[1]

Or perhaps newbies is a better description. I'm about to setup my strat. I do a decent enough job on trems (Drew just does it a lot better, haha), but this is my first "real" attempt at doing a full setup on my own.

So I have the Strat, and I went from 9s to 10s. I have the bridge nice and level, and the claw screws are maybe 3/4" from the body. The new strings have had a couple of days to settls.

Here's what I'm lookin' at :

- I have a tiny bit of frett buzz open, but none fretted, everywhere.
- The action on the lower strings is noticeably lower than from 12, it ramps up

What's my next step? Lower the saddles and readjust the truss?

 

[Drew]

Oh geez. :lol:

1.) So the open strings buzz a little, but fretted from the 1st fret to the 21st they're fine? Sounds like your nut's too low. You were planning on throwing on that LSR roller nut, right? You can sort that out then. Alternately, your first fret may be a little high.
2.) To clarify, from frets 1-12 the action is pretty low, but from 12-21 it gets higher? You need to do one of two things - either lower the saddles, or shim the neck to increase neck angle a little. After you do this, you MIGHT want to tighten the truss rod a bit - if you need to, you'll know, but if the difference is that pronounced as it sounds, then you probably have a little too much neck bow.

 

[1]

Yeah, they buzz juuuuuuust a little. I have a feeling it'll need a fret dressing, but not now - it's not a lot of buzz, it's tiny, and I almost kind of like it. I can't hear it, but I can feel it a wee.

The difference is pretty pronounced, but it's absolutely playable. I only noticed because, well, I looked. The action from 1-12 is about the thickness of a medium pick, from 12+ it's about 1mm more.

 

[Soopahmahn]

What's my next step? Lower the saddles and readjust the truss?

Check relief on the bass side by fretting the first and last frets. :squint: along the bass side of the neck and observe the curve. Note where the bottom of the curve (relief) is - usually around 7th-9th fret. The relief is a personal adjustment - generally you want enough that you don't fret out on bends, but not so much that you increase action.

Basically, 1 mm above the frets is a good ballpark, so try to set relief such that you can stick a heavy guitar pick in at the area you identified earlier and barely touch the string.

Then adjust the saddles for action. You should remain buzz-free and get the best possible action.

 

[Drew]

Check relief on the bass side by fretting the first and last frets. :squint: along the bass side of the neck and observe the curve. Note where the bottom of the curve (relief) is - usually around 7th-9th fret. The relief is a personal adjustment - generally you want enough that you don't fret out on bends, but not so much that you increase action.

Basically, 1 mm above the frets is a good ballpark, so try to set relief such that you can stick a heavy guitar pick in at the area you identified earlier and barely touch the string.

Then adjust the saddles for action. You should remain buzz-free and get the best possible action.

Personal taste here, but I usually go for less - just enough so I can see daylight. And it's less for fretting out on bends, as much as it is the vibrational arc of the string is widest at its midpoint, so unless you have a little relief, with low action you run the risk of buzz from the string hitting the frets as it vibrates/

 

[1]

It does indeed fret out on the bends.

 

[noodles]

It does indeed fret out on the bends.

Welcome to 9.5" fretboard radius. :noway:

 

[Drew]

It does indeed fret out on the bends.

Honestly, at this point my guess is TOO MUCH neck bow. Fret the 1st and 21st frets, and guestimate how many mm of relief you have.

 

[1]

Made a quick YT video, uploadifying it now.

 

[Drew]

:lol: You realize I can't see YT?

 

[1]

I won't be selling it before you get home from work, so I think you have some time. :lol:

 

[Drew]

:lol: HAI2U, MATT!!!

 

[1]

Here (for when you get home, or for anyone else). I'm not trying to play anything spectacular. The first time I fret across the 12th you can hear it buzz a tad.

I realize that I could have made this a little more helpful, but fuck it. :lol:

 

[Max]

Wirelessly posted (Hivemind: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

It does indeed fret out on the bends.

Welcome to 9.5" fretboard radius. :noway:

Meh, with enough time you can set up any radius not to fret out for bending while maintaining low action, the fretwork just needs to be significantly more precise

 

[noodles]

Meh, with enough time you can set up any radius not to fret out for bending while maintaining low action, the fretwork just needs to be significantly more precise

Did you use "precise" in a sentence about Fender? :rofl:

 

[1]

Did you use "precise" in a sentence about Fender? :rofl:

This post brought to you by Dave "I hate everything that isn't a Jackson or a KxK" Evans. :lol:

 

[Max]

Did you use "precise" in a sentence about Fender? :rofl:

Hey, you didnt say "welcome to the 9.5" radius with bad fretwork" :lol:

 

[105]

This post brought to you by Dave "I hate everything that isn't a Jackson or a KxK" Evans. :lol:

He also likes Charvels.

and men.

 

[1]

This is true. :lol:

I got it to a half-decent point. It still buzzes a little bit everywhere, but the action is better and the bridge is spot-on. I think it needs The Drew Touch at this point.

 

[stealthtastic]

Fuck just make Drew come over.