fender strat setup

[Ashraf]

hey guys,
i have an american standard strat,and it had zero sustain!!
i mean,the strings are so high,the sustain is very bad,and i tried to set it up but i couldnt do it...so can someone please post a link or any sort of tutourial for setting it up correctly?...
the strings on it right now are 9's,but i want to set it up for 10's
thanks

 

[Bludave]

Re: fender strat setup

In all honesty.... take it to a qualified tech to have it set up. That would be the best thing you can do. Here are some things to help increase your sustain.

#1. Set the bridge of the guitar to rest on the body. Most Strats come from the factory "floating" This allows you to use the whammy up and down, the problem is without the bridge making contact to the body you have more sustain. To do this you will need to tighten the 2 screws that adjust the claw of the whammy. You can also add additional springs to help pull the bridge down. Strats normally have 3 springs, 4 will add some tension and pull the bridge down against the body.

Once this is done the action will need to be adjusted to play the way you want it. Set the string height to the desired point. Once this is done You should check the truss rod to verify the neck has the desired amount of relief. This can be checked by pressing the 6 string down on the first fret and the point where the neck joins the body. At the 7th to 9th fret you should have a small amount of space between the bottom of the string and the top of the fret. Relief is like string height.... not everybody likes it the same way. tightening the rod will remove relief, loosening the rod will add relief.

Once the neck is set you should intonate the guitar. To do this tune the guitar to pitch and then sound the harmonic of each string at the 12th fret, and sound the note at the 12th. They should read the same on the tuner (you should have a good chromatic tuner for this). If the fretted note is flat, move the saddle forward.

In all adjustments go slow and make small adjustments. ESPICIALLY WITH THE TRUSS ROD. Small turns a little at a time. IF the rod feels very tight. Stop and take the guitar to a tech.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: fender strat setup

setting up an axe completely takes some skill... First you should know how to read the board and the fret wear before you even start (as sometimes it's a waste of time trying to set up an axe that has wear without taking care of that)...

The Guitar Player Repair Book will walk you thru setting up a strat.... read it and read it again before trying to do adjustments you have no idea how to do...

to really make a guitar sing you should take it to a pro once in a while anyways..

as for it sounding dead, how old are the strings?

 

[Ashraf]

Re: fender strat setup

the strings are about 3 weeks old..it's not because of them
i could take it to a tech,but i want to learn how to do it myself so that i wont need to take it or my other guitar to a tech everytime it needs some adjustments..

 

[shogunlegend]

Re: fender strat setup

you're just going to have to learn how to do it man. guitars have to be adjusted from time to time, so it doesn' make sense to pay some half-ass tech to do it for you. i'd rather spend that money on upgrades.

there are a couple of things you need to correctly setup a guitar. start by purhcasing a 64th inch ruler so you can measure the fine distances between strings and frets, pickup heights, etc... you can usually find these kinds of things at a hardware store. you'll also need a decent guitar tuner to get the proper intonation.

some things you will need to adjust are:

saddle height
tremolo height
spring tension
intonation

you need to decide what guage strings you are going to use or you'll have to adjust your action for heavier or lighter strings. strats are best with 9 guage strings.

with strats, spring tension is essential to staying in tune and getting a good tone. too many people leave them too loose and tuned at standard tuning, their tremolos lean way forward. i don't know how anyone could play that, much less get decent tone. it aint going to work that way.

in my experience, it's best to have the tremolo almost touching the body of a strat. you might want to first try lowering the tremolo system if you have a two-point tremolo. there's plenty of information on the web for correctly setting up a guitar. fenders website has a pretty good resource, or you can actually call them with questions. good luck dude.

 

[ErikH]

Re: fender strat setup

Seeing recent threads about how to do setups makes me want to start up a side business here locally. $50.00 for a complete setup and I'll show you how to do it yourself so next time, you don't have to shell out any more money other than buying your strings.

I'd be performing a service that is beneficial to the player. The only things I wouldn't cover are nut replacements and fret work. What I would show is how to set the intonation, adjust the truss rod, check for relief, check the action and adjustment, Floyd Rose setups, pickup heights, things like that.

Hmmmm, I think I'll ponder this for a little bit. :33:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: fender strat setup

the strings are about 3 weeks old..it's not because of them
i could take it to a tech,but i want to learn how to do it myself so that i wont need to take it or my other guitar to a tech everytime it needs some adjustments..

cool... everyone has to start somewhere.... last thing anyone on here wants to do is to tell someone to adjust something and have it break... over the internet you can not see the guitar in question..

i destroyed a few axes over the years... smashed a few and stuck them back together... my Kramer in the 80's needed constant set up and repair work as it was a real lemon... and i just could not afford a tech everytime so i started to learn the hard way... but i asked a lot of questions along the way and became friends with a lot of techs around here over the years of bugging them for tips and info..... i soldered in my first PU into that Kramer thing... i smashed it a few times and had to repair the neck joint and bridge area a few times... Had to intonate it many times.... that axe is in a landfill somewhere.... nothing left of it after my constant abuse and messy repair work...

