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I found this recently which appears to confirm that Hank Marvin used to set up the action on his guitars for low action (without buzzing).
See page 23 of the book.



https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OW3C93J3Yc0C&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=shadows+guitar+action&source=bl&ots=tK2TYz3FDi&sig=6g630fXUYWwy_7wI8kUlQ3n8T7k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1p8uYoP_KAhVMvxQKHdMEDHQQ6AEITDAI#v=onepage&q=shadows%20guitar%20action&f=false

I think that information was about him setting up his Hofner guitar- not the Strat..

It does mention the strat and the paper under the string at the nut needed due to low action (probably done by Hank himself)

Personally, I think low action would be desired with the really heavy strings to get the right twang on the low end.

Why would Hank set up the Hofner and not the strat. The very fact paper was under the strings must lead to the conclusion that he had done some setting up to the strat and that lead to the need for the paper at the nut.

roger bayliss wrote:It does mention the strat and the paper under the string at the nut needed due to low action (probably done by Hank himself)

Personally, I think low action would be desired with the really heavy strings to get the right twang on the low end.

Why would Hank set up the Hofner and not the strat. The very fact paper was under the strings must lead to the conclusion that he had done some setting up to the strat and that lead to the need for the paper at the nut.

You'd probably call it adjustment rather than setting-up. I'm not sure whether a 1957 Hofner Congress had an adjustable truss-rod (probably not) but even if it did, truss-rod adjustment was a bit of a black art right up through the 1960s. I'm prepared to bet that Hank never touched the body-end adjuster on the Strat. And that he never had an allen key!

JimN wrote:

roger bayliss wrote:It does mention the strat and the paper under the string at the nut needed due to low action (probably done by Hank himself)

Personally, I think low action would be desired with the really heavy strings to get the right twang on the low end.

Why would Hank set up the Hofner and not the strat. The very fact paper was under the strings must lead to the conclusion that he had done some setting up to the strat and that lead to the need for the paper at the nut.

You'd probably call it adjustment rather than setting-up. I'm not sure whether a 1957 Hofner Congress had an adjustable truss-rod (probably not) but even if it did, truss-rod adjustment was a bit of a black art right up through the 1960s. I'm prepared to bet that Hank never touched the body-end adjuster on the Strat. And that he never had an allen key!

Hank does say he did not go as far as truss rod adjustment in the article Jim. I would hazard a guess that the Fenders would ship with an allen key and Hank was able to adjust the bridge on the strat. Why would he need paper under the nut on a fairly new strat ? To me that means the strat must have had some adjustments made to the action for playability and sound. I cannot imagine a strat of that quality shipping with rattles and buzzing. Hank in his own words states he was capable of adjusting the action height. He also stated he did not touch truss rods.

Maybe the buzzing came from using a different set of British strings when he eventually changed from the original Fender strings which came with the guitar.

Could also have been too low action, which can cause buzz on an open string by vibrating against the first fret if the nut slots are too low for individual strings..

Either way, as Jim says, who knows? Nobody knew bugger all about all this stuff back then- adjusting the bridge height was about it for most players...if they even dared to touch that?

Surely, the body-end truss rod adjustment was made with a flat blade screwdriver.

I'm sure that my ' 63 sunburst Strat, which I wish I had now,
didn't use an allen key.

Pat.

It's well documented that the famous 34346 was ordered with some spare strings...
When the Fender strings did go belly up, it's not to difficult to thinks what happend with the "new strings" apparently some where not of the same thickness and where "ratteling"in the nut....and buzzing away on the fretboard...so hence the paper??.

Just my 2p.

Cheers Rob

roger bayliss wrote:Hank does say he did not go as far as truss rod adjustment in the article Jim. I would hazard a guess that the Fenders would ship with an allen key and Hank was able to adjust the bridge on the strat. Why would he need paper under the nut on a fairly new strat ? To me that means the strat must have had some adjustments made to the action for playability and sound. I cannot imagine a strat of that quality shipping with rattles and buzzing. Hank in his own words states he was capable of adjusting the action height. He also stated he did not touch truss rods.

It is possible that Fenders were equipped with an allen key on shipment (after all, they used to come with a little booklet which explained how to make action adjustments) but in my experience, Strats were routinely traded without any adjustment keys when s/h, which probably means they tended to be lost.

Similarly, in the second half of the sixties, the tremolo arm was almost always missing, as was the bridge cover. As a matter of fact, I have a little collection of original 1960s tremolo arms and bridge covers (don't ask...).

The real question, which people have tried to answer, is what condition causes rattling on the lower frets, thereby necessitating paper in the nut.

It has to be one of two things.

The obvious fault would be the nut slots cut too deeply. But that is unlikely unless Hank cut them deeper himself.

The other fault which causes lower-fret rattle - as I am sure you know - is an over-straight neck. Even a dead straight neck will have a certain amount of low-fret string noise when played hard and if the neck has a backward bow, the strings will rattle like mad when played open, hence the apparent need for raising the height of the nut.

I am in agreement with the last comments JN.

What I understand about guitarists who straighten the neck to perfectly flat is that they tend to have to raise the action higher to avoid any fret buzzing. It is the only way to go with a perfectly straight neck.

You can therefore get the action lower with a degree of relief in the neck. Typically 10 thou. Hank said he did not touch truss rods as he did not have the technical understanding. My guess is as he lowered the action the rattles came and he tried to compensate by raising the nut height with paper.

We have discussed before about the dead sounding D string on Apache at least, and if the action was high I would expect the strings to ring out cleanly. I therefore suggest Hank did lower the action as far as he could get it and that was the reason for the deadness in the strings as well as using old strings till they rusted or dropped off as he put it. Hank was about 18years old at this time and it seems he and others were learning about these things as they went.

I personally cannot see any other explanation other than low action.