help needed with a strat
GotShit9
Posts: 6
so, i got my first strat, standard mim, black. all i've played before was an epiphone special II which was damn easy to restring. the strat came with.009 strings so i thought bout changing to my usual .010, thought it was just as easy as it was with my epiphone. so i put the new strings on, start tuning and the tremolo thingie (bridge, or whutever it's called) starts coming up. now the neck is all concave and i really dunno whut to do to get my beloved strat to sing the way it used to. any help will be appreciated (the more explicit the better). thnx
Life's tough.
It's tougher if you're stupid.
It's tougher if you're stupid.
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"Japan is awesome; the fans there knew all the words to all the songs...at least phonetically." - Stone
"I know this song so well, I can smoke a cigarette, have a drink, brush my teeth, take a shit, and mow the lawn while singing it. But I'll only be doing a couple of those things during this version." - EV
You'll have to resetup your guitar. For information look at http://www.mrgearhead.com/faq/stratsetup.html
What I did:
1.
Tighten the screws of the tremolo springs on the back. Just remove the backplate! You could also add some more springs. Usually there are 3. When using 5 it will result in more tension. When you want a floating trem, create that much tension that it floates about 1-2mm over the body (look for Fender specs above!). If you don't use the trem anyway (like me), you could also tighten it that much that it's flush with the body. Will result in more tuning stability. I'd suggest to use 5 springs in this case though.
This is the most improtant thing when changing string gauge!
2.
Do the other usual setups like truss-rod adjustment for neck relief, saddle height and intonation!
If you don't feel confident to do it yourself, get some help. Actually it's not too easy to kill your guitar though if you do the adjustments with care!
Another good resource for all Strat related: http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?db=&message_area_number=16
Good luck with your guitar!
Steve
Your Epi had a stop tail piece (fixed) so it's difficult to notice the tension's effect on your neck and intonation. Intonation may be the most important part of the whole deal because if it's out of whack, nothing sounds right at all.
The trem on your strat is not fixed so you can see what it has done to your intonation.
More than likely you'll need to add a spring to the tremolo accessed by the aforementioned back plate though 3 should be more than enough for 10's.
Since you aren't really experienced I recommend finding a guitar shop with a luthier and paying him a nominal fee (around 30 bucks) to properly set up your guitar for 10's and set your intonation for you. This will make it a joy to play and you will find it well worth the money.
When you add tension you also have to tighten the truss rod (accessed under the truss rod cover at the top of the finger board or on some guitars (not yours) at the neck joint. The truss rod bends both ways but it's designed so that you can properly adjust the neck for the gauge strings you plan on using.
steve, when you say "Tighten the screws of the tremolo springs on the back" whut exactly do ya mean?? think i've never actually seen those but if ya elaborate or show a pic or sumthing guess i'll do it myself
on the other hand paco may be rite and i should take it to a qualified luthier (not a lot around here tho). is all the setup really hard to do?? should i take the risk of the DIY??
It's tougher if you're stupid.
As you can see I'm using 5 springs, you'll probably have 3. Tighten the marked screws until the tremolo is floating ~1/8" over the body.
It's tougher if you're stupid.
Gotshit9, you'll probably be fine with just adjusting the tremelo springs.
If the neck comes out a little concave you can tighten the truss rod like 1/8th of a turn at a time, let it sit and try it. (Righty tighty/ lefty Lucy)
If the frets buzz too much after you tighten it, loosen the rod a wee bit. That's a good thing to learn to do, it's pretty easy as long as you don't turn things too much. Very subtle motions are usually all you need, and it's great to be able to fine tune that stuff yourself. You can always take it in to a tech for a set up if that all doesn't work.
Good luck
Next you'll be going to eleven's, my favorite strat strings!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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You may have already done your setup, but if not here's one thing to remember. If you adjust the neck only turn it about a 1/4 turn at a time. 1/4 turn is a decent amount of tweaking. After about a 1/4 turn or so recheck your string height. You don't want to do too much too fast.
Mine needed a neck adjustment anyway, so I decided to go ahead and do the string "upgrade" at this time. I needed almost a full 3/4 turn to get things back to where I was happy. That's quite a lot, maybe more than you'll need to do. If you're having trouble finding something to gauge the string height laying around the house, I found that the little metal sliding cover on a 3 1/4" floppy disk is about right. I set my action to be slightly higher than this mark. It will almost touch the string when sliding it under, but not quite
how do 11's feel??
It's tougher if you're stupid.
11's feel great to me. It's a bit of a finger toughening job but it comes. They drive the pickups and ring out well. You'll probably be fine with 10's for a while. See how you like them.
It's usually 1/8th inch allen wrench it think, but different strats have different rods. Take the whole guitar to a local hardware store and you can try and see. They're cheap and you can get a whole set for a few bucks. You want tiny ones to adjust the bridge saddles someday if you need
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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