Hi,

I have had my 08 AMSTD for a few months now, and I just cannot nail the setup. I am beginning to wonder if the neck angle needs adjustment. I will tke it to a tech if necessary, but I really want to do this on my own.

Anyway, my strat seems to have fret buzz up and down the neck. I am trying to get low action with minimal buzz, but my action is already higher than I prefer and its still dampening the strings a bit.

My question is does the neck radius have any affect on how you measure relief? The manual is not clear ( It simply states the highest point on the fret to the string), do I measure from the top of the fret immediately under the string, or should the measurement come from the highest point of the fret radius which would be in the middle of the neck between the 4th and 3rd string?

I have got it to the .01 measurement using the immediately under the string method, and it felt good, just too much string dampening going on, which causes buzz. I don't want to bring the saddles up any higher. I can't believe that a high end fender would have to have so much worse action than my old cheap Ventura

My other two guitars have some buzz at low action settings, but it's only after a hard initial attack, and then the strings ring true. I have noticed that the relief seems much higher on those guitars than what fender is recommending so I am wondering if I am measuring and looking at it wrong due to the radius- more specifically define what fender means by measuring from the highest point on the fret, because this could mean the middle of the FB due to the radius, or it could mean immediately under the 6th string

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

You need to measure from the top of the fret to the underside of the string. The ruler needs to be at a rightangle to the fret also. Radius doesnt come into it much. If your experiencing buzz at the start of the note i'd look at softening my technique. You are also probably finding your used to a lower action on old guitars because their frets are worn facilitating strings being lower to the board but the same'ish distance from the fret top.

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No no and no

Thanks. That is the way I measured it, but I was using a feeler guage, not a ruler.

My ESP came with extra jumbo frets though, and its action was always lower than this strat can go, so I don't think its the frets being worn. That may be true of my Ventura, but again, I always remember having low action on that as well.

I use a heavy pick and I hit em pretty hard. I expect a bit of buzz on my attack, but this seems like I would really have to finesse it, which I have tried to get only slightly better results. As long as I have been playing, my technique is pretty set. The string is being dampened by the frets, and raising the saddles more is just unacceptable to me. At this point I am unsure whether to give it more or less relief. I have tried going in both directions, and retuning it. All I can get with my adjustments is compromises one way or another.

Is there some rule of thumb to follow, like hard attack and low action requires more or less relief?

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Hard attack requires a good bit of relief whilst low action requires little relief. You could try lowering the pickups they could be causing a bit of buzz but that is usually more of a wierd buzz than a fretbuzz. What frets do you get the majority of the buzz on? It could be any number of things knowing where its worst will often give a clue to whats causing the problem.

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No no and no

The buzz seems to be pretty uniform over the neck and on all strings. It seems sligly better above the 12th fret, but its still there. To me this soundslike the bridge or saddles need to come up. But i don't want the guitar to have such high action. Yes my action is lower than what fender recommends, but this is how my other guitars are and this seems to be less of a problem with them. Again, both of those guitars seem to have way more relief than I have on the strat.

Do I just need to add more relief then lower the saddles/bridge more to compensate?

I m starting to think my new strat needs professional help, It's really disappointing that it does not seem to be a simple adjustment of the truss and bridge. With the ESP and Ventura, a bridge hieght adjustment was all that was needed to make me happy. My ESP still has the factory setup on it from 1995, while the frets have some wear that required me to raise the bridge for certain notes to ring, it never dampened the notes at this level.

When i bought the guitar, it seemed fine, just had the typical high factory action. I thought I would simply be able to lower the bridge a bit, like on my other guitars. Here I am months later and still have not found a happy medium. It not the pickup hight, the strings never get that close to them

Ugg....I still love this guitar, but it would sound better and be more fun to play if the dampening of the strings was not going on. The buzz goes on after the attack, affecting how the guitar sounds. I hear it in my recordings to. I hate to think that my new guitar needs the neck reset and frets worked on to get the action I need.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Get it to a pro to look at. Exactly how low are you trying to get the strings i got 1-1.5mm E-E on my mim but that is after hours of endless tweaking and a neck with zero relief. Alas i cant use a plectrum on that guitar anything harder than a soft thumb buzzes it.

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No no and no

I would take it that low if it only buzzed after the initial attack and then rang true. I am not sure of the measurement now, as I am going on feel more than actual measurements on string height. But the notes sustain, they just have the fret buzz going while they sustain for a bit. As the note decays, it cleans up. But man....

The other thing I am wondering is if it the maple FB is reflecting/amplifying the buzz more. My other two axes have rosewood and there is some buzz, but its not as noticeable. Maple is very hard compared to Rosewood and is more reflective of high pitches. Maybe the buzz is just perceived as worse than the others due to the maple FB???? Am I reaching here?

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Hi firstrat: I think you are having exactly the same type of problems Forum user schmintan was experiencing on this current thread:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... hp?t=19917

I made a couple of very long posts on setup there that I won't repeat fully here. But in essence I think you have a procedural issue - the way you are talking about relief one moment and action the next is what's giving me that idea. You are going back and forth between your trussrod and saddles as if the objective is to somehow balance them - but that ain't really how it works.

You need to work through the setup in the logical sequence. Each step leads to the next.

First balance your bridge.

Then set your relief. For the heck of it use Fender's spec of 0.010 thou / 0.25 mm for the time being. (You know to do that with a capo at the first fret, holding the bottom E string down at the last fret and measuring with your feeler gauge beneath the string at the seventh - don't you?) If that relief is not absolutely ideal for you it can be changed in the fulness of time, but for now set it there and then leave it alone.

Only once your relief is set can you think about action. They are two different issues: don't get them muddled.

Again, Fender's specs are at least a good starting point (and pretty much a finishing point to my taste, too). With the capo still on the first fret adjust the saddles to set each string individually to 4/64 " / 1.6 mm between the top of the 17th fret and the bottom of the string. That way they automatically follow the radius of the fingerboard.

Now, play all the strings at all the frets, checking for buzz. Then, if you want the action lower, go at it string by string. Lower the saddle a quarter turn and check it again at each fret. Still no buzz? Lower it another quarter turn. And so on, untill you encounter buzz. At that point reverse the last saddle adjustment and leave it. Move on to the next string.

When all that's done you can intonate the strings.

Simple as that. Ruthless logic.

If that don't work for you I'll be rather surprised. Let us know how you get on...

Cheers - C

Get the hammer. And if that doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

In all seriousness, sight unseen and based on what I've read, it seems that your guitar really should be hands-on evaluated and set up by a pro.

With all due respect to everyone involved in this post, I really don't think your situation can be talked through in order to properly correct it. I say this because evidently, you have a few maladies going on there which are all negatively interacting, coupled by the fact that you like your action a certain (custom) way which is not Fender's prescribed way. (FWIW, I certainly don't like nor use Fender's prescribed way either.)

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You dig?