Warranty issue - what to do

[beaubrummels]

I'd wait for the replacement. There's more than one guitar with 'mojo' out there and I'd rather have mojo that's working properly and adjustable, rather than mojo that is stuck one way forever. The return option is only reasonable if you have already found another with that similar 'mojo' that you could use the money to buy it.

[alex1fly]

E) Eat the cost of a new neck and use it with the thinline body.

Tempting to do this. Technically I have 2 years from the date of purchase to cash in the warranty. If it becomes unplayable within the 2 years, have it replaced. Heck, the thing may last forever.

[formula73]

It’s painted wood. It doesn’t matter. Take the money.

[Benjy_26]

E) Eat the cost of a new neck and use it with the thinline body.

[alex1fly]

Yeah, it's a bit weird but I can see the logic in it. When I heard that they'd send a whole new guitar I thought "great! I'll have two thinlines!" But if you destroy the whole guitar, that certainly cuts down on bunk warranty claims.

It'd be great to at least keep the body - it has the same finish that my first electric guitar had, and I bought it in the same store that I grew up with, took lessons in, rented equipment from for my first rock band's first concert, etc. Nostalgia vibes, hard.

Beyond the nostalgia, the decision is tough I've spent a LOT of time honing in my small guitar collection over the last year and a half, playingprobably 25 Telecasters in the process of finding this one, and I bought this one because it felt great and we connected at a deep level in the store. So the decision is basically either A) try to find the same model in a store and hope it also rocks my world, B) hope that the replacement does the same, C) abandon the Thinline altogether and see if another guitar speaks to me in a store, D) rock a guitar with a warped neck.

[Mincer]

When I worked in a music store, Fender made them destroy the whole guitar if there is a warranty issue like that. They didn't want it back, and they didn't want the unusable parts surviving.

[NegativeEase]

Guy in my band has an SG with the same issue -although more complicated issue of course with a through neck.

He has to play it with 11s to get it to act right because the truss rod is out of range -as he doesn't want to replane the fretboard either -nor would I

He's come to prefer larger strings for the attack and the sturdier feel for hard rock/metal.

I advised to return it to the seller (bought used on Reverb) but he loves the feel too much.

[GuitarDoc]

That kind of problem is pretty rare, but does happen occasionally. On a Squire, it's not worth the cost to repair. I once had that problem with one of my builds. I accidentally got some glue down around the truss rod when gluing on the fretboard. I had to take off the board, and dig out the truss rod (a real pain in the neck), clean out the truss rod channel, and do it all over again. But my guitars sell for $3000 so it was worth the effort.

Why would they want to destroy the entire guitar? Why not just send you a new neck? That makes no sense.
I'm not sure what I would do, but I play 10s and if it plays great with 10s I personally would just keep it. But if you like to play with different gauges that don't work, well...only you could decide.

[Mincer]

Play it with 10s for now, unless you need the $. If it wasn't playable at all in any way, I'd say just give me the money.

[JOLLY]

I'd take Jeremy's advice.

[Blille]

Get the money. No doubt.

You didn’t get your money’s worth. If you really like it just get the same or something similar new. You would not be able to resell it well.

[jeremy]

id just wait for the new one, if you have truss rod issues now, it will probably get a little worse over time and replacing a truss rod is a pita. better to have a fully functional guitar, even if you have to wait a bit

[alex1fly]

I got a Squier Thinline Telecaster back in July. Awesome guitar. When I was setting it up, the truss rod stopped working and in fact seemed to max out, so I took it to an authorized service center. They couldn't get the neck to straighten out even with no string tension, so they reached out to Fender about a warranty claim on the neck.

From the shop:

Hi Alex. The wheels are in motion although they are moving very slowly. The eta on your neck is March of 2022. Actually, they will be replacing the whole guitar. Should you not want to wait they would refund your money but it could take a month or so to get you a check. You would bring it here to the shop and we would destroy it and send proof to Fender. They would send you a check in 30 days or so. No need to do anything if you are willing to wait. This guitar is made in Indonesia which is compounding the supply issues already present here in the States.

The reason I'm posting here is because while it sounds like things are going to get corrected, I'm not sure what to do. The neck has a natural bow and the truss rod is maxed out, but with .10s the setup is still good. The neck feels awesome, the tall/narrow frets are great, there's no fret sprout or ridges along the skunk stripe (I'm looking at you, Fender), the tinted finish hits me in the nostalgia, and as I've played it the last couple months I have realized that I could play it into the ground as one of my #1s (I'm not a big collector). And it's unclear to me if they'll be destroying the neck AND the body, which I guess I could clarify with the shop.

Would it be foolish to keep this neck and not file for warranty replacement? As in, do I risk a damaged or less playable neck over the years because of the natural bow and maxed out truss rod?

Similarly, it is foolish to think that whatever replacement Fender sends is going to have the same mojo/magic? Yes, this is a bit ephemeral, and to be fair I've played two of these models in person (a 2021 model and a 2020 model) and they both had that "special something" for me.

What would you all do?