Jag-stang strings not centered.

[Robsco]

A friend recently brought his Fender Jag-stang to show me and I noticed the strings look way off.

I would really appreciate your thoughts, on whether it could be a shoddy fake, or what on earth could've gone on, if it should be fixed, and what something like that may entail?  (new neck?)

Lots of pics at http://web.lavoco.com/jagstang and I also took a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKJt6QPesc

Cheers,

Rob

[Dad3353]

14 minutes ago, Robsco said:

...I would really appreciate your thoughts...

Without wishing to be flippant, it's a Fender Jagstang, so...
It's not unusual for production-line guitars to be slightly different, one from another. In all likelihood, when this one was assembled, the bridge was placed slightly to the left (looking down the neck from the heel...) by about 1mm or so. I doubt that it has any discernable effect on either playability or tone, but there is a cure. The question then would be: is it worth bothering about..? To fix it, the bridge has to come off, the current screw holes plugged and the bridge re-placed, correctly aligned. It's not sorcery, but would be best confided to a decent luthier rather than a kitchen table. What would that cost..? Dunno, but closer to £100 than to £10, I would guess. Personally, I'd just live with it; t'wouldn't bother me at all (it it plays well, naturally...).
Hope this helps; subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others. 

[Robsco]

At least it's probably not a dodgy fake.  It plays fine, just looked odd, not even seen something like on a Squier.

Just have to watch the 6 string slipping over the top of the neck.

Bit tricky to move the bridge anyway, since that means the entire scratchplate needs to move too.

[OldG]

try loosening the neck screws and gently centre strings by pushing the headstock end of the neck,then lock in position... have had to do this with most of my bolt on guitars as I nearly always have to shim the neck as part of setup.

Edited August 23, 2020 by OldG

[Robsco]

Thanks, I saw that recommendation somewhere else too, I'm surprised there's much "give" when doing that, but will definitely give it a go.

Maybe the last owner did something with the neck and didn't put it back very well, too.

[EdwardMarlowe]

On the plus side, it probably makes it easier to wrap the thumb opver the top of the fretboard to hold down the low E, a la Hendrix....