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Post subject: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setup?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:37 pm
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hi
if i lower the strings by lowering the saddles just a bit. what else do i have to change to not mess up the whole set up. or if i do that will i need a whole new setup with the truss rod and crap? or is it just a matter of getting that little alan key and lowering them.

thanks, jo

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Post subject: Re: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setu
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:47 pm
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excess wrote:
hi
if i lower the strings by lowering the saddles just a bit. what else do i have to change to not mess up the whole set up. or if i do that will i need a whole new setup with the truss rod and crap? or is it just a matter of getting that little alan key and lowering them.

thanks, jo


Hi jo,

It is just a matter of getting that little allen key. And yes, can get away with lowering the strings a little bit without the whole guitar going out of whack. Remember to lower your pickups' heights too (if necessary) so the newly lowered strings don't come into contact with them.

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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:47 pm
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thanks man!

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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:48 pm
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excess wrote:
thanks man!


Anytime! :D

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Post subject: Re: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setu
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 8:39 am
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[quote="excess"]hi

We had a bit of discussion on setup in response to another thread where the issue was consistent 'choking' on a series of guitars of a particular Fender model.

I have always been impressed with the tone EC gets playing at or above the 12th fret and was always dismayed at the fact that a 'standard' setup always seem to leaving the guitar seemingly 'fretting out' from the 12th fret and above. In fact, my Gilmour arrived out of the case with exactly the same symptoms. I found, long ago, that the string heights had to be individually adjusted so that the note was perfect on each of the frets, and the intonation compensated for precisely as well.

In fact, a close examination of the bridge saddles on several of the guitars in the EC Christie's auction catalog reveal that their positions 1-6 are nearly all the same, meaning that there is a specificity to his setup and it is reflected in their positions across the lot.

When you have a tech whose job it is to provide that kind of servie, bridge, neck, frets and tuning are balanced for tone.

I my own situation, I had to do this myself.

Oh, and take it easy with those individual allen screws, They are easily stripped and damaged. In over 50 years they haven't done anything to improve that liability.

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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 2:23 pm
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"In fact, a close examination of the bridge saddles on several of the guitars in the EC Christie's auction catalog reveal that their positions 1-6 are nearly all the same, meaning that there is a specificity to his setup and it is reflected in their positions across the lot. "

Exactly correct. This points to a very specific set-up, and his tech would likely never use that same setup....micrometer to micrometer...on any two guitars, unless by sheer accident. That means his tech doens't have a " one size fits all" template. Neither do I, whether working on vintage or new instruments.


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Post subject: Re: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setu
Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2008 3:25 pm
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excess wrote:
hi
if i lower the strings by lowering the saddles just a bit. what else do i have to change to not mess up the whole set up. or if i do that will i need a whole new setup with the truss rod and crap? or is it just a matter of getting that little alan key and lowering them.

thanks, jo


Any time you raise or lower the strings you are in fact changing the length of the string. When you change the length of the string you change the intonation.

I make it a strict habit of checking the entire setup anytime I make any type of change to my guitars.

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Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:47 am
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In reference to Eric Claptons bridge saddle setup, zzdoc mentions that "positions 1-6 are nearly all the same, meaning that there is a specificity to his set up and it is reflected in their positions across the lot"
Could you go into a little more detail in what you are talking about. Are you referring to radius of bridge saddles? Intonation? I am curious as to what is different than what I know of bridge set up.[/quote]


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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:36 am
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paisley strat wrote:
In reference to Eric Claptons bridge saddle setup, zzdoc mentions that "positions 1-6 are nearly all the same, meaning that there is a specificity to his set up and it is reflected in their positions across the lot"
Could you go into a little more detail in what you are talking about. Are you referring to radius of bridge saddles? Intonation? I am curious as to what is different than what I know of bridge set up.
[/quote]

Dickson is obviously setting up these guitars to the requirements of the artist and knows it cold. Inspection of photographs of the bridges of several Stratocasters in the Christie's Auction Catalog of 2004 demonstrates this reflected in the positions of the bridge saddles after tuning and intonation. Across the sample, the saddle for each string appears to be in the same relative position on the bridge as its counterpart on other guitars.

Doc

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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:21 pm
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Post subject: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setup?

Who's set-up? When you adjust any guitar to play the way you like it to, then you've created a new setup. Hence, the old one is gone. It's now YOUR setup, and isn't that the best one of all?


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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:54 pm
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Pete55 wrote:
Post subject: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setup?

Who's set-up? When you adjust any guitar to play the way you like it to, then you've created a new setup. Hence, the old one is gone. It's now YOUR setup, and isn't that the best one of all?


the factory setup. if i lower the strings it might make some dead notes or too much fret buzz so i'd need to change the truss rod or innotation and if i start messing with that i don't realy know what i'm doing so i'd probably mess it up then i'd need to pay for a luthier to set it up.

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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:29 pm
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excess wrote:
Pete55 wrote:
Post subject: how do you lower the strings without messing up the setup?
the factory setup. if i lower the strings it might make some dead notes or too much fret buzz so i'd need to change the truss rod or innotation and if i start messing with that i don't realy know what i'm doing so i'd probably mess it up then i'd need to pay for a luthier to set it up.


This is something you really need to learn how to do for yourself. :wink:

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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:15 pm
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Exactly. Remember what mom taught you Excess...always follow your Doc's and retired guitar tech's advice. See? We didn't even invoice you! Isn't life great?? :)


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