Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

[STLMTLHD79]

I sort of have a weird question/statement. I recently bought a MINT 2000 USA Fat Strat in Tobacco burst paint. Beautiful guitar and sounded great, both from when i played it at the shop and when i got it home. The strings were old/bad, but yet i got incredible pinch harmonics out of this thing. Sounded huge for just having a Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge.

I then had the guitar setup in standard with 10 gauge strings-all harmonics and fat tone are gone. The setup is a bit high i must say past the 12th fret, so i may take it back to have it re-adjusted.

Seems sort of an odd statement to make but the thing sounded amazing without a recent setup and with old strings. What gives?

 

[nexion218]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Well, quite a lot things have changed, so it would be unfair to expect the thing to sound the same, wouldn't it? Though I'd usually expect a fuller (fatter?) sound from higher action... That said, the quality, the freshness and maybe even the gauges of strings have changed, so despite having higher action, the new strings might be lighter and brighter to the point where it all adds up to the whole thing sounding less fat. But I'm just brainstorming really... Its kinda hard to pinpoint the culprit when a bunch of things are changed at the same time.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Strings higher above pickups with higher action?

 

[nexion218]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Strings higher above pickups with higher action?

I didn't even account for that...Might be as simple as that!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Strats are really easy to adjust. Might be a good time to learn to do this yourself.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Strings higher above pickups with higher action?

Strats are really easy to adjust. Might be a good time to learn to do this yourself.

I agree with both of these! That guitar is a perfect one to learn adjustments on.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

Yep you guys are all probably right. I talked to my tech and he is going to make the needed adjustments for no cost. Someday i will learn to do my own setups.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

What gauge strings were on it before?

I like the way light heavies (10 - 52) on strats for both sound and feel. Moving from them to regular 10s drops a lot of bass and feels really floppy.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Fender 2000 USA Fat Strat-tone changed after setup

What gauge strings were on it before?

I like the way light heavies (10 - 52) on strats for both sound and feel. Moving from them to regular 10s drops a lot of bass and feels really floppy.

Agreed that there’s a noticeable change in both tone and feel between those two sets.