thin skin 56 strat blues

Geez between fender quality and Wildwood guitars terrible setups I maybe should have just bought a custom shop strat
I purchased a Wildwood guitars 56 thin skin strat. They are supposed to set it up before shipping but I swear all they do is put strings on it. I was expecting a crappy setup but not as bad as it was.
First off the nut has to go but I expected that anyway. I replace most of them on Fenders. The nut will have to be cut with the low and high e in a bit as the rolled fret edges reduce fret real estate on these guitars. Had my tele 52 thin skin done that way and its fine. Then the trussrod is rattling around in there loose so they'll have to fix that up. I was quoted at least 4 hours maybe more. At $90 an hour shop rate this is gonna cost at least $500 for the whole setup. Keep in mind this is Canadian not US currency but still a lot of money for a setup on a brand new guitar that was set up by Wildwood guitars.
The nut on this one is gonna be a bit time consuming. The finish is so thick they're going to have a tough time getting it off with out causing a mess. Thought this was supposed to thin skin. guess just the body.

 

I'm sure it just needs a turn or 2 to tighten up with out changing the bow. I'll see how it is when I get it back from the luthier.
I hope its not broke or defective. Never had that happen to a brand new guitar. The luthier told me he thinks they are only a one way truss rod. Don't know what kind of complication that might include.

 

Well I hope my luthier can permanently fix it. Its a great guitar otherwise. Its light and resonant and sounds fantastic. When I get it back with a proper set up it should play nicely. I guess if I have to spend some money to get the truss rod right I will.

 

I've ordered 2 guitars from wildwood in the last month and a half. Both were terrible setups. The 52 tele wasn't too bad but I had to get the Rutters saddles put on so it needed to be setup anyway. As well had the nut replaced to bring the 2 E strings in a bit.
But the strat was just pathetic. How can they do great setups when the trussrod comes rattling and loose?

 

Thats exactly what I asked for. "Lowest action possible with out buzzing". My 52 tele which I had them setup for 11-49 wasn't bad but I had to get the nut worked on. Needed to replace it anyway. They basically put the 11-49 on and didn't adjust the nut for it at all.
The strat action probably wasn't bad either. It had a lot of buzzing but now I know it was the trussrod.

 

I'm in Southern Ontario. I took it to Folkway music.

 

As soon Folkway opens on Tuesday I'm going to call and ask the tech to only look at the trussrod and give me his opinion if it is going to be a big problem. If so I'll be sending the guitar back to Wildwood. We'll see if their so far good sales service continues.

 

I can see that Wildwood is setting me up for a "do nothing" resolution.
I emailed about a possible issue with the truss rod and this is the response I got.

Here is my response to that:

I can see that this will be a pain. If I have to send it back to Fender due to warranty issues probably the shipping and associated costs are going to where I may as well just get it fixed my self. I think if it is an extensive repair it would be great if Wildwood would take it back and refund my money but I feel thats un likely to happen. To the extreme maybe I'll just have a local builder here make a neck for it exactly to the specs I want
Hopefully all my worry is for nothing and its just a simple fix and that will be the end of it.
For the sales guy to say it didn't leave the store that way, I know he's just trying to cover as on Sunday with the store closed he couldn't have possibly talked to anyone else to confirm this. Even though I imagine no one would admit to it. While typing this post I received one more communication from Wildwood.

Hopefully this is sincere and if there is a serious truss rod problem they'll take care of it with at least splitting the cost of me having it fixed. Or hopefully I take it to a local fender authorized repair center to have it fixed under warranty.
I know its past the return period but 1 or 2 days is not enough time to determine these problems. Even if I could have detected a loose truss rod somehow I could have sent it right back for nothing, over reacting. I'm not technically inclined with guitars, I just play them.

 

When it comes to the nut I admit I'm a bit of a fanatic. I replace most of them. In this case I want the spacing brought in a bit to compensate for the lack of fret real estate due to the rolled fret edges. I had my tech do it with my Wildwood thin skin 52 tele and it made it more comfortable.

 

My tech finally got around to evaluating my guitar and its not good news. No matter where he adjusts the trussrod it rattles and makes noise. The frets are so over bevelled that its tough to play with out the strings falling off the fret board. Not likely going to get much sympathy from Wildwood.
What are the opinions on my case for a new neck under warranty?
It kind of pisses me off that Wildwood definitely sent this guitar to me this way even after giving it an evaluation and supposedly setting it up. They should have caught this. So I no longer give any legitimacy to their so called great service. There just really polite guys cause of course they want to sell a guitar. If you have any problems you are on your own.
I'll never buy another guitar there ever again. Mainly because I'll only shop where I get at least a 30 day evaluation. A 2 day evaluation is not enough time.