thousandth's of an inch to far from the first fret.
3 The break angle of the nut is incorrect causing the string clamps to actually act as the nut. This also causes a "plinky" sound when playing open strings with Floyd equipped guitars.
Phil's initial recommendation was I should sell it and cut my losses. I wouldn't feel comfortable selling a guitar with those issues so I asked him to make it right.
He's going to flow "Thin CA" glue under the frets and reseat them.
Scan the guitar with the Plek to determine proper nut height.
Set the nut height, break angle, and correct the distance to the first fret.
Plek the fretboard, and do a final crown by hand.
Phil definitely instilled confidence in me that he would make it right. So much so I also left my Wolfgang with him for a refret. It's getting SS 6105's, a new nut (It's a stop tail guitar), and the Plek treatment...
I really hope the Jackson comes out great. My wife asks me once in a while why I never play it...
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