Hi, my friend has a 1985 Made in Japan Strat with a single humbucker pickup and a floating fender tremolo he received as a gift from his cousin about 7 years ago. He never really played it much and wanted to start, so as I was putting new strings on it, the action got all messed up. There is constant fret buzz and on the b and high e strings, they go dead on any note after the 5th fret. my first question is how to adjust the height of the tremolo if possible and also, what else i should do. thanks

Welcome to the Forum.

I recommend a complete setup. You can take it and have it done or you can attempt to do it yourself following these guidelines: http://www.fender.com/support/stratocaster.php

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Chet Feathers

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

thanks ill try that out and see if that works, if not i have a feeling we will have to take it in somewhere. do you know approximately a whole set up to fix this issue would cost?

A complete setup should be right in the $60.00 range depending on where you live.


I am a big fan of mid 80's MIJ Strats and would like to see pics if you could post some.

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Chet Feathers

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

Hi Fred61: welcome to the Forum.

Are you saying the top two strings are sounding dead all the way up the neck above the 5th fret? But only those two strings, not the others?

This is very odd and suggests significant problems with an instrument that hasn't been played for a long time. Sounds like that neck might have moved around somewhat with temperature and humidity changes while left on its own.

Of course, you can get rid of the buzzes and dead notes simply by raising the action, but that might result in masking a more serious problem.

I'm normally up for these kinds of situations, but on this one I think the possibilities are too complex and too hard to diagnose reliably sight-unseen. At the very least trussrod adjustments, maybe shimming - and maybe some careful checking to make sure there isn't a twist developing.

In this case as Chet suggests your job is to hunt down a good and trustworthy guitar tech/luthier - that's not always an easy task in its own right. Take that guitar for a proper inspection, setup and perhaps repair.

But maybe there's braver souls than me ready to chance their arm here on this thread...

Cheers - C

Can you post some pictures so the experts here can see it and maybe see something obviously wrong. I'm thinking it's definitely neck problems. Like Ceri mentioned good chance your neck is twisting.