Help! Pulling high E-string off the fretboard on new Valentine

[Ragnad]

first time post here:

i recently acquired a new Valentine. i just had it set-up with d'addario balanced tension 10's. the action was set low and slinky. so, i'm having a problem when doing pull-offs on the high E string. seems i pull the string off the fretboard and choke off the notes. i'm trying to adjust my technique so it doesn't happen as much, but i am wondering if anyone else has this sort of issue? i guess i could up my string gauge to 11's and maybe up the action a tiny bit. i love the way it feels now, except for this issue, but how am i going to do those "jeff's boogie" or rick nielsen barrage of pull-offs if this keeps happening?

 

[peterd79]

to my knowledge there is a proprietary design on EBMM and SBMM necks that rebuke any string other than EB strings... so looks like you'll need to go to EB Strings... crazyiest things but there ya go.


AKA I have no clue what i'm saying...

 

[jones4tone]

First, congrats on the new Valentine, and welcome to the forum! Where are the pics?

Are you doing a bend to a pull-off? If you're bending the 1 string toward the edge of the fingerboard, it is pretty easy to pull it over the edge. A simple pull-off shouldn't lead to that issue at all, in my experience. Are you giving the string a slight flick to the side as you pull off to emphasize the note resulting from the pull-off? If so, perhaps try flicking toward the center of the fingerboard board instead.

Enjoy the new guitar - the Valentine is a sweet one!

 

[DrKev]

I don't see how string gauge and action will fix this issue. Are the position dots centred between the D and G strings? If they are closer to the D-string, then that would explain your problem and the neck needs a small shift the neck pocket.

Let us know.

 

[BrickGlass]

I had this problem on a brand new koa JP. It was the nut. It had been cut wrong so the slots were slightly in the wrong places. Had to send it back and they put a new nut in, problem solved. Oftentimes this problem is just simply the neck needing to be aligned better so do what DrKev said and look at the markers. You can also look from the bottom of the guitar up and sometimes see that the space between the low E and the edge of the fretboard is more than the high E and the fretboards edge. Often you can just tell by looking straight on at the fretboard.

 

[paranoid70]

I had this problem with a guitar from a different manufacturer. It was clearly the nut. I had a local luthier re-cut it and it plays much better now.

 

[Ragnad]

to my knowledge there is a proprietary design on EBMM and SBMM necks that rebuke any string other than EB strings... so looks like you'll need to go to EB Strings... crazyiest things but there ya go.


AKA I have no clue what i'm saying...

hahaha!!! maybe i'll switch back after exhausting all other options.

 

[Ragnad]

First, congrats on the new Valentine, and welcome to the forum! Where are the pics?

Are you doing a bend to a pull-off? If you're bending the 1 string toward the edge of the fingerboard, it is pretty easy to pull it over the edge. A simple pull-off shouldn't lead to that issue at all, in my experience. Are you giving the string a slight flick to the side as you pull off to emphasize the note resulting from the pull-off? If so, perhaps try flicking toward the center of the fingerboard board instead.

Enjoy the new guitar - the Valentine is a sweet one!

Thanks! I love it so far (except for this particular issue).

i've been trying to adjust my pull-off technique to make sure the notes play cleanly and are not choked-off by pulling the string off the fretboard. I have other guitars where this is not an issue, but if i were to play the intro to Rush's "Spirit of Radio" it would not sound good. I'll keep adjusting my technique and see if that cures this issue.

 

[Ragnad]

I don't see how string gauge and action will fix this issue. Are the position dots centred between the D and G strings? If they are closer to the D-string, then that would explain your problem and the neck needs a small shift the neck pocket.

Let us know.

Thanks for the link to this video. It was very instructive. I have contacted Ernie Ball's customer service and I working with them on this issue. In addition, I'll bring my guitar to the shop to have it looked at again. I'll definitely hip them to this neck alignment thing.

 

[Ragnad]

I had this problem with a guitar from a different manufacturer. It was clearly the nut. I had a local luthier re-cut it and it plays much better now.

Thanks! This does sound like a great solution, but it's not going to work in this case. The nuts that are on these guitars are molded with the nut slots already configured (the nut is also compensating). Customer service said this is probably not the case.

 

[Ragnad]

I had this problem on a brand new koa JP. It was the nut. It had been cut wrong so the slots were slightly in the wrong places. Had to send it back and they put a new nut in, problem solved. Oftentimes this problem is just simply the neck needing to be aligned better so do what DrKev said and look at the markers. You can also look from the bottom of the guitar up and sometimes see that the space between the low E and the edge of the fretboard is more than the high E and the fretboards edge. Often you can just tell by looking straight on at the fretboard.

Thanks! Definitely do these things.