Strat Set-up

[roger bayliss]

I have been setting up my strat for sometime to find the optimum sound from it and got quite frustrated at times especially with trying to get plenty of volume from the treble side. I eventually hit the nail when I foind that the bass strings notably the A need to be lifted amd just a 1/4 turn on that string made all the difference to tone. I found that starting around 4-5 64ths on the top E and gradually raising the action across the rest gave the best results overall. I am now sane again!!!

Thought I would share this with folks to save anyone going through any mental health issues like me .

I read about SRV and his no 1 guitar was set up for high action starting at 5 64ths and raising to arounf 8 64ths at bass end across the board and that does give a great shads tone IMHO with fat strings and good plectrum technique. If the bass end is down to much it sucks the tone !

[ecca]

8 64ths ?

[dave robinson]

Call it 1/16

[JimN]

Or even 1/8th.

[Bluesnote]

Rodger! I was setting mine up given some guidance from a guy on youtube, he set all the strings at 4/ 64ths with the measurement taken from the 17 fret. I set mine to this and still have the problem you had with the lack of volume and clarity on the top strings. What fret did you take your measurement from?
Hugh.

[ecca]

8/64ths? 4/64ths ?
What's wrong with 1/8th and 1/16th ?

[dave robinson]

Or even 1/8th.

1/8th would be too high for me.

[Bluesnote]

8/64ths? 4/64ths ?
What's wrong with 1/8th and 1/16th ?

That was my question too. Does'nt seem to make any sense to me but thats the way the luthiers measure the string heights.
The instructions I was going by, they suggested I purchase one of these special rules to set up the guitar wiv 64ths
Aye that'll be right
The rule I've got does 16ths and thats fine by me
If they had really wanted to mess with my head they could have done it in metric
Hugh.

[roger bayliss]

Rodger! I was setting mine up given some guidance from a guy on youtube, he set all the strings at 4/ 64ths with the measurement taken from the 17 fret. I set mine to this and still have the problem you had with the lack of volume and clarity on the top strings. What fret did you take your measurement from?
Hugh.

Hugh the standard place is at the 17th fret but some quote the 12th fret. I was quoting the SRV set=up from an article I read and those measurements were made at the 12th fret so they would be even higher at the 17th fret. All the books and many experienced players will say high action = tone !

I have tried the 4-5 64ths across the fret board and te tone is 'thin' and most of my guitar heros played with high action and they are right of course and I had to go through all of this to work it out for myself ! but it does work ! lift the bass strings and you get thicker tone overall and that is what you need for playing lead lines in instrumental guitar. Should have realised really because that is how most accoustic guitars are done and my Gibson 335.

The thing that set me off on all this experimentation was looking at the guitars of others at the clubs and seeing the strings following the fret curvature on a strat very often and it set me thinking about setting my own guitar up for best action for lead instrumental work. In the end it produces a weedy tone to my ears and thats what I concluded after weeks of trial and tribulation and frustration. What sounded OK at home did not work out at the big club room the way I wanted to hear it.

I hope this is of any benifit to other folks because I worked very hard and thoughtfully trying every variation and this was my final conclusion albeit that there may well be luthiers and other pros and the like out there that already knew it ! Sad but I had to go through it

Anyway my guitar rings out with great volume and tone now so I think I got there in the end !

HTH

ps 4 x 64s = 1/16th so SRV had his bass strings about a 1/8 inch in the air. I always though HBM first srat had lower action but I bet it did not

In the end I have not measured my own but listen to how each string rings out and the volume of it against the other adjacent strings till it gave a great sound. The action is quite high though something like what it was before I started to mess around ... in other words I should not have bothered messing... but you do don't you arggghhhhh !

Read the Wilki article on SRV Number One here and see what I mean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Ray ... nstruments

[Bluesnote]

Hi Rodger. Thanks for the info once again I find that the more the bass strings are raised, the harder it makes the action as in pushing down for awkward chords but so be it. I'll dig out the Allen key once again today and start all over
I had actually made the bass strings slighly under the measurement instead of what you suggest, so I guess thats the problem.
Martin Taylor said in one of his instruction videos that when he has a guitar built he instructs the luthier to make the action higher than normal as he finds apart from the tone, helps him dig into the strings more and gets more response off the instrument, and I'm sure you know the way he plays a guitar, it must be right, it certainly does'nt hold back his playing in any way.
In my earlier years as a player, I always used 9 guage strings to suit the music I was playing at the time, and the action was as low as possible to get the fastest fingerboard possible at the cost of tone, (in those days most of us were using all kinds of effects that gave us tone in many different ways) so with going back to the Shads music and the heavy strings I naturally wanted to make the action easier even more so, but it dont work that way I suppose. I remember when I started with my first electric (14 years old) we did'nt have the option of mega light strings, I could only get the flatwounds where I stayed and they must have been 11s or 12s and never gave it a thought about the action or how hard it was to play, just got on with it. I've been wasted over the years
Just reading that bio of Stevies. I'd never have thought it feasible to use these mega high guage strings that he did for playing that fast and furious music he did over his career, its certainly opened my eyes, if someone gave me a guitar set up like that to play, I'd think there was something wrong with it, or badly in need of a service. You never stop learning in this game do you?
Hugh.