Rolled edges on Player Plus Tele Nashville, E string sometimes slipping off

[telemnemonics]

OMG of all the stupid trendy ideas gear chat and marketing dumped on us, the rolled fingerboard edges is the worst by far.
Meanwhile many of us have noticed that 1 5/8" is kind of narrow and we like a wider neck now that we have more options.
Then the nit wits sell some of us on the idea that our soft hands shouldn't work too hard or need to develop callouses so instead we should buy necks that they sand off a bunch of playing surface to make them feel smooth on our delicate skin.

You mention rolled edge, but is it a rolled fingerboard or just the normal finishing?

 

[Fretting out]

No. When I bend off the A string like that... at the same time I will bend another string up or go up chromatically without bending etc,
after I come down from that maj 3d up from the 'off the fingerboard' A string.

Here ya go- a short demo:

Holy heck! Oh my! Hot dang!

That looks insane!

 

[DougM]

The saddles on all my Teles and Strats with 6 saddles have a tendency to shift/pull towards the treble side over time, so it may be no more than that on your guitar

 

[msalama]

that our soft hands shouldn't work too hard

See this?

That's my left hand. See the pinky? Well it's kind of short. Now imagine what happens when I grab a guitar with a beefy neck with lots of shoulders, taken into account that I usually use all four fingers when soloing and/or riffing? Well with a shouldery and wide neck, the palm side of my pinky will sometimes rub against the high E and that's something I can live without. And I CAN indeed, provided that the neck is narrow and the edges are moderately rolled.

Now I do understand that you were trolling up there, but to say categorically that all rolled necks are rubbish is still bullcrap. Because some of us do actually prefer them for a reason, even if you personally don't. So how about speaking for yourself only?

 

[T Prior]

Neck shift AND be certain the hi E saddle is not tilted towards the the outside edge. Also check to be certain the entire bridge/pup assy is not installed / aligned slightly towards the outside.

All of these instruments are SCREWED together from parts. A tolerance here and there in the wrong direction may be noticeable . Neck screwed to body, bridge plate screwed to body, saddles screwed to neck plate . Its all an easy fix , also called setup, but can be annoying.

We are talking "thousandths" here.

The only Fender Instrument I have ever run into this with is the NEW Brent Mason telecaster as it has a nut width of 1.625, which is really narrow. Checking and setting up each of the parameters I mentioned brought the guitar to an "amazing performer" .

Narrow nut, narrow , thin slick necks , saddle alignments etc... will most certainly be at most 75 to 85 % setup when leaving the factory, but not 100%. Then they sit in a warehouse and travel with HOT or COLD temperatures , things will change.

And no , we should not expect guitars to leave the factories 100% setup. Relatively close is what we get.

 

[barrymw]

I have a similar issue on my Am Pro II tele, that is, the high e can sometimes slip off the fretboard edge. The distance between the respective edges of the fretboard for high vs. low e are the same, it’s just a function of the width of the nut—which at 1.685 is the way I like it— and the width of the fretboard with the rolled edges (which is a nice feature if not essential for me). I‘ve just learned to live with it.

 

[golfnut]

Neck shift AND be certain the hi E saddle is not tilted towards the the outside edge. Also check to be certain the entire bridge/pup assy is not installed / aligned slightly towards the outside.

All of these instruments are SCREWED together from parts. A tolerance here and there in the wrong direction may be noticeable . Neck screwed to body, bridge plate screwed to body, saddles screwed to neck plate . Its all an easy fix , also called setup, but can be annoying.

We are talking "thousandths" here.

The only Fender Instrument I have ever run into this with is the NEW Brent Mason telecaster as it has a nut width of 1.625, which is really narrow. Checking and setting up each of the parameters I mentioned brought the guitar to an "amazing performer" .

Narrow nut, narrow , thin slick necks , saddle alignments etc... will most certainly be at most 75 to 85 % setup when leaving the factory, but not 100%. Then they sit in a warehouse and travel with HOT or COLD temperatures , things will change.

And no , we should not expect guitars to leave the factories 100% setup. Relatively close is what we get.

I had a Wildwood 52 thin skin that both high and low E were so close to the edge both strings slipped off the edge regularly. No amount of shifting the neck was going to fix that. How I did fix it was I had a tech sand down the fingerboard till the correct amount of real estate was gained. Had him put stainless steel frets on while he was at it. It worked to correct the problem but unfortunately the neck was too thin for me. Went from .920 at the first fret, .970 at the 12th to .830 at the first, .890 at the 12th. I tried to like it but just couldn't. Ended up selling to someone who loved the thinner neck.

 

[T Prior]

I had a Wildwood 52 thin skin that both high and low E were so close to the edge both strings slipped off the edge regularly. No amount of shifting the neck was going to fix that. How I did fix it was I had a tech sand down the fingerboard till the correct amount of real estate was gained. Had him put stainless steel frets on while he was at it. It worked to correct the problem but unfortunately the neck was too thin for me. Went from .920 at the first fret, .970 at the 12th to .830 at the first, .890 at the 12th. I tried to like it but just couldn't. Ended up selling to someone who loved the thinner neck.

I hear ya and don't disagree, I have two 52's, not from Wildwood, from Fender. An 88 and an 89, No issues .

Thinner necks and narrow NUTS can indeed cause some grief , no doubt.

 

[That Cal Webway]

Holy heck! Oh my! Hot dang!

That looks insane!

So fun to do!
Endless possibilities especially involving other strings, and in contrary motion with them. Etc.

I chanced upon this about 20 years ago, just goofing around on my old G&L.

.

 

[Racer5]

The reason I had to dump my absolutely beautiful looking and sounding American Pro tele was the E string constantly rolling off the edge. It measured correctly, neck wasn't askew or anything. It was just the combo of the fret style and fretboard edge. I felt like I was losing my mind trying to make it work.

Shame cause it was probably the best looking tele I had ever owned. Looks aren't everything...