in the words of the lovely Shirley Mason: I think I'm paranoid
casper leblanc
Posts: 1,246
So I got my new tele back from the tech for set-up for gauge .010 and the .010-.046 are on. Only thing: it just doesn't feel good anymore. I don't know what it is: the action is a bit higher now, but not more than the other tele. But the weirdest thing is that the strings don't feel comfortable, even though I've been playing .010's for a long time now. The high E doesn't ring through and when barred hardly rings at all.
Before I brought it in, it had amazing action, no buzz and, so the guy I bought it from told me, .009-.046 gauge.
I don't know, I feel like I'm going paranoid and just putting too much attention on this guitar. I have been feeling weird lately cause of personal issues (mostly work related) and most likely I am projecting some anger and frustration into that. But still: that high E string sucks.
Before I brought it in, it had amazing action, no buzz and, so the guy I bought it from told me, .009-.046 gauge.
I don't know, I feel like I'm going paranoid and just putting too much attention on this guitar. I have been feeling weird lately cause of personal issues (mostly work related) and most likely I am projecting some anger and frustration into that. But still: that high E string sucks.
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replace the E and/or above all STOP WORRYING.
and Shirley Manson rocks.... sooo hot... mm.. yes..
http://www.wishlistfoundation.org
Oh my, they dropped the leash.
Morgan Freeman/Clint Eastwood 08' for President!
"Make our day"
read some online guides to setups (fender.com has some) etc. and have at it.
the last time my tele was set up at the shop after describing what i wanted, it was terrible. i had taken it in to get a new nut cut and figured that my own setup work was probably bad and to let a pro do it. bad results. this was a combination of my not being able to accurately relay what i wanted and just a bad setup. it buzzed like hell. so i just had to tweak it myself.
I'm not to eager on messing with it myself. I'm a technical nitwit. I checked Fender.com, and this is basically Chinese to me
Neck Radius
7.25"
9.5" to 12"
15" to 17"
String Height
Bass Side
5/64" (2 mm)
4/64" (1.6 mm)
4/64" (1.6 mm)
Treble Side
4/64" (1.6 mm)
4/64" (1.6 mm)
3/64" (1.2 mm)
Anyway, I measured my action at fret 17, and the low E string is 4 mm (0.15 inches) from the fret board and the high E is 3 mm (0.11 inches from the board). Rest is somewhere in between I guess. Does this sound okay?
And yes, I need to stop worrying...
And yes, Shirley Manson is hot
Thos numbers I posted above, are those the distances it ideally should have? If the base strings are on 2 mm at the highest, that's still half of what I got going here. Maybe I should give it a go myself...
edit: oops, small mistake. I measured it wrong. The low E is 3 mm or 0.11 inches. I measured to the board, not the fret, which makes for a mm difference.
Ok, Pearlwax.
Take a deep breath,
In, phhhhwwwwwwwwww
Out, hhhhwwwwwwffffffoooooooooooo
It's gonna be ok, my friend.
You are going to learn to do this yourself.
I know you can do it, man.
It might be too much neck relief, too high string action, and also pickups might need height adjustment:
1) The first thing you need to do is check your neck relief. Relief is the amount of upward bow that your neck has. A totally flat neck may buzz if everything isn't perfect.
Take your capo and put it on the first fret, and put your finger on the highest fret (near the pickups). Measure the distance between the TOP of the 7th fret to the bottom of the high E string while the guitar is in playing position. It should be about .010 for your neck for a 9.5 to 12inch radius. The chart in your first post is a radius chart. (The amount of arc crosswise on the fingerboard for different Fenders. You probably have the 9.5 to 12" radius.)
If you can't measure that, take 2 pieces of paper and they should move with a little resistance under the string at the 7th fret.
If this is good, leave it and go to the next step.
If the paper too loose, then you need to tighten your truss rod nut. Take the truss rod adjusting nut cover off at the tuner area, if that's where it is. ( if the cover isn't there, then you have to remove the neck to get to it, and you don't want to do this yet. Take it to the shop and tell'm to get it right this time.) Take a wrench and tighten it 1/4 turn. Wait a few minutes and check the relief again.
This is a bit scary if you haven't done it before, but you aren't going to mess anything up. The reason is:
You are, without fail, going to account for each amount of turn you make on that nut with your pencil and paper! Remember that you can ALWAYS bring it back to where it started from as long as you know how much you turned it before.
Let it settle and when your papers move a bit freely, move to the next paragraph.
Ok, next,
2) String action.
If your neck relief was off before, and you adjusted it, you may be fine now. If you didn't change your neck relief, your strings DO seem too high off the frets. Adjust the saddle hex screws downward if you have that tiny little allen wrench. (Loosening counter clockwise) to lower the saddle.
Remember! Account for each amount that you loosen. Each 1/4 turn or so. Write it down!!!!! Bring it to the Fender specs, or to where you can play without the strings buzzing. Remember that you can ALWAYS bring it back if you write it down.
The Fender Specs aren't always the best playing spot for a guitar. They are really just to get the neck and string height, etc to a starting point. There is no set way that they should be. If you play hard, you'll need higher action to not have fret buzz, if you have a light touch, you can have a lower action. Just one of those facts of life.
