It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:36 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Who out there changed gauge strings & had to readjust St
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:20 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:09 pm
Posts: 314
Location: Connecticut
How many of you out there went to a lighter gauge string set only to find out you had to readjust your whole guitar all over again? Or who changed gauges (preferrably) to a lighter gauge and just didn't want to mess with it? Ha?

_________________
Fender Natural reissue 70's Stratocaster!


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:50 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:44 am
Posts: 7282
Location: Washington
I have changed gauge of strings ...... and had to readjust the entire Strat's set up ..... many, many times over the years.

If you don't readjust, well, your guitar just won't be optimally set up. Try it.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:00 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:09 pm
Posts: 314
Location: Connecticut
orvilleowner wrote:
I have changed gauge of strings ...... and had to readjust the entire Strat's set up ..... many, many times over the years.

If you don't readjust, well, your guitar just won't be optimally set up. Try it.


Yeah, I know but Orville, are you a luthier because I'm not and don't have those tools like the 6" ruler that measure the distance from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string and all that. Was it just trial and error for you? I was also told that if I didn't do the claw screw thing right that I could mess my guitar up. Do you have all that experience & tools or did you just do it?

_________________
Fender Natural reissue 70's Stratocaster!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:08 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:44 am
Posts: 7282
Location: Washington
abombaci wrote:
Yeah, I know but Orville, are you a luthier because I'm not and don't have those tools like the 6" ruler that measure the distance from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string and all that. Was it just trial and error for you? I was also told that if I didn't do the claw screw thing right that I could mess my guitar up. Do you have all that experience & tools or did you just do it?


I am not a luthier or guitar tech. Now I have experience at it.

As for tools, you need some wire cutters, needle nose pliers, different size screwdrivers and allen wrenches. IMO, the most important things are

1) a good electronic tuner, and

2) the manual that describes how to do set ups (if you don't have the one that came with your guitar, you can find a pdf file on this website and print it out)

You can't really mess things up too bad. Just keep your wits and remember where you started so that you can go back to the way it was. And be careful that you don't slip with the screw drivers (you can really gouge up your finish if you aren't lucky).

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:15 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:51 pm
Posts: 2503
Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
Hello Abombaci,

For myself and many players
doing our own setups is
part of the fun.

I learned by the seat of my pants,
if your not confident take it
to a tech and ask if you can
watch, after seeing it happen
you'll feel more at ease
giving it a try,

Best of luck.

Cheers.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:35 pm
Offline
Roadie
Roadie
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:00 pm
Posts: 281
Location: PDX
Mr Bill wrote:
For myself and many players
doing our own setups is
part of the fun.


That's definately true. :D

I bought this gauge and really like it:
http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/product/0670

Also, here's a good run down of how to do the setup (make sure to go in order):
http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/tutorial1.htm

You should give it a try, you'll learn a lot about the guitar!

_________________
If TERROR is the enemy,
LOVE is the hero.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:50 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:33 am
Posts: 8461
Location: Mars, the angry red planet.
I think everyone here knows, I love Strats and as far as I'm concerned, they are the only model guitar on the planet for me.

I do believe that if players are serious about playing a Strat, they should learn how to do a great setup for themselves.

Now don't flame me here but I recommend learning how to do setups to the recommended specifications as only a starting point. Granted, if these factory specs work for you, fine but they definitely don't work for me. I advocate what I feel is more important: Intelligently deviate from the factory specs (which are pretty much, only a generalization any way) to where you can "fine tune" the guitar to your personal liking. Once you can accomplish this, you'll really love your Strat!.

_________________
You dig?


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:47 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:09 pm
Posts: 314
Location: Connecticut
Martian wrote:
I think everyone here knows, I love Strats and as far as I'm concerned, they are the only model guitar on the planet for me.

I do believe that if players are serious about playing a Strat, they should learn how to do a great setup for themselves.

Now don't flame me here but I recommend learning how to do setups to the recommended specifications as only a starting point. Granted, if these factory specs work for you, fine but they definitely don't work for me. I advocate what I feel is more important: Intelligently deviate from the factory specs (which are pretty much, only a generalization any way) to where you can "fine tune" the guitar to your personal liking. Once you can accomplish this, you'll really love your Strat!.


I can do this myself, I want the 1/8" bridge gap back at factory specs whereas I want the action as low as possbile. Now according to Fender factory specs your supposed to measure from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string with a 6" ruler and have a distance of 4/64ths on the treble side (1st 3 strings) and I forget but the low string are supposed to be 1/64th higher or lower, I can't remember. I could do this just by sight, but I wanted a Fender authorized dealer to do it. I certainly know how to set action myself. I had Gibsons in the past and the action adjustment are just 2 knured thumbwheels, but the Strat synchronized tremelo and action adjustments are way more sophisticated on a Strat. I left it up to the Fender Tech. I cound have gotten away with it myself, but I don't have the tools that the tech has and trust that he would have done a better job than me, being that he has all the right feeler gauges, 64th ruler and all that other stuff that I don't have. However I don't know anything about truss rod adjustments so when you put lighter gauge strings on your guitar and Fenders are usually shipped with 009s from the factory and I put .008s on there my bridge went down more towards the body. I just told the tech to adjust it to factory standards on the 1/8" gap and as far as the action I just told him I wanted him to get it as low as possble (forget the Fender 4/64 distance from top of fret to underside of string) in this case. Plus it probably affected the truss rod and threw the intonation off and being that the tech has all these proper tools that I don't have and is a Fender authorized service guy for the last 10 yrs. I left it up to him. Sure I've adjusted my own action in the past, but on Gibsons is not as sophisticated as a Strat. A Strat has all these finer adjustments and individual saddles that a Gibson doesn't have. So I'll have the tech to the initial setup and do the truss rod since I changed the strings only once. Then after that if I don't like something I do the action myself. I know that's not that hard, I just feel that a Fender tech can do an initial setup better than I because I don't have all those tools. However I would never mess with the truss rod because I don't know anything about that.

_________________
Fender Natural reissue 70's Stratocaster!


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:53 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:47 am
Posts: 15336
Location: In a galaxy far far away
would you believe most people just do it to what feels right, luthiers and laymen

_________________
No no and no


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], jmallard and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: