New Ernie Ball MM1 OLP Review

[azazael]

I will admit most of the time I half expect a guitar to need a setup anyway when its new.
I find you can always talk the shop into getting the resident guitar tech to restring and set it up to your requirements with a bit of bartering.

[patpark]

chances are they just needed a truss rod adjustment. once the rod is adjusted the rest of the set up would fall into place. We set the necks with a minimal amount of relief, if they tighten after they leave our hands the store should be able to adjust as needed. After all, the truss rod is easily accessible.

[hbucker]

Fair enough. I know how to check neck relief and adjust a truss rod. These did need a little tweaking. No big deal.

I was disappointed with the action on the first fret though. This is not truss rod but height of the nut, which is much more difficult to adjust with a locking nut than it is with a traditional nut.

[azazael]

up or down?
Locking nut is far easier if it has to go up.
Easy to get some floyd brass shims in there.
If its down though...have to take some wood away.

[hbucker]

up or down?
Locking nut is far easier if it has to go up.
Easy to get some floyd brass shims in there.
If its down though...have to take some wood away.

Exactly. It was too high. Filing would be necessary.

[azazael]

Exactly. It was too high. Filing would be necessary.

I don't think it'd be much of a problem.
If any guitar I was buying New had problems like that then I think you would find that most stores would throw in a setup or light work like this with the sale. Its the point of most stores havin a resident guitar tech. Sure he might self employed but theres always a "scratch my back, i'll scratch yours" policy going on with them.

It'd be easier than sending it back to distributor etc.
Sure it might be inconvenient for the store and they might get annoyed about it but the odd problem here and there is to be expected with wooden instruments.

Some shops here dont make a lot of money on F guitars for example so having to send a problem guitar back to distributor means that is their profit on that guitar gone. Cost of shipping could simply be the cost to repair. Its easier. Most resident guitar techs probably would fix a nut problem for the store for free anyway I expect.

This is just a broad overview of how I see it. Valid for problems with any guitar manafacturer I am pretty sure 99.9% of Sterlings are perfect.

[hbucker]

I would not be willing to buy such a guitar. Not because it isn't fixable. But because there are plenty of guitars available that don't need such filing.

I just hope this isn't the norm on all of these models.

[azazael]

I'm sure it is not.