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Post subject: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 2:38 pm
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I noticed that my bridge rattles no matter what string I play. What do you think is going on? I looked and pressed down on the bridge and saddles. I'm thinking it possibly is a screw somewhere under the bridge. What is the best way to diagnose?

I was really happy up to this point.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:57 pm
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IMO bridge/ saddles are not well set-up.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:51 pm
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stratele52 wrote:
IMO bridge/ saddles are not well set-up.


Everything was fine until today. I was playing my new amp then I noticed some noise so I was thinking it was the amp then I rolled the knob on the guitar and it was my guitar buzzing everywhere. It was not like this before today. I noticed that two of the strings popped out of the saddle and I placed them back in the groove but still buzzing. Awww!!

I'm not sure what went wrong but the only thing I can think of is either humidity dropped too low (usually I'm pretty good about this) or somehow the the bridge screws loosened. I will raise the bridge 2mm tomorrow to see if this fixes it. Someone on Offsetguitars said that this fixed their rattle problem. If not I'm going to order some new strings and try again.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 1:04 am
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The guitar may need a professional set up.

You seem to work as a blind man. All guitar adjustments may be measured before you work with, you'll know it they where right or wrong.

You must buy this book ;

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electr ... 0879309989


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:19 am
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somethingelse11 wrote:
Everything was fine until today.
(...)
two of the strings popped out of the saddle
(...)
or somehow the the bridge screws loosened.

Saddle screws loosening by themselves is not unusual on Mustangs. Check that first - by measuring the action.

somethingelse11 wrote:
I will raise the bridge 2mm tomorrow

The action on the guitar tells you how much you need to raise the saddles - that is, if they have dropped by themselves. Before you do anything else, measure the action.
And learn the habit of making a note of what you adjust, it's easier to return to the starting point.

somethingelse11 wrote:
If not I'm going to order some new strings and try again.

If your string set is old, the problem may be there.

On Fender support pages, you find owner's manuals and setup guides. Takes some time and a lot of setups to learn it well - Mustangs tend to have their tricks; like they often benefit from a shim...

And: if your guitar has never had a pro setup, it most likely is not at its best. I'd suggest you invest the way-below-a-hundred monetary units.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:55 am
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I'll hijack the topic a bit, and comment on this:
stratele52 wrote:
You must buy this book

Now, you and me both come from the printed book age - dinosaurs era.
Younger people rely on internet, they just don't buy books anymore.
And, it seems that the latest trend is to watch videos instead of reading web instructions - which for me is an abomination; somehow all instructional videos take forever to get to the point and take hours to show what could be read in seconds... So I feel they steal valuable minutes of my life. :wink:
The good side is, the information can be easily updated. The bad side is, there is so much info one doesn't know what to trust...


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:40 am
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jmattis wrote:
I'll hijack the topic a bit, and comment on this:
stratele52 wrote:
You must buy this book

Now, you and me both come from the printed book age - dinosaurs era.
Younger people rely on internet, they just don't buy books anymore.
And, it seems that the latest trend is to watch videos instead of reading web instructions - which for me is an abomination; somehow all instructional videos take forever to get to the point and take hours to show what could be read in seconds... So I feel they steal valuable minutes of my life. :wink:
The good side is, the information can be easily updated. The bad side is, there is so much info one doesn't know what to trust...



+1000 :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:56 am
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jmattis wrote:
somethingelse11 wrote:
Everything was fine until today.
(...)
two of the strings popped out of the saddle
(...)
or somehow the the bridge screws loosened.

Saddle screws loosening by themselves is not unusual on Mustangs. Check that first - by measuring the action.

somethingelse11 wrote:
I will raise the bridge 2mm tomorrow

The action on the guitar tells you how much you need to raise the saddles - that is, if they have dropped by themselves. Before you do anything else, measure the action.
And learn the habit of making a note of what you adjust, it's easier to return to the starting point.

somethingelse11 wrote:
If not I'm going to order some new strings and try again.

If your string set is old, the problem may be there.

On Fender support pages, you find owner's manuals and setup guides. Takes some time and a lot of setups to learn it well - Mustangs tend to have their tricks; like they often benefit from a shim...

And: if your guitar has never had a pro setup, it most likely is not at its best. I'd suggest you invest the way-below-a-hundred monetary units.


I was restless last night and mucked about. Raising the bridge didn't fix that rattle so I knew that wasn't the culprit.

