Weird String Misalignment on Ibanez Prestige RGD7UC(S)
david_pri
SS.org Regular
I had a problem like this on an Ibanez RG2550Z and thomann sent me a new one.
david_pri
SS.org Regular
Do not accept that flaw on an expensive guitar
Xaios
Foolish Mortal
Just make sure to obtain a good straight-on picture of the one you're getting before it ships and you'll be fine.
donaldanthony
SS.org Regular
Just wanna chime in, because I had this exact same RGD with the same issue. Turns out the neck was not aligned with the body, and all I had to do to fix it was loosen the bolts, bend the neck back into position, and re-tighten the bolts.
1b4n3z
SS.org Regular
I have yet to see a 7 string j.custom with a perfectly positioned bridge and I've had a few. It's a non issue, as stated here, because of the bolt on construction. A lot of 6 string j.customs I have also had too shallow a neck angle as well, causing trem posts to bottom out. Shim to the rescue
I worry about these things a lot more with neck through guitars and I must say Jackson USA/CS does not have a great track record there
I worry about these things a lot more with neck through guitars and I must say Jackson USA/CS does not have a great track record there
Rosal76
SS.org Regular
If you look at the pictures of the RG655 on the Ibanez Wiki page, all three guitars are like that, also. Though, all three could be the same guitar and Ibanez just photo shopped it to be seen with different colors. I even have a RG655 in Firestorm orange where the strings are shifting to the right. It doesn't affect playability but it does make one curious/wonder.
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If you look at the pictures of the RG655 on the Ibanez Wiki page, all three guitars are like that, also. Though, all three could be the same guitar and Ibanez just photo shopped it to be seen with different colors. I even have a RG655 in Firestorm orange where the strings are shifting to the right. It doesn't affect playability but it does make one curious/wonder.
If anything you need more room for the low string's thicker gauge plus what are we gonna do at the 24th fret on the high string other than fret it, bend it or tap it? The only real issue I can see is if ou got a wide vibrato and it slipping off the fret, but that's been addressed (at least since the 7620) buy them making all the necks 2-mm wider at the heal anyways.
Vede
SS.org Regular
If you zoom in and look at the wood grain you’ll see those are definitely three different guitars. And although they all exhibit this issue, looks like it’s worse on the orange one. I would definitely end up pulling the high E off the higher frets of that one.If you look at the pictures of the RG655 on the Ibanez Wiki page, all three guitars are like that, also. Though, all three could be the same guitar and Ibanez just photo shopped it to be seen with different colors. I even have a RG655 in Firestorm orange where the strings are shifting to the right. It doesn't affect playability but it does make one curious/wonder.
Maybe all three of these could be set straight with a simple neck adjustment? But as a consumer, that shouldn’t be on me to have to find out. And, as discussed earlier, this also occurs on some set-neck and neck-through guitars, where the path to an easy, 100% free solution can be more elusive.
Beyond that, this appears to happen with some manufacturers more than others (try to find this problem on a Mayones or PRS guitar, for example - it may happen, but it seems far less common), suggesting this is a thing that CAN be solved by manufacturers before the guitar ever gets into a customer’s hands IF it’s prioritized.
Ultimately, this is a big reason (along with wanting to select my tops) that I try to shop with online retailers that take a lot of photos of their instruments. That way I’m able to make better informed purchases.
KC Jones
TheJonezter
I was in Germany for 3 years back in the early 90’s and flew back and
Forth to LosAngeles many times with my guitars. Every trip I would have to make some sort of adjustments due to the pressure changes, altitude, etc.
I think shipping has a lot to do with these adjustments. Especially guitars being made overseas. I have never had a neck-thru so can’t say for them, but I imagine they can warp to a degree when poorly shipped.
Also that adjustment is probably overlooked at the factory, although it would be a huge oversight!
Forth to LosAngeles many times with my guitars. Every trip I would have to make some sort of adjustments due to the pressure changes, altitude, etc.
I think shipping has a lot to do with these adjustments. Especially guitars being made overseas. I have never had a neck-thru so can’t say for them, but I imagine they can warp to a degree when poorly shipped.
Also that adjustment is probably overlooked at the factory, although it would be a huge oversight!
