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I'm working on my guitar right now. What angle should the bridge be at in
comparison with the body? In other words, how tight do I make the springs in
the back? I'm changing my strat from 10's to 11's and don't have time for a
tech. Please help practice is in 2 hours.
Damon
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Damon,
Adjust claw to float approx. 1/8" off the body at the back of the brdge. It
isn't that critical, though you may need a bit more if you do a lot of
upbending. Have a great practice.
Brad
You might want to check on the straightness of the neck of your *ahem*
strat...after practice. Every King possesses a Royal Bow, and you might too
now. Might want to give that intonation a once-over while you're at it as
well...
I'm no strat expert, but I don't think theres an official Fender
recommended strat bridge height. I've definitely been wrong in the past
though. I had a friend who owned a strat and he did the same thing, but he
just kept tightening the springs, retuning, tightening the spings, retuning
unitl he got what he felt was a good height.
My advice: You should have gone with the tech. Never too late.
>From: Damon <>
>Reply-To:
>To: Surf Surf <>
>Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Strat Bridge Specs
>Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>I'm working on my guitar right now. What angle should the bridge be at in
>comparison with the body? In other words, how tight do I make the springs
>in the back? I'm changing my strat from 10's to 11's and don't have time
>for a tech. Please help practice is in 2 hours.
>
>Damon
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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My advice is you crank that fucker down against the body and forget upward
bends - thats what your fretting fingers are for. The weakest link on a
strat is it's bridge - it is next to impossible to keep in tune if you use
the wang bar more than a little. Pulled down tight against the body at least
gives you a fighting chance of not having to tune before, during and after
every song. Besides, how can you palm mute with a floating bridge on a
strat?
As for your neck bowing - thats why they have trussrods, eh?
Robb
My advice especially with heavy strings is make the bridge plate
flush with the body, this way the guitar stays in tune much better,
and the tone is vastly improved. This is the way the Strat was
designed. The 'floating' trem style set-up didn't come into vogue
untill the mid sixties, and the only advantage is that you can pull
the pitch up at the expense of tuning stabillity. Also, on a strat
heavy strings require more force from the springs, I use all five on
mine backed out as far as they'll go. It takes a bit of strength to
use it like this, but the fucker never goes out of tune even under
intense trem abuse. One other advantage of a flush set-up is if you
break a string, the rest will stay in
tune.
--- In SurfGuitar101@y..., Damon <dei77@y...> wrote:
>
> I'm working on my guitar right now. What angle should the bridge
be at in comparison with the body? In other words, how tight do I
make the springs in the back? I'm changing my strat from 10's to
11's and don't have time for a tech. Please help practice is in 2
hours.
>
> Damon
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Thor: Take the neck off and insert a small shim about the thickness
of a matchbook between the neck and body this should correct the tilt
of the neck. A repair man will charge about $40 bucks for this, but
you can easily do it yourself. Generaly, strats play better with
higher action, and you really have to fight them to get them to sing,
but the rewards of this struggle are well worth it; no other guitar
can sing like a strat in the right hands.
--- In SurfGuitar101@y..., "One Four Six Oh" <thor1460@h...> wrote:
> >My advice is you crank that fucker down against the body
> >and forget upward bends
>
> That's what I have done. I do whammys by grabbing the bridge (with
either
> hand, depending on which one isn't needed). I originally started
doing this
> because I lost my whammy bar, but then I realized I hated the
whammy bar
> because it got in the way of my palm muting of the high strings.
So that's
> just what I do now. This is much easier when there are less
springs in the
> back, but since I moved to .12's I had to add an extra spring. I
don't
> really ever have problems with going out of tune with the bridge
all the way
> down + I always tune UP to the note, otherwise it will slip out of
tune if
> you whammy and bend. Atleast that is what I have found.
>
> >As for your neck bowing - thats why they have trussrods, eh?
>
> I have flatwound 12's on mine and my action kind of sucks. The
main problem
> isn't bow, but that the neck just leans forward a little bit. How
much does
> it cost to have this fixed or set up? I'm not that concerned about
my
> action because I can still play it fine.
>
> -Thor Andersen, Monsters From Mars
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
Fender has some pretty useful info on how to set up your guitar at their
customer service website:
Good luck,
BN
The Fender factory often puts in shims, it's just a necessity with a
bolt on neck. Strat players should expect higher action anyway -
it's the nature of the guitar particularly the ones with a vintage
radius on the fretboard. I find that my strat plays better with a
bit of relief ( bow )on the neck, this can be murder on your hands
especially with heavy strings, but it's made me develop lot's of
strength in my hands as a result, and the notes don't choke out on
bends. Despite it's drawbacks, I think the Stratocaster is a kick ass
axe. They are very difficult ( almost impossible! ) to set up right,
and require constant maintenance, but once you learn how to do it
correctly, look out! By the way, the reissue 57/62 pick ups are
great. They reverse engineered them from an original pick up and did
a spectacular job, my strat absolutely screams since I put them in.
Viktor
--- In SurfGuitar101@y..., "Brian Neal" <bneal@z...> wrote:
> Fender has some pretty useful info on how to set up your guitar at
their
> customer service website:
>
>
>
> Good luck,
>
> BN
I've never bought a guitar with a bowed neck. I've been playing for 15 years.
-=Dan Ware=- <> wrote: You might want to check on the
straightness of the neck of your *ahem*
strat...after practice. Every King possesses a Royal Bow, and you might too
now. Might want to give that intonation a once-over while you're at it as
well...
I'm no strat expert, but I don't think theres an official Fender
recommended strat bridge height. I've definitely been wrong in the past
though. I had a friend who owned a strat and he did the same thing, but he
just kept tightening the springs, retuning, tightening the spings, retuning
unitl he got what he felt was a good height.
My advice: You should have gone with the tech. Never too late.
>From: Damon <>
>Reply-To:
>To: Surf Surf <>
>Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Strat Bridge Specs
>Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>I'm working on my guitar right now. What angle should the bridge be at in
>comparison with the body? In other words, how tight do I make the springs
>in the back? I'm changing my strat from 10's to 11's and don't have time
>for a tech. Please help practice is in 2 hours.
>
>Damon
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
_________________________________________________________________
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
My guitar hasn't needed tuning since I bought it.
Robb Lowe <> wrote: My advice is you crank that fucker
down against the body and forget upward
bends - thats what your fretting fingers are for. The weakest link on a
strat is it's bridge - it is next to impossible to keep in tune if you use
the wang bar more than a little. Pulled down tight against the body at least
gives you a fighting chance of not having to tune before, during and after
every song. Besides, how can you palm mute with a floating bridge on a
strat?
As for your neck bowing - thats why they have trussrods, eh?
Robb
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
If it's a Fender, and it hasnt needed tuning since you bought it, your next
purchase should be a tuner cause I promise you - it's out of tune. Fenders
are the worlds best sounding instruments, but under heavy use, they stay in
tune about as well as a drunk on karoke night.
Robb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Damon" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: [SurfGuitar101] Re: Strat Bridge Specs
>
> My guitar hasn't needed tuning since I bought it.