When I finally got the strings off. The Squier has the cigar all the way down so after many attempts I had to raise it several mm. I found a YouTube video that kinda briefly went over the Mustang tremelo. I'll say that it is a shame that the Mustang or many guitars for that matter don't come with instruction manuals.

My conclusion was that it was the bridge height saddle screws. This was after restringing and the problem still persists. I finally got the rattle to stop by turning a few of the saddle screws. They seem to have worked loose and potentionally is a thread problem. I realize now that the bridge is actually a jaguar bridge so I'm thinking it probably will save me a lot of headaches in the future and just get the proper Mustang bridge. Would this be a drop in replacement?

If anybody wants to send me the measurements then I would love to have those for reference. A mechanical rattle is a hard thing to diagnosis so I'm not trying to beat myself up. The only way to figure out what was going on was trail by error.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:11 pm
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Fender probably wants to save the forests, so their owner's manuals are in the web: Fender Owner's Manuals

So, my guess on the saddle screws loosening by themselves was right. Since you messed the bridge height on the bridge posts, start again from scratch:
Tune the guitar, check the relief, adjust if needed. It's a 9.5" radius neck with a 24" scale, so very little relief will do.
Preadjust saddle height screws; follow the neck radius and leave adjustment space to go up or down later.
Adjust the whole bridge height from the posts so you have proper action - don't know your preferences, but try 1,8mm/.07" for starters.
Do the final adjustment by revisiting the individual saddle screws - you may want to flatten the radius just one red aunt hair, or set the bass side higher/treble side lower. When you're ready, secure the screws - you can use nail polish, hot glue gun, Loctite Blue/Green, plumber's tape, dental floss etc. But if you don't, the problem will return.

BTW - that advice is only to get the guitar back to where it was before, roughly speaking.
The nut, neck angle, frets, vibrato etc. are still to consider. Again, use a pro - it's a lot easier to maintain a proper setup than to create one.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:06 pm
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jmattis wrote:
Fender probably wants to save the forests, so their owner's manuals are in the web: Fender Owner's Manuals

So, my guess on the saddle screws loosening by themselves was right. Since you messed the bridge height on the bridge posts, start again from scratch:
Tune the guitar, check the relief, adjust if needed. It's a 9.5" radius neck with a 24" scale, so very little relief will do.
Preadjust saddle height screws; follow the neck radius and leave adjustment space to go up or down later.
Adjust the whole bridge height from the posts so you have proper action - don't know your preferences, but try 1,8mm/.07" for starters.
Do the final adjustment by revisiting the individual saddle screws - you may want to flatten the radius just one red aunt hair, or set the bass side higher/treble side lower. When you're ready, secure the screws - you can use nail polish, hot glue gun, Loctite Blue/Green, plumber's tape, dental floss etc. But if you don't, the problem will return.

BTW - that advice is only to get the guitar back to where it was before, roughly speaking.
The nut, neck angle, frets, vibrato etc. are still to consider. Again, use a pro - it's a lot easier to maintain a proper setup than to create one.


I lowered the bridge back down and that gave me 1.9mm on the treble side and 2.3mm at the bass side. I would have to lower the saddles to go any lower but because I didn't mess with them besides small tweaks to eliminate the rattle I have let them be.

I noticed that after restringing and setting up that the guitar now has better intonation than when I received it. I also adjusted the pickups so that they are 1.9mm on the treble side and 2.3mm on the bass side. Sounds better now too.

Last night when the strings came off I conditioned the fretboard and polished the frets. When the strings went back on I polished the guitar. I finally removed the plastic from the pick guard and noticed there looks to be another piece of plastic underneath? Weird...

All in all I fixed the rattle and the guitar plays like butter now with 9s. So I'm happy!!

Only real hang up was trying to remove the strings last night. The cigar was so low I had to search how to move it up. Before I got to that point though I scratched the bridge plate a little trying to force the low e and a string out. Now the cigar is high in the air and the strings will never have a problem getting threw again. It is a reminder to clip strings before removing them!


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified Mustang bridge rattle?
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:13 pm
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Oh one last thing. The high E string (ball end) got stuck in the cigar and was shocked that this wasn't the problem because the string was toast. Next time this happens do you have any tips how to remove it? That was a real hassle.

But then again, I have no idea how Fender managed to string this guitar because the cigar box was ALL the way down. :evil:


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