I had a 6 string MM Majesty, the strings were shifted way over to the high E side of the fretboard, couldn't live with it on a £3000+ guitar so back it went, was sent a replacement which was exactly the same. There are no excuses for this, I'm just amazed that this wasn't seen as an issue during assembly and rectified or scrapped.
surge
SS.org Regular
Reminds me why I can't stand bolt-on guitars...No benefits for the instrument owner at all IMHO, just something extra that's likely to cause problems _some time_ down the line, yet it's a big benefit for the manufacturer, allows them to save time and money, and it scales well too.
Alignment issues aren't exclusive to bolt-on guitars though, bad runs happen on everything, unfortunately.
spudmunkey
SS.org Regular
I mean, sort of...but it also allows more flexibility in terms of being able to fix issues that might arise. Not a whole lot you can do with a neck-through with a twist.
It's sort of like a satin poly finish vs tung oil. Poly is tougher, but tung oil is easier to repair.
Ibanez quality control can be pretty sketchy. My Universe 777BK prestige has its upper neck trem retainer (whatever the name in english) at the wrong heigth. It took me a whie to understand why the guitar was inconfortable to play, and impossible to set before I spotted this.
Metafis
Pretty darn adequate
Hmm, I checked on my cheaper RGD 2127FX and the distance looks just fine from both sides
Just ran across this in one of those weekly thread notices so adressing some of the complaints noted.
As with all the typical stuff mentioned above, I pounded the table for years in Bensalem showing them example after example of misaligned neck pockets and pockets too tight to align the neck just by shifting it. The problem was in the alignment of the pocket itself. I fixed 100's of guitars by reshaping the pocket, simple enough, 100 grit sandpaper and very careful sanding to open the bass side up, keep the side of the pocket perfectly straight, and check your work often enough that you stop at the right time to get perfect alignment and end up with a perfect pocket. The problem wasn't restricted to Fujigen in fact the worst of them were the Indo sig models. This went on for years before they finally addressed the problem, now it is extremely rare to come across, except in the Indo sigs. Less, but still a problem.
Aligning just a neck with a good pocket may not just be loosen and pull it to the bass side, you may actually have to shim the bridge end of the bass side of the pocket to force the heel over to bring the neck into alignment. The last trick is to pull the locator knife edge out just enough it doesn't affect the knife but changes the string alignment more than you think. You can't pull it more that .7mm but you'd be surprised how much that adds after shifting the neck. And sometimes when you're correcting a mahogany pocket, we're not talking about a fast easy fix, as soon as it's close I'd finish with the knife edge.
All Ibanez suffered extremely high nuts for years starting in 2000, when they made the decision they were going to get the routs perfect so they needed no shims. A ridiculous idea in that no 2 guitars will ever cut exactly the same, but the fact that you need the shims to keep adjusting the nut down as the frets are leveled, time and again until it's time to replace them. I pounded the table for years about it, I started out by lowering the rout but that was a ridiculous fix. I ground down 1000's of nuts after finally settling on that as the right solution, and getting proficient enough at it [I have a bag of nuts that's had to be replaced after I screwed them up, good thing I'm a parts dealer]. This was a Fujigen and a huge Indo problem, and with the Indo guitars using Chinese hardware you would always have to file a bevel into the treble side of the nut before you ground it or the thick cosmo/copper plate would pull up off the nut, and you'd have to grab a new nut and start over. The problem has long been cured with Fujigen but you will still run across Indo nuts that are 1mm first fret height with no shims.
And lets not forget the hump neck problem from a few years ago, they produced thousands of pieces of firewood.
Remember that this isn't "Ibanez" quality control, this is the QC of whatever factory is spitting out whatever crap at any given time. And the 3rd world QC is on the edge of horrible. If a guitar is built - it is being shipped, and it's on the checkers at whatever distributor that receives it to find the problems and file a claim against it. We're talking large chips, finish issues that anybody with eyes would reject, but when it comes to the incoming checkers, they have their own criteria of what passes or not. If they failed a guitar for every little thing there wouldn't be any product to ship. So lots of minor blems are sent out, and lots of technical QC issues like misaligned pockets and nut heights, hump necks, arm holder springs that stick and create a very sloppy vertical bar fit, the list is endless. I'll be the first to alert the buyers in Bensalem, and sometimes just pound the table to deaf ears for years because, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard this, "you're the only dealer complaining about it".
