Position of strings changed recently?

[metal_bob1]

I have USA 2 soloists (one black, one white), when I got the second one I thought the strings were shifted a bit too the treble side. Comparing the two guitars, all the strings on the new one were closer to the treble side of the fretboard. There was a bigger gap between the low e and the edge, and a smaller one between the high e and the edge. I called my dealer, who called Jackson. After a while it came back from Jackson that new guitars have the strings shifted to the treble side slightly. The reason being that you only bend up on the high side, not down.

Has anyone else experienced this with new USAs or am I just being BSed?

[shreder13]

I call bs

[Brooke]

I don;t know, but I've seen that on old Jackson's too. I had a 93 Soloist that was that way. It didn't bother me.

If it plays fine then don't worry about it,...

But as Shredder13 said,,BS answer from your dealer.

[Axewielder]

If the high E isn't falling off the edge of the fretboard when you play, don't worry about it. And no, it is not by design.

[salmonella]

I have a soloist like that too. The bridge is off position by approx 2 mm, so the high e is closer to edge (SL1T). The string isnt hanging over edge by any means but is just a little too close and I found the string slipping off the edge of the board. It was bugging me so I have installed a new bridge + saddles with compensated slots cut in them (ie. no need to redrill posts) and now it plays fine.

If yours is the same as mine I would consider it a fault. Even cheap guitars can manage to built decent aligned instruments nowadays. If your paying circa 2K on a guitar you want it built properly.

[Nazgul]

If you have a locking nut, you can slightly shift it back to the bass side.

[kith]

...I have installed a new bridge + saddles with compensated slots cut in them (ie. no need to redrill posts) and now it plays fine.

can you show me a link to that compensated bridge/saddles?

regards

[salmonella]

Kith,
In reference to compensated bridge/ saddles I mean:
Get hold of a new set of bridge saddles , the ones without notches in (i used graphtech saddles). You can then line up the strings as you want them and then cut your own notches in the saddle with a needle file. Prob best to get your luthier to do it since you need to keep the string spacing right. Its not an expensive job and can be preferable to redrilling.. It just so happened that In my instance the bridge was replaced with similar so dont worry about that part unless you have prblems swapping the saddles of the existin gone.
This is only useful for a tuneomatic style bridge. Floyd tye prob needs redrilling of posts
Oh yeah an is only really relevent if the problem is at the bridge end and not the nut end

[kith]

Kith,
In reference to compensated bridge/ saddles I mean:
Get hold of a new set of bridge saddles , the ones without notches in (i used graphtech saddles). You can then line up the strings as you want them and then cut your own notches in the saddle with a needle file. Prob best to get your luthier to do it since you need to keep the string spacing right. Its not an expensive job and can be preferable to redrilling.. It just so happened that In my instance the bridge was replaced with similar so dont worry about that part unless you have prblems swapping the saddles of the existin gone.
This is only useful for a tuneomatic style bridge. Floyd tye prob needs redrilling of posts
Oh yeah an is only really relevent if the problem is at the bridge end and not the nut end

thanks for the response... since its a floyd, looks like i'll leave it as is.

regards

[metal_bob1]

Thanks for the responses. I don't know whether it's my age but it's absolutely terrible that Jackson/Fender would lie like that. I'm so cynical about companies like this now and it just turns me off Fender/Jackson and makes me unlikely to recommend them to other guitarists. Absolutely terrible.

[Brooke]

Thanks for the responses. I don't know whether it's my age but it's absolutely terrible that Jackson/Fender would lie like that. I'm so cynical about companies like this now and it just turns me off Fender/Jackson and makes me unlikely to recommend them to other guitarists. Absolutely terrible.

Who said Jackson fibbed...It was probably your dealer..

[Axewielder]

This issue really bugs me...I can't stand when you have fret margin issues on one side of the board or the other. Arggggh!! One other thing you can do if the problem is close to the nut is put a narrower R3 nut on there, assuming your stock nut is an R4. The stock nut on a USA Soloist may already be R3 because of the binding (I'm not sure on that).

[salmonella]

Like Brooke says, prob your dealer (he knows). I have seen USAs (and other makes) in shops with misaligned bridges and think how can they even try to sell them. You may also ask how can Jackson (and others) let them out the door (apparently inspected) but its prob all down to economics (100 man hrs spoiled by 5 min bad drilling-lol ). However, in fairness, if you buy new from an authorised dealer you will have the guarantee, so push in that direction. If from an unauth dealer I would still try and pursue any probs you have. There are some golden rules that shouldnt be broken when buying a guitar and the main one is try (and inspect) before buy. Break this one and repent at leisure. But hey , sometimes the deal is too good to resist and you take the chance.