shags

Just the chrome cap of the model selection knob. I glued it back on with a flexible adhesive rather than superglue. Otherwise I haven't spotted any other problems. I dropped the action using the bridge height posts, maybe more than I should initially, as I'm getting a bit of low E and A string buzz. But I usually trade action vs buzz. Intonation out of the box was pretty good too. Only the low E was a few cents off. I have to spend a bit more time getting to a bridge setup that I like, but so far I am much happier with this replacement model. That other one is still hanging up in the shop ;-)

Update: The store ordered in another black maple 69S which arrived today. It was still sealed in the box when I got there, so I was there to see it opened. Soon as as I held it up to look at the string alignment, the model selector knob cap fell off! At least that can be fixed with a bit of glue, but hmm, QA control? The good news is that the strings are perfectly centred, and the factory action and tuning were passable. The fret dressing seems ok, and I had to pull the high E to force it off the edge of the fret, so I think the nut/neck is ok. I'll have to spend a bit of time doing a decent set up, but at least this one seems to be in a reasonable shape out of the box.

That's what I was getting at. The overall build of the guitar felt ok - solid enough. But a narrow neck + offcenter nut biased to the high E + a fraction too much slope on the fret edge dressing = plink

Do you not think the gap between low E and edge on the rosewood pic is pretty obviously less than that of the maple one? The action on the maple is much higher (about 1.5 mm at the twelfth) so the angle of the camera and parallax may effect the pic. In your hands the maple one is high E biased, and the rosewood one is centered. But yeh, the two guitars feel different - then again rosewood v maple and action would anyway. Anyone ever seen the specs that psarkissian mentions are different from a fender strat ideal setup?

I totally agree, but it won't add much more than a mm. The bridge posts not being screwed down and left too high accounts for the 3-5mm difference. Where are the specs for all the fine setup detail published?

Before I order online, I went to the local store for another "am I imagining it" test. Compared the JTV-69 (rosewood humbucker) vs the JTV-69S (maple), both W130x serials The rosewood one played ok, the maple one doesn't play so well. The maple one high E is definitely closer to the edge by a small fraction. It's quite obvious in person, as you get a up close 3d inspection. Pics attached.

I don't think climate affects the placement of a nut, nor adds 3mm to the action. I think that's down the assembly line worker. I found an online store that has offered to inspect a 69s before shipping, so I'm considering that option. OK, so the JTVs shouldn't be set up like a fender? Where are the specs published? Bear in mind there seems to be only one authorised service center in all of the UK and it's a plane flight way. What is the fret board edge to string distance?. Is the nut meant to have a gap at the sides? Should the strings be centered or shifted to the high E? How much clearance should there be between the E strings and their respective fret edge profile? I'll ask them to check all of the above.

Yep. Read through your thread. It sounds like a factory QA thing.

It's not the factory action/intonation setup that I'm overly concerned about. I have have installed piezos, mag pickups, push-pull pots pre-amps, rewired for phase switching, as well as set up guitars for friends. I should be ok to handle that. BUT... if a guitar has some key component misaligned, say a bridge too far forward, then you may not be able to set intonation without relocating the bridge. (I had this on a cheap guitar I was setting up for a friend of a friend, and couldn't set the intonation for one of the strings. I wasn't going to fill and redrill the bridge holes!) I'm not saying the JTV is that bad by any means, but if the fret edge profile is too "slopey" like a "\" combined with a narrow neck and slightly misaligned nut, then the tolerances can add up to the E string hovering just above the start of the fret slope. A bit too much vibrato and off you fall. This particular guitar in the store has a really high action. The store hasn't tried adjusting it, and I was getting a bit of string slip. It put me off this one enough to wonder if I did buy it, could it be cured, or is it just going to always make me wish I'd bought another one from elsewhere. Look at the curve on the 3rd fret and where the E string hovers relative to it. I wish I'd taken more pics of the 5-12 frets to compare. It just seems very close to the "\" to me.

Does anyone think the frets in the first pic start to round off almost directly underneath the High-E ? I wonder if the fret edge dressing is causing the slip. I thought I had taken a pic of the 5-7th frets as well, but don't have one.

Hi, So the only listed service center is a plane flight away followed by a 90 minute drive ;-) Are the detailed specs published anywhere? There is a good guitar tech I know, but I usually do my own neck relief, intonation etc. My dilemma is now, do I buy the only maple neck 69S that I am likely to be able to physically assess before purchase (which is not great IMHO) or take a risk and order something over the web, in the hope it came out of the factory in a better state? If I buy this one from the store, and I reconfigure it myself, what if it's still slighty out?

I went back to the shop today for another check They have a 69S, a 69 (Humbucker), and two 59's. The 59 I played seemed fine, but I want a strat with a maple neck. The other 69 (Humbucker) wasn't too bad, the action still being a bit higher than I'd like, but I can't warm to the 69S which is the model I wanted. The shop doesn't seem bothered enough to try and set the guitar up any better. I can't fiddle with it, unless I buy it... Some pics should be attached to this post. I wonder if the fret edge dressing is causing the slip. I thought I had taken a pic of the 5-7th frets as well, but don't have one.

That looks pretty centered to me.

I have been watching and reading the forums ever since the first JTV models came out, and followed the early reports of the string spacing problems. I read a few reports that it was now fixed in the 69S models of this year. I installed a graphtec nut on my Squier back in the late 90s, as well a bunch of other upgrades - cost as much as the guitar did in the 80s ;-) So it did cross my mind about starting to alter the JTV, but then I started to wonder what I'd do if it was the bridge positioning. From my 30mins with the 69S it looked like the high E was closer to it's edge than the low E was to it's edge. I would prefer a centered string layout. I don't know how much scope there is to shift that. The other thing I hate about a factory high action is that it can hide a multitude of other problems that you won't find until you drop the action down. Things like high frets or neck twist. My friend talked me out of the new toy impulse buy and by saying if you don't get a good vibe then don't buy it.

Hi, I decided not to buy the guitar today. I'll probably go back to the store in a few days and spend more time and maybe compare the other other JTVs. They had just gotten them in about an hour before I called, and had only opened one other. I think they only got five JTV guitars in total, and two are 59 models, so I don't have much to choose from.

Hi, I was all set to buy a JTV-69S (Maple neck - Black). Only one store in my area was stocking any JTVs and I had to wait 3 weeks for them to come in. They only got one of the maple necked versions, and kept it aside for me. I was there when the box was opened. First impressions were the factory set action was way too high, but action can be tweaked. I wanted to play it as a guitar first, and then try the modelling second. Maybe my technique is sloppy, but it didn't take long before I had the High-E string slip off the edge of the fretboard. Think of the hammer on, pull off section from Thunderstruck, but using the high E instead of B. I have a modified Squier strat, a Burns Brian May and an Ibanez RG5, and haven't really had that problem before. I picked up one of the shop strats to compare and handed the JTV to a friend who was with me. He also was getting slippage, but was specifically trying to play stuff that might cause it. Neither of us got it on the standard strat. Even the shop assistant said "I see what you mean". All three of us were sure we could see that the E was too close to the edge of the fret board (maybe by 1mm). Almost 3 years ago, I had the earlier JTV69 in another store and walked away because the guitar didn't feel worth the £1000 price tag at that time. I was really geared up to buy today, but just couldn't, so I walked away again. The store doesn't have another (maple) model to compare, and were very non-committal about being able to get another one in for a side to side comparision. So what's the consensus here? Was this just a bad one? or is this still an issue ?