Right now, most of the bugs have been addressed, I do believe Fujigen is making some of the best product they have ever, in terms of build, but the fret end finishing quality is way down from it's best years. I still run into sticking holder springs regularly but that's always been part of trem service, pull the trem, preset all the saddles for intonation [to fine tune later], tighten the arm holder [almost never fully tight], and file open the holder spring hole so the spring doesn't bind. Of course later it gets dropped down till the strings touch the frets and then the saddles are radiused to perfectly match the fretwork.
The Indo stuff, there are more cosmetic issues than is worth trying to get a decent guitar. I received 11 one time and rejected 9, and at that time I cancelled all future orders and honestly I'll do about anything to get these Axioms off my rack to make room for Fujigen builds.
As with all the typical stuff mentioned above, I pounded the table for years in Bensalem showing them example after example of misaligned neck pockets and pockets too tight to align the neck just by shifting it. The problem was in the alignment of the pocket itself. I fixed 100's of guitars by reshaping the pocket, simple enough, 100 grit sandpaper and very careful sanding to open the bass side up, keep the side of the pocket perfectly straight, and check your work often enough that you stop at the right time to get perfect alignment and end up with a perfect pocket. The problem wasn't restricted to Fujigen in fact the worst of them were the Indo sig models. This went on for years before they finally addressed the problem, now it is extremely rare to come across, except in the Indo sigs. Less, but still a problem.
Aligning just a neck with a good pocket may not just be loosen and pull it to the bass side, you may actually have to shim the bridge end of the bass side of the pocket to force the heel over to bring the neck into alignment. The last trick is to pull the locator knife edge out just enough it doesn't affect the knife but changes the string alignment more than you think. You can't pull it more that .7mm but you'd be surprised how much that adds after shifting the neck. And sometimes when you're correcting a mahogany pocket, we're not talking about a fast easy fix, as soon as it's close I'd finish with the knife edge.
All Ibanez suffered extremely high nuts for years starting in 2000, when they made the decision they were going to get the routs perfect so they needed no shims. A ridiculous idea in that no 2 guitars will ever cut exactly the same, but the fact that you need the shims to keep adjusting the nut down as the frets are leveled, time and again until it's time to replace them. I pounded the table for years about it, I started out by lowering the rout but that was a ridiculous fix. I ground down 1000's of nuts after finally settling on that as the right solution, and getting proficient enough at it [I have a bag of nuts that's had to be replaced after I screwed them up, good thing I'm a parts dealer]. This was a Fujigen and a huge Indo problem, and with the Indo guitars using Chinese hardware you would always have to file a bevel into the treble side of the nut before you ground it or the thick cosmo/copper plate would pull up off the nut, and you'd have to grab a new nut and start over. The problem has long been cured with Fujigen but you will still run across Indo nuts that are 1mm first fret height with no shims.
And lets not forget the hump neck problem from a few years ago, they produced thousands of pieces of firewood.
Remember that this isn't "Ibanez" quality control, this is the QC of whatever factory is spitting out whatever crap at any given time. And the 3rd world QC is on the edge of horrible. If a guitar is built - it is being shipped, and it's on the checkers at whatever distributor that receives it to find the problems and file a claim against it. We're talking large chips, finish issues that anybody with eyes would reject, but when it comes to the incoming checkers, they have their own criteria of what passes or not. If they failed a guitar for every little thing there wouldn't be any product to ship. So lots of minor blems are sent out, and lots of technical QC issues like misaligned pockets and nut heights, hump necks, arm holder springs that stick and create a very sloppy vertical bar fit, the list is endless. I'll be the first to alert the buyers in Bensalem, and sometimes just pound the table to deaf ears for years because, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard this, "you're the only dealer complaining about it".
Right now, most of the bugs have been addressed, I do believe Fujigen is making some of the best product they have ever, in terms of build, but the fret end finishing quality is way down from it's best years. I still run into sticking holder springs regularly but that's always been part of trem service, pull the trem, preset all the saddles for intonation [to fine tune later], tighten the arm holder [almost never fully tight], and file open the holder spring hole so the spring doesn't bind. Of course later it gets dropped down till the strings touch the frets and then the saddles are radiused to perfectly match the fretwork.
The Indo stuff, there are more cosmetic issues than is worth trying to get a decent guitar. I received 11 one time and rejected 9, and at that time I cancelled all future orders and honestly I'll do about anything to get these Axioms off my rack to make room for Fujigen builds.
BigViolin
JEFF LOOMIS SOLOIST!
That folks, is why you buy a guitar from Rich.