3) If your neck relief is out, or your strings are too high, they might be too far away from the pickups, so that you loose the chimey sound. (Hmm, I suddenly feel like a Chimay Ale!
Look up your pickups on the Fender setup guide. Fret the top high E string and measure. If it's too far away, bring the pickup up with the screws on the ends. The High E may need to be closer than the Low E. It just depends.
If the pickups are too close, you lose the chime, and the magnetic pull of a single coil will mess up the string action and pull it out of tune, too.. There is no exact, because each pickup has a sweet spot where it's best. A good thing to learn by ear, too.
Those are three things that all guitarists would do well to know. You really can get a guitar's action to your liking that way.
The other thing it may be, is that some strings feel a little different than others. Might be just some bad strings but you should set your guitar up anyway.
It probably will take you longer to read this than it will to actually do it, once you get used to it.
4) The last thing you may need to do after you make any adjustments is intonation. That is where the 12th fret should be the same note as the corresponding open string. You can do that with a tuner, and you adjust it at the end of the saddle. If the 12th fret is sharper than the open string, move the saddle back a bit. If it's flat, move the saddle forward. (If you can't figure that out, just fiddle with it until the tuner reads the same for the open string and the same at the 12th fret.
All simple stuff. A Tele is the EASIEST guitar to work on, too!
Good luck, dude!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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The low E (The one highest off the floor?) They do just tend to buzz when you hit really hard. You could try to raise just that saddle and see what happens. It'll be a bit higher than the other strings, but it's a good experiment and it may not take much, either.
You probably wouldn't want to curve the whole neck out for one string buzzing, but it would be good for you to check the neck relief anyway. That's always the starting point when you set up the guitar.
I've felt a lot of people's guitars backstage before. You'd be surprised how high the action is on some great blues players, because they bend big time,,, and hard rock or punk rhythm guitarists. You need it like that to be able to wail hard on the strings.
If there's just a bit of buzz that doesn't show through the amp, that's sort of normal, but if it's coming through, and you don't want it, raise the action a bit.
It's amazing how quickly fingers get used to higher action, too.
Good luck!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Cool!
Another possibility. If your neck is too straight, it may benefit from loosening your truss rod nut a bit, giving it a tiny bit of outward bow. Then you lower the string saddles on all the strings to your best string action. That might take away some of that buzz, too.
If you take the guitar and hold it in playing position and sight down the neck towards a strong light you can even eyeball it a bit.
It may take a bit of experimenting to get it right.
That's why I always recommend trying it yourself. It takes some getting used to, but once you fool with it a bit, you can tweak to your heart's content!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Which way and about how much would I adjust the truss rod? I'm tempted to just bring some tools to a lesson and go through it with my teacher since he's a Strat guy as well.
Think of it that way.
So if you want the neck to bow outward a bit, you loosen the nut a bit (Counterclockwise) and it relieves the tension on the rod. The strings will pull the neck out a bit.
If you tighten the nut, it will bend the neck backward because you are creating more tension on the rod.
Only do it in small increments. Sometimes 1/4 turn is too much, but it's a good reference. Like I said above, always account for every amount you turn it. Write down each time you move it.
It's good to learn how to do this because things will change due to temperature and humidity changes, string changes.
These are the things to learn to become independant of paying for a setup:
Put on strings
Check neck relief
Set string action
Adjust pickup height
Intonate strings
There's most of a set up.
Then you can learn all the other stuff and know guitars inside and out. I know quite a bit, but there are true masters of the art of lutherie. What that gets you is a house full of unfinished/ almost working/ just needs this one tiny part before I can play it/ guitars!
I have my Taylor, my Deluxe Strat, and Es 335 that are usable now because i never tried to improve them! The rest?,,,, Someday!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Thing is: I've been going through some personal issues. I have a possible job change coming soon which means a hell of lot to me and I'm having a hard time placing it and other stuff. Lot's of stupid neurotic behavior going on and some 'outside stuff' has been getting the full load. The guitar is just one of them (trust me, you don't wanna know the rest).
But anyway, Bob, dear Bob, despite your wonderful tutorial (which has been useful, it's always good to know these things) , I just went back to the guitar shop and guess what: the guy said I could just bring it in again. He said he as well thought the guitar played pretty rough with the new strings and set-up... Go figure.
So I said it actually felt a lot better before, when I just bought it and now he's gonna try some softer strings, another brand and re-adjust the action as low as possible, no charge. 'We'll keep at it untill it's perfect', he said. I felt pretty embarrassed, I hope this guy doesn't come on here and read my crazy ramblings
So anyway, dear friends, my apologies for acting like a total fucked up nitwit. I'll try to control myself in the future. I'm glad at least someone else got something out of the thread, and out of Bob's fine craftmanship
so uhm... Cheers!
I almost always get my stuff set up to 8/32's because one time I was reading through Carvin Material and they set up each new guitar to that and I love the way they play so that's where they all are. So go figure. I would be so happy if Duvel and Chimay weren't 6 bucks a pop here.