Being a LP guy for over 5 years I have to say I love my strat and my tele more than I love any of my LP's, in fact last month I sold my Gibson LP Studio to afford my new American Deluxe Strat!But there's too much to learn about setting up a strat today I started checking the set up to attempt learning how to do it myself so I ask my friend if he could borrow me a strat to compare and he gave this squier affinity strat... not pretty happy really I came back home and I started playing both guitars direct into my Traynor YCS50 tube amp to get the 'feel' before I started and the first thing I notice was the Squier having old strings had more output,volume,fatter tone and sustain but less dynamics...on the other hand the AmDeluxeSstrat had a weaker sound, less output and sustain,a thinner tone so I started comparing and realise that the PU's in the deluxe are lower.In my expirience with LP's having the PU's low produces a warmer and fuller tone with more sustain and dynamics not this kind of thin tone I'm gettin.
But I don't know if it might be the responsable of the thin tone I get from my deluxe.Could you guys help me out??since the bad set up 3 days ago I'm starting to frustrate with my deluxe

I would raise the pickups and see how it responds.

When it comes to pickup height on a strat, there's really no wrong answer, unless you get them too high. If they're too high, they'll start to magnetically grab the stings, particularly when you fret a note. Causes all sorts of warbling and unpleasant stuff.

It's been noted on this forum that one of the masters of Strat tone, Hendrix, tended to keep his pickups rather low.

I keep mine kinda low to medium, and don't worry about it too much. I happen to be using Dimarzio Area pickups (58, 61, and 67), but the idea behind them is to replicate the sound and output of this years of production, which is to say these are not powerful pickups. Certainly nice tone, though.

I get all the sustain a Strat has to offer, which of course, is less than a Les Paul. Still, it's sufficient. My stock 1996 Stratocaster's tone and sustain were greatly enhanced by swapping out the tremelo unit for one with more mass (happen to be using the Wilkinson Gotoh vs100). If you have a new Strat, then you probably have the stamped steel saddles, which are good for tone and sustain. I don't know if the current sustain block on the Strats is as good as the old steel ones. They're still using some kind of a "mystery metal". If I had a new Strat with the stamped steel saddles, I'd probably look at the Callaham steel sustain block to max out my sustain. At that point IMHO you've pretty much optimized your sustain.

From there on, there's still a LOT to setting up a Strat for best performance. Most notably, to "float" the tremelo or tighten the springs so it contacts the guitar's body, which tends to increase sustain. Searching this site will yield plenty of info on that. I'm floating my trem with the Wilkinson and with the right tweaks, I have excellent tuning stability.

Again, IMHO, you don't need to sweat the pickup height a lot. As you know, the Strat's an entirely different beast in terms of power and sustain as compared to the Les Paul. I started as a Gibson player, and was mystified as to why anyone would play a Strat, even though I was a Jimi fan. I had to really spend some time with one, and started getting hooked on it's subtle tone. Then my style evolved to really use the Strat's available tones and nuances to the point where other guitars, for me, are different and nice, but lacking.

Bottom line IMHO. Set the pickups to a medium height and forget 'em. Getting into the Strat "groove" will probably come to you as you spend time on the instrument.

If they are too low you might want to raise them a little not too much though .... and maybe the pickups are not what you are acostumed to ... maybe you need some hot pickups ... the american deluxe is a great guitar by the way

There are several excellent threads on pickup height on the Forum.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Click support at the top of this page, then click setup guide. It has all the info .

A rule of thumb I have gone by is start high and work down,and the "hotter" the pickup the theoretically lower you can set them,and still get good tone and sustain. The more magnetic output the harder it grabs the strings. Distance can be greater because of a stronger magnetic field. My Gold lace sensors about mid(no appreciable mag field,I just like them there for tone),my standards(5.4k/5.8k) a little above mid. My Texas Specials,low. Humbuckers can be set relatively high,as their mag field is minimal. and remember staggered pole pieces can effect one string more or less then another.

Does the squier have a humbucker?

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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

The ceramic pickups used in squires have a high output for singlecoils, that doesnt make em good.
I think you need to get the guitar proffesionaly sorted out before worring about the pickups. Your not going to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse with a few turns of a pickup adjusting screw.

Currently the pickups on my deluxe sit about 6/7mm from the bottom of the string and sound too fat. It does produce a good paf clone with the s1 switch down though.

What amp, speaker and settings are you using?

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No no and no

I'm using a Traynor YCS50 all tube combo, it has a Celestion V30 speaker and i'm using it in the Class-A mode (15 watts) in both clean and lead channel, i use the mids about 65% bass 88% and trebble about 22%, gain clean channel 70% and volume all the way up, expander and brit settings, lead channel with gain all the way up and 65% volume no modern or sccop settings on, I don't use the resonance or the presence controls... thanks for helping me out!

Howdy, I may be preaching to the choir here but I figured I'd put in my 2cents. As you probably know, every new American Deluxe comes nicely equipped with Bill Lawrence Samarium Cobalt Noiseless PUPS. I've heard different opinions about these PUPS, some people claim that they lack the "strat tone" and some people swear by them as a noiseless gift from the strat gods. If I were you I would take your guitar to a local fender dealer that has a deluxe on display and compare the two before you start messing with it! But nonetheless sounds like a beautiful guitar!

Ranfla its certainly not your amp. Them traynor's are beasts and your settings obviously favour bass. What level is the volume at, it makes a big difference with tube amps? I find 15watts way too much for home and way more than i need for rehearsalls with my blues jr. I've always been under the impression that traynor are like fender and sound way louder than their stated max volume.

If you email me at nikininja@ntlworld.com i'll see if i can walk you through your setup. Gotta say when i got my deluxe i initially thought oh yeah its a standard with a few extra bits that i'll never use. How wrong was I?.... Very.

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No no and no

"Pigs ear into a silk purse", is that an english thing?

Hi, thanks for your help nikininja hope I'm not bothering you!,I took my babe yesterday to a real tech for a complete set up and it feels better but sounds the same , I'm getting about 3 or 4 seconds of sustain in the deluxe and about 6 in the squier and that's really sad! I use the Master volume on my traynor, it's about 25% maybe less sometimes...The tech told me the lack of sustain might be because the squier has the PU's higher giving it more volume and output, and he told me the squiers always have hotter PU's than fenders and all that is pushing my amp harder than the deluxe making me hear a tonal difference havin a squier with more tone, sustain,output and volume...What do you guys think?Thanks!

ranfla,
The closer you move the pup to the string the more sustain you lose because of the magnetic interference. Try Chet Feather's nickel method. 2 nickel depth on the bass side from the top of the magnet to the bottom of the 6th string. 1 nickel depth from the top of the magnet to the bottom of the 1st string. I used it on my vintage noiseless and it was a good compromise. You will never get the sustain or the "warmth" of a humbucker out of those pups. But you can't make a humbucker quack either.

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