Vintage/Cool Rails to tame Stratitis?

[Teleplayer]

I'm watching your thread with interest. I may be wrong, but I thought you shouldn't get stratitis when the pickups are completely decked. I'm wondering if the unwanted noise could be caused by something else such as fret buzz, oversize nut slots, or bridge saddles that could be worn out or poorly fitting.

[Mjh36]

I'm watching your thread with interest. I may be wrong, but I thought you shouldn't get stratitis when the pickups are completely decked. I'm wondering if the unwanted noise could be caused by something else such as fret buzz, oversize nut slots, or bridge saddles that could be worn out or poorly fitting.

Thanks for reading, I'll go into a little detail about what brought me here. It's technically for 2 guitars. It's a warble on the G string and somewhat on the B and D strings.

I have a '08 Fender American with Dimarzios (PAF Pro bridge/2 Virtual Vintage '54 Pros noiseless) which has this problem for a while. I used to not care, but it's driving me nuts lately. I've tried everything. Took it apart completely and inspected every single part. Tried all the tricks, decking pickups, decking bridge, raising/lowering action, dampen strings, dampen tremolo springs, change string gauges, removing neck and/or middle pickups, new saddles, new bridge, I do my own setups and fret leveling and all is well there, etc.... I go into great depth what I did in this thread, which I need to update:

https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/g....555125/page-8

Spoiler is nothing worked. Exhausted from hours of troubleshooting, I decided to order a new guitar from Warmoth. Everything about it is opposite. Different woods, hardware, nut, body size, neck shape, etc... similarities are it's an HSS also. I have Bootstrap pickups in this one. Sweet Serrano bridge and 2 Oatmeal Stout traditional singles. Low and behold it does the same damn thing on the same damn strings! (Head explodes)

Here's a couple samples of my original problem with my Fender:

https://youtu.be/OWzNwAR6jDE

https://youtu.be/q5BKakLLMFY

I saw this video recently which seems almost exactly my problem:

https://youtu.be/hw-6W_uxltk

He said he switched to Zexcoils and that solved it. So I started looking for different magnets in pickups, which brought me here. Going with some rails has gotta help if anything. Because next stop is ditching 25.5" scale length guitars for good and just playing Les Paul's or something. Attached pics show when I tried switching the necks for an experiment. Open to any suggestions at all.

[Teleplayer]

I prefer the clean demo because distortion makes it very hard to hear what is happening.

I was most interested in your demo with the Gotoh bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i48Hpoi-ik

To me that is NOT 'stratitis'. In this particular demo I think it sounds like simple fret buzz.
What I would suggest for this:
1) Continue using the Gotoh bridge.
2) Test the amount of relief on the neck by fretting the string at the 1st fret and 17th fret. I guess you might have your neck completely level (zero relief). Just adding the smallest possible amount of relief so the middle of the strings are free to move when fretted at both the 1st and 17th frets.
3) Consider changing to heavier strings such as 10-46. They are less prone to have fret buzz than lighter gauges. In other words, heavier gauge of string allows you to use lower action without increasing fret buzz. Otherwise raising the action height and having the right amount of neck relief is the most certain way to avoid fret buzz.

[Mjh36]

I prefer the clean demo because distortion makes it very hard to hear what is happening.

I was most interested in your demo with the Gotoh bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i48Hpoi-ik

To me that is NOT 'stratitis'. In this particular demo I think it sounds like simple fret buzz.
What I would suggest for this:
1) Continue using the Gotoh bridge.
2) Test the amount of relief on the neck by fretting the string at the 1st fret and 17th fret. I guess you might have your neck completely level (zero relief). Just adding the smallest possible amount of relief so the middle of the strings are free to move when fretted at both the 1st and 17th frets.
3) Consider changing to heavier strings such as 10-46. They are less prone to have fret buzz than lighter gauges. In other words, heavier gauge of string allows you to use lower action without increasing fret buzz. Otherwise raising the action height and having the right amount of neck relief is the most certain way to avoid fret buzz.

All great stuff and things I have checked on both guitars. The gotoh bridge is on the Warmoth now. You are correct that I do like very little relief, just enough that I can feel the string tap. However, I have tried more exaggerated relief and higher action, fretting every note gently and cleanly with zero fret buzz and with 10-46's. Made no difference. Only thing I haven't done is try pickups with that rail design or Lace sensors. Bridge humbuckers sound great on both guitars, notes ring true. It's only with the single coils that it's all warbly.

[ArtieToo]

Following are two songs from Armored Saint's 1991 studio album "Symbol Of Salvation" where I've long suspected the warble i hear to be due to Stratitis.

1. Song "Tainted Past". The clean arpeggiated intro at the very start, and then later at the end of the song, the 3 sustained natural harmonics played with gain. Absolutely love this song, BTW, despite the blemishes from the stratitis RIP Dave Prichard.

https://youtu.be/GvViP0bP2JE

2. Song "Dropping Like Flies". The lead guitar at the beginning of the song and that appears as fills between the verses, and then the solo at the end. This one i'm less sure about, because the guitarist is definitely applying his own vibrato technique at the tail end of the notes, but i believe i hear warble even in the short spans b4 he adds vibrato technique. I actually think he's adding the vibrato technique to try and get some control over the unmusical warble of the stratitis.

https://youtu.be/YXEVnAmuMHU

That's interesting. I don't think I've ever been aware of this phenomenon before. Now I'll probably start listening for it.

[Teleplayer]

All great stuff and things I have checked on both guitars. The gotoh bridge is on the Warmoth now. You are correct that I do like very little relief, just enough that I can feel the string tap. However, I have tried more exaggerated relief and higher action, fretting every note gently and cleanly with zero fret buzz and with 10-46's. Made no difference. Only thing I haven't done is try pickups with that rail design or Lace sensors. Bridge humbuckers sound great on both guitars, notes ring true. It's only with the single coils that it's all warbly.

I suggest to try a bit more relief to get improvement on the lower frets, such as 7th fret and lower. Leave the saddles where they are and you can end up with a little bit more relief and higher action by only adjusting the truss-rod. The difference between 0.004 and 0.008" relief will slightly change the geometry and feel of the strings. The saddles should be positioned to get the cleanest sound around the 12th to 17th fret. That's about my experience with setting up necks as a diy hobbiest. I'm sure you have your own ideas and experiences, so that's fair enough. I just hope you can solve this issue. The only other idea I had is about playing style. Perhaps you can use slightly more gain on the amp, and then practice picking more lightly. I saw a good online lesson about that. It may allow better sounding clean and is supposed to help the player develop technique to use effective dynamics.

Please report back if changing to blade style pickups can make a difference to the issues you are experiencing.

[Mjh36]

Well the Cool Rails neck sounds excellent. Punchy, fluid, still kinda stratty. It did help with the warble a lot, or more like hides it better. I think it's a product of the humbucker width, sensing more string area. I bet a full size humbucker in the neck position would eliminate it even more. For example, when I split the Cool Rails neck into a single coil, I get all the same G string warble. Put it back in humbucking and it reduces by a good amount. Next I'm ordering a 24.75" Gibson scale Warmoth neck to test a theory.

So a success I guess. Also got a 59/Custom Hybrid on the way. Tough choice between that and the Screamin' Demon.

[Teleplayer]

Thanks for your response. Because you mentioned you can still hear the problem with the humbucker split, I get the feeling its more related to fret buzz. The magnet field would not change if the cool rails is used as a humbucker or split coil. Coolrails is a very nice pickup.. i like it too!