Did you have some probs with this?
I see some people complaining about this... 1st e falling off the board when fretted etc.
I experienced that on one Yngwie Malmsteen Strat I tried... maybe it more common with 2 7/32" string spacing Fenders (vintage) than new 2 1/16" .
In any case I think that bass E string should be more away from the edge than 1st e string because you ain't gonna fret/bend E upwards nor 1st e downwards, or maybe I'm wrong .
Fender and Squier have all sorts of whack alignments. Most need some sort of adjustment to where the saddles sit if you want them to be bang on. I would say a LOT of Fenders I've seen are such that if you let the strings just pass over naturally where they want to go they would not be correctly aligned. I believe this to do with the bridge has not been fitted correctly or the same with the neck.
So yeah, I agree with you. The CV Custom Tele I got off lorez has strings that naturally fall across the radius of the neck to the bass side causing the bottom e to both slip off the neck in some spots and to buzz around the 8th fret where it travels across the radius. With slotted steel saddles I was able to adjust this and now it's fine, however, creating an awkward angle from the body to the saddle has caused compliance issues meaning they feel more tense with bending (a problem with the treble strings which also had to be corrected).
It's good as long as you can fix the prob at all... I see people are using shims to rectify this prob as well, perhaps (? not sure) that's one of the reasons why they invented neck tilt on Fenders but I'm not sure how that would affect sustain and other sound characteristics of guitar as it doesn't have full contact neck/body.
Nice picture of the problem...
Troubles on treble side are more common, at least from what I saw.
Anyhow folks with these probs usually unscrew the neck (not fully), align it properly if possible then screw back if possible.
I guess when it ain't possible to put (screw) it back properly then shims will help because it is possible to firmly tighten the screws without screwing them back in fully (which would negate our alignment). That way they avoid drilling new holes etc. digging in neck pocket.
Shims are probably more used to adjust the action.
This all may also be trem unit misalignment... sometimes fixing that would fix bad string/neck alignment.
Fender just throws those things together now as fast as they can. A dude runs a pentatonic for 3 seconds and then it's out the door. It's just one of those things I expect to be wrong - at least the bolt-on lets it be fixable. Of course, they'd have a bigger margin of error if they made their necks wider.
I played an American strat yesterday that had a good 1/32" gap all around the neck pocket. My Dano was cheap, particle board, and is 54 years old, and that neck pocket is perfect.
I would say the particular picture I showed is "okay" and wouldn't be a deal breaker if it still played good. I've had Squiers where the nut even hung over the bass side as a massive critical factory error. How is that possible? Has the glue not even set on the nut before strings are put on? I still liked the guitar though.
lorez's Tele has a very well cut nut (to the best of my knowledge and experience) and still has this problem so it lies more in the neck or bridge being put on at an angle. I think Will's right, they just bang them out of factory - although people also say plenty of mojo vintage Fenders have the same problem so it's not just a modern phenomenon. I would probably say the majority of Fender/Squiers I've played with for a prolonged period of time have this problem to whatever micro degree, it's just how much it bothers you. The bottom line is Fenders are clearly not an exact art, so caveat emptor.
I know bolt-on necks can easily shift during travel, shipping, or sometimes just with age. But you can straighten them again. And I don't think the fit of the pocket affects the tone that much - it's just a cosmetic pet-peeve of mine.
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