In the 90's a Squier strat and a cheap parts strat became my subjects of repair experiments... I have a bunch of oddball old necks i practice refrets on...

it's all about learning i guess..

Get some books, maybe some videos, and ask a lot of questions....

 

[Mr. B]

Re: fender strat setup

Everyone does have to start somewhere, but a 950$ american strat is not really the guitar I'd pick to learn, the hard way, on. Buy Dan Erlewine's book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" .It has a great description of factory and player setups for any guitar. It also comes with punch-out radius guides for setting string radius. Then get a "String Action Guage" ruler from Stewmac and you will be set. Those are 2 of the best guitar related investments I have ever made.

I have probably set up about 100 student guitars since I began my high School's Guitar Club about 6 years ago. The radius guides and the mini ruler are invaluable. If I had only gotten paid for all that work!!!

 

[jmh151]

Re: fender strat setup

Everyone does have to start somewhere, but a 950$ american strat is not really the guitar I'd pick to learn, the hard way, on. Buy Dan Erlewine's book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" .It has a great description of factory and player setups for any guitar. It also comes with punch-out radius guides for setting string radius. Then get a "String Action Guage" ruler from Stewmac and you will be set. Those are 2 of the best guitar related investments I have ever made.

I have probably set up about 100 student guitars since I began my high School's Guitar Club about 6 years ago. The radius guides and the mini ruler are invaluable. If I had only gotten paid for all that work!!!

+1000. I have that book. It's an excellent book to help you learn how to do setups.

One thing I just found out that could drastically affect sustain is the condition fo the frets as well. If the frets are flat or buzzing, the notes won't ring as true as if the frets crowned properly. This is why you need to take the guitar to a professional every so often.

The pickups could also contribute to the lack of sustain. Traditional single coil pickups have alot of string pull. I put the EMG David Gilmour set in my Malmsteen xtrat and it sustains for days now- more than my Les Paul. Their tone is an acquired taste though, a bit compressed.

If you have an American strat, is the neck flush in the neck pocket? Fender's micro tilt adjustment kills sustain and it really isn't needed. Try loosening the neck bolts, loosen that micro tilt all the way so that the bolt doesn't protrude, then tighten the neck back into the pocket. Here's a good guide

http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/El_Guitar_Neck_Angle.htm.

If you've done some minor woodworking and have a steady hand and a drill, you can install these machine bolts and replace the wood screws that hold the neck in. I installed them on my Malmsteen strat, and there is an immediate improvement in tone and sustain since they provide a much tighter fit or hold than wood screws.

http://www.onyxforgeguitars.com/Insert kit.html

Seriously, I'd take the guitar to a good tech the first time. After the guitar is initially set up good by a pro it's easy to make your own adjustments and future setups as needed, especially with Dan Erlewine's book. Usually all it will need is a quarter turn of the truss rod either way twice a year.

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: fender strat setup

If you have an American strat, is the neck flush in the neck pocket? Fender's micro tilt adjustment kills sustain and it really isn't needed. Try loosening the neck bolts, loosen that micro tilt all the way so that the bolt doesn't protrude, then tighten the neck back into the pocket.

Really good advice. The microtilt system is a very very bad idea which also has a tendency to crack fingerboards...

Seriously, I'd take the guitar to a good tech the first time.

More good advice.

In my experience however nothing is more important for sustain than the following checklist, in no particular order:

1. The neck should be tight in the pocket.
2. Tuners should be properly fitted. Make sure the ferrules on sealed gear tuners are a snug fit and, if necessary shim out the holes in the headstock so that the stubs on the tuner bodies fit snugly.
3. Get a proper nut. Fender's cyclovac is OK, bone is better, phosphor bronze and stainless steel are the ultimate for harmonic retention; a lot of the perception of sustain comes not from the retention of the fundamental, but the higher harmonics which are diminished by softer materials. If you have a roller nut of any description, or a synthetic like "Wilkaloid" get shot of it.

4. Make sure your tuner wrap is neat and secure. This is probably the most common cause of loss of sustain in the guitars that I see. Kids wind yards of string on which acts like a spring on the end of the string, absorbing energy from the string at each vibration cycle. I am planning a short quicktime video on speed restringing which shows how best to optimise your tuner wrap.