High E Slipping Off Fretboard

[SaberRed]

I have an Ibanez S3620FM prestige, really nice guitar I bought for a good price. I find the high E string slips off the neck very easily. Is this common on this series of guitar? Can I fix this easily? I was considering checking the locking nut and seeing if it can be shifted over by a tiny amount? Would this work?

 

[Kelly]

Loosen the neck screws. Pull upward (toward the left while facing front of guitar) on the headstock and retighten.

 

[SaberRed]

Loosen the neck screws. Pull upward (toward the left while facing front of guitar) on the headstock and retighten.

Yes that was something along the lines of my plan. I will give it a go. Thanks.

 

[Music&Chaos]

Yes that was something along the lines of my plan. I will give it a go. Thanks.

Hopefully that works! I had an Ibanez where they did the prestige fret rounding and they were done so rounded inward that my high E always slipped right off. Was annoying AF and I sold that guitar. One of the Made in Indonesia models, yours probably isn't jacked like that.

 

[SaberRed]

Hopefully that works! I had an Ibanez where they did the prestige fret rounding and they were done so rounded inward that my high E always slipped right off. Was annoying AF and I sold that guitar. One of the Made in Indonesia models, yours probably isn't jacked like that.

Yes it’s pretty annoying. I have to compensate when I play it but this isn’t something that always sticks in my head.

 

[PDC]

Loosen the neck screws. Pull upward (toward the left while facing front of guitar) on the headstock and retighten.

No more calls please, we do have a winner! Google up 'Guitar Chiropractic Neck Adjustment' if you want to see this performed.

You can do it with the strings on by loosening the neck bolts, gently adjusting, and re-tightening. I am betting someone like Dan Erlewine would bust out a micrometer to measure the desired distance from the high E to 'true center' on the fingerboard then make his own neck pocket shim using AAA Birdseye Maple at .00x thickness, remove the neck ... you get the point.

 

[alund]

Steve Vai used this effect occasionally pulling down the high E and it would make a sound after each fret was touched being pulled of the fret board. It’s cool. But can be over done

 

[SaberRed]

Okay, so i did the 'Guitar Chiropractic Neck Adjustment'. In other words, I loosened the 4 neck screws at the back a couple of turns, yanked the headstock upwards gently, and tightened then screws again. I think it's better. It's almost on the cusp of slipping, but i've tried the usual things that would get it slipping, and so far, so good. We must have been talking a couple millimeters .

Edit- Yes, that seems to have done the trick! Thanks Kelly and PDC!

 

[PDC]

And in all seriousness, if you did get measurable improvement - but not quite perfect - you might try the same technique with the strings slacked. Taking forward tension off the face of the fingerboard allows for easier movement left to right. Slack the strings - loosen (but do not remove) the neck screws - firmly but gently push the neck toward the left / low E string when facing the guitar - tighten the neck screws - tune to pitch. I have had to do this to several of my bolt-on parts casters and I am always amazed at how much left to right adjustment there is in even a pretty snug neck pocket.