Eastman String Spacing

[Woody Sound]

I have a carved 803. It sounds and plays great, except for one thing. It seems the string spacing is too wide. No matter how I position the bridge, either e string occasionally pops off the side of the frets. Anyone else experience this? I am considering a new nut and re-slotting the saddle.

[2bornot2bop]

I’ve an 803 as well. But it’s a rare Jeff Hale model with the inlays. That guitar is pure perfection, and I’m no fan of 16” archtop’s with thinner side’s. Mine is the depth of a Heritage 575.

[skiboyny]

On a 1 3/4" nut the E to E spacing is typically 1.5" you can check that to see that it's right.

[sgosnell]

It might be just the spacing at the bridge. That's more easily changed than the nut spacing. I can't see your guitar, though, so I can't really tell.

[rob taft]

Are the fret ends beveled correctly? On my 2014 ElRey, the fret ends had too much of a bevel. On that guitar the E to E width is 1.5". On my custom ElRey which was assembled and setup by Otto D'Ambrosio the E to E is 1 and 7/16th. Both guitars have a 1.75 nut. The custom guitar plays great and the 2014 plays great as well but I occasionally pull the E string off the fret end i.e. I have to pay more attention to my finger position. I should refret the 2014 but I just haven't got around to it.

[Woody Sound]

Well my neck seems to be around 1/16 short of 1-3/4 (although it's hard to tell where to measure), and string spacing around 1/16 wider than 1.5

[Gregc57]

Sounds like a 1 11/16" neck. If it's good at the nut, you'll likely want a new bridge top made for it..... or maybe you can find a replacement from Eastman, and see if another saddle has better fit slots. It's probably too tight to recut slots in the bridge. I'm not sure if you can fill with rosewood or ebony dust/glue and recut slots. See a good luthier maybe.
LIGHT BULB MOMENT: Perhaps Eastman would send you an 'uncut saddle', and you can slot it right where you want it. Gibson did that for me once when I took possession of a guitar with horribly spaced saddle slots. I'm just spit-ballin' here....

[skiboyny]

Well my neck seems to be around 1/16 short of 1-3/4 (although it's hard to tell where to measure), and string spacing around 1/16 wider than 1.5

That might be enough to cause your problem. Easy fix.

[tbeltrans]

I’ve an 803 as well. But it’s a rare Jeff Hale model with the inlays. That guitar is pure perfection, and I’m no fan of 16” archtop’s with thinner side’s. Mine is the depth of a Heritage 575.

Dang that is a beautiful instrument. I guess I just like archtops.

I like those "goldfinger" tailpieces too. I had one on a Howard Roberts Fusion III that I used to own, but traded on my Citation. Those tailpieces are very practical, in my opinion because you can adjust the tension of each string individually. A guitar tech showed me how to do it.

Tony

[chasranney]

Check the placement of the tailpiece! If not perfectly centered, it can cause the symptom you're seeing.

I had this problem with an AR403.

[sgosnell]

Both the placement of the tailpiece and the bridge. It's not uncommon to see bridges not properly aligned.