I can has Stratocasteur?

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:04 pm

Needs more work done to it... but not bad for a free guitar(it cost me my snes).
even though i'm sad to see the snes go, it's a pretty solid guitar.
and for tyler a pic of my 1968 Harmony Stella acoustic.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:14 pm

MIM Strat for a snes? SCORE.

You can get SNESs for $40 all day long around here.

Ty · Post by Ty » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:49 pm

Awesome! I love that Stella, and the strat looks pretty good too.

izodiak · Post by **izodiak** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:56 pm

Id give you a bunch of sneses to get theath.
cool

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:00 pm

I know, i've been meaning to show you it, finally i found the camera and the sd card.
the stella i had to take a knife and shave down the bridge so the action wouldn't be as bad. and since it's 3/4th scale there is a lot of string tension on it.
the strat needs the frets leveled (i think it does) because the notes go dead on teh first note, and teh bastard wont intonate.
and if it does the strings are so high the pickups don't really pick up the sound.
i'll try and take it to a music shop tomorrow and have it checked out, i need new strangs for it. (9's will not do) maybe 12 or 13's.
i guess my jaguar will have to wait to be looked at.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:48 pm

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okay, so i'm lost...
i was gonna take it to a guitar shop and get it looked at and fixed, but i think this is a DIY job.
now the strings need to be REALLY high up to make a note, and then the pickups won't even pick up the strings.
and the bridge is always tilted upwards (see pic)
HOW CAN I FIX THIS?

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:54 pm

It sounds to me like it's three separate jobs. The pickups should be able to pick up the sound regardless of how high the action is. It won't be able to go so high for them not to work.

The bridge pointing up is fine, but I don't like it, because of how it looks. I'm funny about this, and I always like the thing to be parallel to the body. You can pull it back down by screwing in the screws on the back, which will cause the springs to pull on the bridge more, pulling it down. BE WARNED: this will in turn pull on the strings, increasing the tension, raising the pitch, and probably nipping strings, so slacken all of them before you start.

Personally, I'd remove all the middle screws and leave the two outside ones. I've had better success doing that.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:57 pm

well, it VERY little picks up when the action is that high...
it's not as bright and clear.
and the note goes dead unless the saddles are all the way up...
i wonder if it's just a bad fret.
but thanks for the help so far paul, i'll have to try it asap.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:05 pm

I reckon the neck needs attention. You should be able to play it with the bridge screwed entirely flat against the body. If there's dead notes with the bridge that high, then I reckon the truss needs adjusted, but that's not something I've ever had the confidence to do (I know how to do it, and I know the science, it's a confidence thing. I have images of me touching the allen key to the truss rod, and the neck suddenly splinters into tiny fragments).

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:43 pm

i recon it shouldn't be too bad if i slightingly loosen the truss rod.
i think there's a SLIGHT backbow which is causing notes to go dead...
but, so far, i tightened up the bridge, and springs.
replaced teh saddles.
and am going to make sure the frets aren't fucked up.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:32 pm

BacchusPaul wrote:Personally, I'd remove all the middle screws and leave the two outside ones. I've had better success doing that.

What impact does this have? I've read that the more modern two pole strat bridges are supposed to be 'better' and never thought about just removing 4 from my 6 - is this something you've done and what change did you notice?

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:41 pm

why'd you replace the saddles?

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:11 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:why'd you replace the saddles?

I figure he might have replaced them with those modern ones you find on Squier and Burns guitars? Because they're better than vintage spec ones, which are cheap and stupid in an age when we can quite easily improve on the design? By increasing their mass and making them just look better?

Question?

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:13 pm

yeah, that's about right.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:18 pm

ekwatts wrote:
hotrodperlmutter wrote:why'd you replace the saddles?
I figure he might have replaced them with those modern ones you find on Squier and Burns guitars? Because they're better than vintage spec ones, which are cheap and stupid in an age when we can quite easily improve on the design? By increasing their mass and making them just look better?

Question?

hrm... yeah, they were definitely the issue here.

i dunno, mine have worked fine for years. i've the same ones on my strat (all 3 i've owned), and jagmaster, and i've never had an intonation issue.

i might've just gone ahead and left them in there, until i got the root of the issue addressed, since replacing them didn't do fuck all to fix your problem.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:23 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:
ekwatts wrote:
hotrodperlmutter wrote:why'd you replace the saddles?
I figure he might have replaced them with those modern ones you find on Squier and Burns guitars? Because they're better than vintage spec ones, which are cheap and stupid in an age when we can quite easily improve on the design? By increasing their mass and making them just look better?

Question?
hrm... yeah, they were definitely the issue here.

i dunno, mine have worked fine for years. i've the same ones on my strat (all 3 i've owned), and jagmaster, and i've never had an intonation issue.

i might've just gone ahead and left them in there, until i got the root of the issue addressed, since replacing them didn't do fuck all to fix your problem.

I'm not suggesting that replacing them was going to fix his problem. Neither did he. You appear to have drawn that conclusion yourself. Not wanting to speak for him, but it probably has something to do with his personal preference, and as he was dismantling the guitar anyway, why not replace them? It's certainly something I would take the time to do because I really like those modern string saddles as opposed to the older ones. The design problems I refer to on the older ones have little to do with intonation (in order to intonate correctly, they need to be height adjustable and move in and out. Those old saddles can do that), and more to do with comfort and image, considering the height adjustment poles are recessed into the rest of the saddle, making palm muting or even slightly vigorous strumming less dangerous to your hand, especially on cheaper guitars where the ends of the poles are very sharp.

I trust that answers any of your more logical questions. Feel free to freak out about something else.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:27 pm

Seriously dudes if you cast the saddles in your own blood and pubes dem shitz will sound like satan. Trust me I read it on Ultimate-Guitar.com soz must be troo.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:25 am

BacchusPaul wrote:The bridge pointing up is fine, but I don't like it, because of how it looks. I'm funny about this, and I always like the thing to be parallel to the body.

the bridge pointing up is how it's intended to be set up by Fender. that said, you can set it up however you like. it is popular to set it up to be "dive only". it just depends on how you want to use the trem. with it pointing up it allows you to bend notes up and down; with it parallel to the body, just down.

BacchusPaul wrote:Personally, I'd remove all the middle screws and leave the two outside ones. I've had better success doing that.

I don't really see how that would do much of any except reduce the strength and integrity of the trem. but to each his own I suppose. it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to have all the force of the strings and springs on two small screws.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:35 pm

Two screws will be able to take the weight of the bridge fine. That's not something that needs to be worried about.

I suppose that the main reason I'd take out the middle screws is superstition. The first time I set my Jagmaster trem up properly I did that and it's been rock solid ever since. It will not go out of tune. It's pretty stubborn about not going out of tune, I've spent a long time beating the shit out of it to try to get it out of tune, and it never does.

Having said that, there is some reasoning behind it. The reason a guitar goes out of tune when the trem is used is that something has moved or it has settled in a different position to what it was in prior to trem use. Having less screws means less variables. There are only two sets of threads for the bridge to bed in with, rather than six. Hence, most modern trem systems use two screws.

Better than using two screws is using two posts, each with a groove in them, and a similarly shaped edge to the bridge plate, as found on Floyd Rose, Wilkinson, Modern Fender, and most other modern trem systems.

In all of the following, note the two posts, with no thread but a groove for the knife edge. This is favourable to having six posts with threads.

Floyd Rose disassembled.

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Wilkinson VS

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American Fender

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Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:22 pm

mage wrote:with it pointing up it allows you to bend notes up and down; with it parallel to the body, just down.

Also, this is not true. Parallel and floating allows scoops as well as dives.