Stuttering fretboard

As some of you will have seen in another post, I recently acquired an EBMM Cutlass BFR. It was manufactured in November 2017, and I bought it from a collector, who in turn had bought it privately. On the face of it, it is an extremely clean guitar without a mark on it.

However, there is an issue with the fretboard. When I received the guitar, I noticed the fretboard appeared to be sticking or stuttering a little when I bent notes. So, I took off the strings, and gave it a good rub down with EB Wonder Wipes. Almost no dirt came off on the wipes, which didn’t surprise me as it looked very clean before I started.

Using the wipes did not solve the stuttering issue – nothing changed in fact.

Here is a video which shows me pushing the pad of my finger across the fretboard. Please turn up the volume to hear the noise of my finger on the fretboard and ignore the string noises. You should be able to hear the stuttering sound. (It is the pad of my finger, not my fingernail!)The issue has nothing to do with strings or frets – in fact, were I to take off the strings completely, I could reproduce this sound:

Dropbox – VID_20200714_160527.mp4 – Simplify your life

Next, here is a similar video taken of my JP6. Again, please turn up the volume – no matter how hard I push, I cannot get the pad of finger to stutter. Unlike the Cutlass, there is no resisting the finger as I push across the fretboard, and no noise:

Dropbox – VID_20200714_160550.mp4 – Simplify your life

I have several other guitars, and the problem is unique to the Cutlass.

The problem is that it is difficult to control any string bends when playing. Bending up or down, often it is impossible to do this smoothly.

The problem is not restricted to one area of the fretboard – it seems to be the same all the way up.

I have also written to customer services, but I wonder if anyone here can throw any light on what is going on here.

Thank you for reading.