What happened?

Steelrz13

Steelrz13

New member
I recently bought a mini humbucker to put in the neck of my strat, and once I installed it I was fretting out like crazy on the first 3 strings. So I had to raise my action a ton for my guitar to be playable again. But what I can't figure out is what happened. Before the pickup it played fine.

The only conclusion I could come to is the extra pull on the strings from the humbucker caused it. I was just wondering what you guys think because I can't stand my action being this high.
 
Re: What happened?

maybe your neck relief changed marginally when you took all your stings off. Have you changed guage at all? DId you leave the strings off for any period of time?
did you try lowering the pickups before you raised the action?
there are a lot of variables here, but in my experience, putting a humbucker in a strat has not increased string pull enough to do what you have described.
 
Re: What happened?

When you say mini humbucker, do you mean the small, metal-covered Gibson/Epiphone pickup associated with the LP Deluxe and Sheraton? Do you mean a single coil-sized hum-cancelling pickup such as the Hot Rails? Do you mean a stacked coil hum-cancelling pickup such as the Stack range?

It should be possible to set the Gib/Ep pickup pretty close to your strings without Stratitis. Indeed, the greatest problem could be a mismatch between the polepiece heights and the fingerboard radius.

In the cases of either a side-by-side or vertically-stacked Stratocaster replacement pickups, the trick is not to set them too close to the strings.

Erm, it might help us to know the exact variety of Stratocaster on which you are working.
 
Re: What happened?

I have not changed gauge but yes my strings were off for a few hours while I changed the pickup.

The specific pickup is the dimarzio pro track. Similar to the hot rails. My strat is a MIM deluxe players strat with a full humbucker bridge, single middle and mini HB neck.
 
Re: What happened?

+1

Judging by DiMarzio's own millivolt statistics, the Pro Track has roughly double the output of a typical vintage style single coil. It would be entirely reasonable to set this new pickup considerably further away from the strings than the previous one.
 
Re: What happened?

Did you adjust the trussrod at all while you had the neck off?
Also check the strings at the saddles to make sure they didn't slip out of place when restringing.
 
Re: What happened?

It sounds like something shifted with the bridge with all the strings off. I'm with DrNewcenstein, I'd take a closer look at the saddles.
 
Re: What happened?

DrNewcenstein said:
check the strings at the saddles to make sure they didn't slip out of place when restringing.
Click to expand...

Vintage style stamped steel saddles have nothing to guide the string alignment. If the height adjustment leaves the top edge of the saddle at a slope (side to side), the string will pull itself towards the lowest point on the saddle break point edge.

That90'sGuy said:
It sounds like something shifted with the bridge with all the strings off. I'm with DrNewcenstein, I'd take a closer look at the saddles.
Click to expand...

I agree that something might have shifted while all of the strings were off.

First thing that I would check is the neck joint. Second thing is to see that nothing is fouling the vibrato tension springs in their cavity.

Steelrz13 said:
yes, my strings were off for a few hours while I changed the pickup.
Click to expand...

Did you remove or slacken anything else in order to work on the pickguard/electronics assembly? (My thought here is that the MIM deluxe players strat has a twenty two fret neck with a fingerboard extension. If you slackened off the neck anchor screws to get the pickguard up, the neck might not have reseated correctly.)
 
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Re: What happened?

Hmmm. Then it's gotta be the neck. I can't imagine a pickup pulling so hard as to have rampant fret-out.
 
Re: What happened?

My strat has 21 frets and no I did not loosen the neck screws or anything like that. I checked my truss rod and it is set to the right relief. As for the saddles I'm not sure what you guys want me to check for, but it is a vintage style tremelo.
 
Re: What happened?

Magnetic pull isn't that strong.

I think your pickup is simply in the way of the strings.
 
Re: What happened?

Well its not my pickup because I took them out of the guitar and had the same problem. The only thing I think it could be would be the neck but I have no idea what to do with it.
 
Re: What happened?

Usual suspects are S Curve, raised tongue or the neck has shifted in its pocket somehow.
 
Re: What happened?

Honestly, I'd just bring it in for setup. I learned how to work on most guitar related stuff myself just so i wouldnt go through the horrible confusion youre going through.

it wouldnt make sense to blame the pickup. its just not realistic.

if you took the strings off, you probably knocked some adjustment out of whack by mistake. its not hard to set up a strat, check out the fender website, theres a section that says how-to.

Other than that, id just like to mention that it's insanely hard to work out a buzz on a guitar over the web just by word of mouth, dont feel like we cant help you, just remember: it's hard because we're not in the same room with you, holding the guitar.
 
Re: What happened?

uOpt said:
I think your pickup is simply in the way of the strings.
Click to expand...
this is what it sounds like to me.

you haven't fitted it without the springs have you?
i'm guessing your strat body may not be routed for a minibucker, which is why you couldn't get it low enough
 
Re: What happened?

According to post #13, the rattle occurs even with no pickups in the guitar. Thus, the problem is mechanical.

On a two-pivot vibrato, check the stud heights have not shifted while the strings were off.

There is a test that can be performed on the neck joint but I am reluctant to describe it here.

Final thought. Re-using the old strings can cause problems. Try a brand new set.
 
Re: What happened?

astrozombie said:
how sure are you it didnt buzz before?
Click to expand...

I'm absolutely sure that it wasn't fretting out before this. Something happened but I have no idea what.

I've set up my guitars and many of my friends so I know what I'm doing here. I've gone through a whole setup with the old and new strings and still had the problem. The weird part is the new strings made it worse and I had to raise the strings even more.

The only conclusion I can come to is it's the neck or frets.
 
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